2 Kings 17:9-24:3

English Standard Version

⁹ And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, ^(A)from watchtower to fortified city. ¹⁰ They set up for themselves ^(B)pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, ¹¹ and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, ¹² and they served idols, ^(C)of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” ¹³ Yet the Lord ^(D)warned Israel and Judah ^(E)by every prophet ^(F)and every seer, saying, ^(G)“Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

¹⁴ But they would not listen, ^(H)but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They despised his statutes ^(I)and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after ^(J)false idols ^(K)and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the ^(L)Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. ¹⁶ And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of ^(M)two calves; and they ^(N)made an Asherah and ^(O)worshiped all the host of heaven and served ^(P)Baal. ^17 (Q)And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings^[a] and used ^(R)divination and ^(S)omens and ^(T)sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but ^(U)the tribe of Judah only.

^19 (V)Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. ²⁰ And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them ^(W)and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

^21 (X)When he had torn Israel from the house of David, ^(Y)they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord ^(Z)and made them commit great sin. ²² The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them, ²³ until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, ^(AA)as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. ^(AB)So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.

Assyria Resettles Samaria

^24 (AC)And the king of Assyria brought people from ^(AD)Babylon, Cuthah, ^(AE)Avva, ^(AF)Hamath, and ^(AG)Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. ²⁵ And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. ²⁶ So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” ²⁷ Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him^[b] go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.” ²⁸ So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in ^(AH)Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

²⁹ But every nation still made gods of its own and put them ^(AI)in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. ³⁰ The men of ^(AJ)Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, ³¹ and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites ^(AK)burned their children in the fire to ^(AL)Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of ^(AM)Sepharvaim. ^32 (AN)They also feared the Lord ^(AO)and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of ^(AP)the high places. ³³ So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

³⁴ To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, ^(AQ)whom he named Israel. ³⁵ The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, ^(AR)“You shall not fear other gods ^(AS)or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, ³⁶ but ^(AT)you shall fear the Lord, ^(AU)who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and ^(AV)with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. ³⁷ And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, ^(AW)you shall always be careful to do. ^(AX)You shall not fear other gods, ³⁸ and ^(AY)you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. ^(AZ)You shall not fear other gods, ³⁹ but ^(BA)you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” ⁴⁰ However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.

^41 (BB)So these nations feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

18 ^(BC)In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^(BD)Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. ² He was ^(BE)twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was ^(BF)Abi the daughter of Zechariah. ^3 (BG)And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. ^4 (BH)He removed the high places and broke the ^(BI)pillars and cut down ^(BJ)the Asherah. And he broke in pieces ^(BK)the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).^{[c] 5 (BL)}He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, ^(BM)so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. ^6 (BN)For he held fast to the Lord. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. ^7 (BO)And the Lord was with him; wherever he went out, ^(BP)he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. ^8 (BQ)He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, ^(BR)from watchtower to fortified city.

⁹ In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^(BS)Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, ¹⁰ and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. ¹¹ The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in ^(BT)Halah, and on the ^(BU)Habor, ^(BV)the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹² because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

Sennacherib Attacks Judah

^13 (BW)In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. ¹⁴ And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” ^(BX)And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents^[d] of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah ^(BY)gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house. ¹⁶ At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. ¹⁷ And the king of Assyria sent the ^(BZ)Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by ^(CA)the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer's Field. ¹⁸ And when they called for the king, there came out to them ^(CB)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^(CC)Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

¹⁹ And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? ²⁰ Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹ Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of ^(CD)a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ²² But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he ^(CE)whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”? ²³ Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ²⁴ How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ²⁵ Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”

²⁶ Then ^(CF)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and ^(CG)Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in ^(CH)Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ²⁷ But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”

²⁸ Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! ²⁹ Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my^[e] hand. ³⁰ Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ ³¹ Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me^[f] and come out to me. Then ^(CI)each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, ³² until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, ^(CJ)a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and ^(CK)honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” ^33 (CL)Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? ^34 (CM)Where are the gods of ^(CN)Hamath and ^(CO)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and ^(CP)Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? ³⁵ Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, ^(CQ)that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

³⁶ But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” ³⁷ Then ^(CR)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah ^(CS)with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah

19 ^(CT)As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, ^(CU)he tore his clothes and ^(CV)covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. ² And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, ^(CW)covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. ^4 (CX)It may be that the Lord your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent ^(CY)to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for ^(CZ)the remnant that is left.” ⁵ When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which ^(DA)the servants of the king of Assyria have ^(DB)reviled me. ⁷ Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that ^(DC)he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him ^(DD)fall by the sword in his own land.’”

Sennacherib Defies the Lord

⁸ The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against ^(DE)Libnah, for he heard that the king had left ^(DF)Lachish. ^9 (DG)Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you.” So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God ^(DH)in whom you trust deceive you by promising that ^(DI)Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? ^12 (DJ)Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, ^(DK)Gozan, ^(DL)Haran, Rezeph, and the people of ^(DM)Eden who were in Telassar? ^13 (DN)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

Hezekiah's Prayer

¹⁴ Hezekiah received ^(DO)the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, ^(DP)enthroned above the cherubim, ^(DQ)you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. ^16 (DR)Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; ^(DS)open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent ^(DT)to mock the living God. ¹⁷ Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands ¹⁸ and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, ^(DU)but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. ¹⁹ So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, ^(DV)that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that ^(DW)you, O Lord, are God alone.”

Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall

²⁰ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria ^(DX)I have heard. ²¹ This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him:

²⁹ “And this shall be ^(EO)the sign for you: this year eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same. Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ^30 (EP)And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ³¹ For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion ^(EQ)a band of survivors. ^(ER)The zeal of the Lord will do this.

³² “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or ^(ES)cast up a siege mound against it. ^33 (ET)By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord. ^34 (EU)For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake ^(EV)and for the sake of my servant David.”

³⁵ And that night ^(EW)the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁶ Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at ^(EX)Nineveh. ³⁷ And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, ^(EY)Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery

20 ^(EZ)In those days ^(FA)Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ^(FB)‘Set your house in order, for you shall die; you shall not recover.’” ² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, ³ “Now, O Lord, ^(FC)please remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and ^(FD)with a whole heart, ^(FE)and have done what is good in your sight.” ^(FF)And Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁴ And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: ⁵ “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah ^(FG)the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: ^(FH)I have heard your prayer; ^(FI)I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord, ⁶ and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, ^(FJ)and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.” ⁷ And Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And let them take and lay it on the boil, that he may recover.”

⁸ And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord on the third day?” ⁹ And Isaiah said, “This shall be ^(FK)the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” ¹⁰ And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow ^(FL)to lengthen ten steps. Rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” ¹¹ And Isaiah the prophet called to the Lord, ^(FM)and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which it had gone down on the steps of Ahaz.

Hezekiah and the Babylonian Envoys

^12 (FN)At that time ^(FO)Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, ^(FP)sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³ And Hezekiah welcomed them, and he showed them ^(FQ)all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. ¹⁴ Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” ¹⁵ He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: ¹⁷ Behold, the days are coming, when ^(FR)all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. ^18 (FS)And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, ^(FT)and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁹ Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ^(FU)“The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

^20 (FV)The rest of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made ^(FW)the pool and the conduit ^(FX)and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^21 (FY)And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

Manasseh Reigns in Judah

21 ^(FZ)Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. ² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(GA)according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. ³ For he rebuilt the high places ^(GB)that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made ^(GC)an Asherah, ^(GD)as Ahab king of Israel had done, ^(GE)and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ^4 (GF)And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ^(GG)“In Jerusalem will I put my name.” ⁵ And he built altars ^(GH)for all the host of heaven in ^(GI)the two courts of the house of the Lord. ^6 (GJ)And he burned his son as an offering^[g] and ^(GK)used fortune-telling and ^(GL)omens and dealt ^(GM)with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷ And the carved image of ^(GN)Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, ^(GO)and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. ^8 (GP)And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.” ⁹ But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

Manasseh's Idolatry Denounced

¹⁰ And the Lord said by his servants the prophets, ^11 (GQ)“Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things ^(GR)more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, ^(GS)and has made Judah also to sin ^(GT)with his idols, ¹² therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster^[h] that the ears of everyone who hears of it ^(GU)will tingle. ^13 (GV)And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, ¹⁵ because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”

^16 (GW)Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin ^(GX)that he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

^17 (GY)Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^18 (GZ)And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his house, ^(HA)in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son reigned in his place.

Amon Reigns in Judah

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(HB)as Manasseh his father had done. ²¹ He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served ^(HC)the idols that his father served and worshiped them. ^22 (HD)He abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. ²³ And the servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his house. ²⁴ But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place. ²⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Amon that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁶ And he was buried in his tomb ^(HE)in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his place.

Josiah Reigns in Judah

22 ^(HF)Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of ^(HG)Bozkath. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, ^(HH)and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

Josiah Repairs the Temple

³ In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, ⁴ “Go up to ^(HI)Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money ^(HJ)that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which ^(HK)the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. ^5 (HL)And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house ⁶ (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. ⁷ But ^(HM)no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.”

Hilkiah Finds the Book of the Law

⁸ And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found ^(HN)the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹ And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, ^(HO)he tore his clothes. ¹² And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and ^(HP)Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and ^(HQ)Achbor the son of ^(HR)Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is ^(HS)the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^(HT)Tikvah, son of ^(HU)Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in ^(HV)the Second Quarter), and they talked with her. ¹⁵ And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. ^17 (HW)Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore ^(HX)my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. ¹⁸ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, ^19 (HY)because your heart was penitent, and you ^(HZ)humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become ^(IA)a desolation and ^(IB)a curse, and you ^(IC)have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and ^(ID)you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.

Josiah's Reforms

23 ^(IE)Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. ² And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And ^(IF)he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant ^(IG)that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³ And the king stood ^(IH)by the pillar and ^(II)made a covenant before the Lord, ^(IJ)to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

⁴ And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests ^(IK)of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for ^(IL)Baal, for ^(IM)Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. ^(IN)He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations ^(IO)and all the host of the heavens. ⁶ And he brought out ^(IP)the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, ^(IQ)and burned it at the brook Kidron ^(IR)and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves ^(IS)of the common people. ⁷ And he broke down the houses of ^(IT)the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, ^(IU)where the women wove hangings for ^(IV)the Asherah. ⁸ And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from ^(IW)Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one's left at the gate of the city. ^9 (IX)However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. ¹⁰ And he defiled ^(IY)Topheth, which is ^(IZ)in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^(JA)that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to ^(JB)Molech.^{[i] 11} And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts.^[j] And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹² And the altars ^(JC)on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars ^(JD)that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces^[k] and cast the dust of them ^(JE)into the brook Kidron. ¹³ And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of ^(JF)the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for ^(JG)Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for ^(JH)Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for ^(JI)Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ And he broke in pieces the ^(JJ)pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵ Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected ^(JK)by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ^(JL)who made Israel to sin, ^(JM)that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned,^[l] reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. ¹⁶ And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, ^(JN)according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. ¹⁷ Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, ^(JO)“It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted^[m] these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones ^(JP)of the prophet who came out of Samaria. ¹⁹ And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were ^(JQ)in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. ²⁰ And ^(JR)he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, ^(JS)and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah Restores the Passover

²¹ And the king commanded all the people, ^(JT)“Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, ^(JU)as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ^22 (JV)For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover, Josiah put away ^(JW)the mediums and the necromancers and ^(JX)the household gods and ^(JY)the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish ^(JZ)the words of the law that were written in the book ^(KA)that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. ^25 (KB)Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

²⁶ Still the Lord did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, ^(KC)because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. ²⁷ And the Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, ^(KD)as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, ^(KE)and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”

Josiah's Death in Battle

²⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^29 (KF)In his days ^(KG)Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at ^(KH)Megiddo, as soon as he saw him. ^30 (KI)And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from ^(KJ)Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. ^(KK)And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place.

Jehoahaz's Reign and Captivity

^31 (KL)Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was ^(KM)Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(KN)according to all that his fathers had done. ³³ And ^(KO)Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at ^(KP)Riblah in the land of ^(KQ)Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents^[n] of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴ And ^(KR)Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and ^(KS)changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, ^(KT)and he came to Egypt and died there. ³⁵ And Jehoiakim ^(KU)gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

Jehoiakim Reigns in Judah

^36 (KV)Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. ³⁷ And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(KW)according to all that his fathers had done.

24 ^(KX)In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. ² And the Lord sent against him bands of the ^(KY)Chaldeans and ^(KZ)bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, ^(LA)according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets. ³ Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, ^(LB)for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,