Manasseh Succeeds Hezekiah

21 ^(A)Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. ^2 (B)He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(C)according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. ³ For ^(D)he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and ^(E)he erected altars for Baal and made an ^[a]Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and ^(F)worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ^4 (G)He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “^(H)In Jerusalem I will put My name.” ⁵ For he built altars for ^(I)all the host of heaven in ^(J)the two courts of the house of the Lord. ^6 (K)He made his son pass through the fire, ^(L)practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger. ⁷ Then ^(M)he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, “^(N)In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever. ⁸ And I ^(O)will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe 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 ^(P)seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

The King’s Idolatries Rebuked

¹⁰ Now the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, ¹¹ “^(Q)Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, ^(R)having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and ^(S)has also made Judah sin ^(T)with his idols; ¹² therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, ^(U)both his ears will tingle. ^13 (V)I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; ¹⁵ because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.’”

^16 (W)Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin ^(X)with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord. ^17 (Y)Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he ^[b]committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^18 (Z)And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, ^(AA)in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.

Amon Succeeds Manasseh

^19 (AB)Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(AC)as Manasseh his father had done. ²¹ For he walked in all the way that his father had walked, and served the idols that his father had served and worshiped them. ²² So ^(AD)he forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. ^23 (AE)The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house. ²⁴ Then ^(AF)the people of the land ^[c]killed 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 which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁶ He was buried in his grave ^(AG)in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place.

Josiah Succeeds Amon

22 ^(AH)Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of ^(AI)Bozkath. ² He did right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the way of his father David, nor did he ^(AJ)turn aside to the right or to the left.

³ Now ^(AK)in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam the scribe, to the house of the Lord saying, ⁴ “^(AL)Go up to Hilkiah the high priest that he may ^[d]count the money brought in to the house of the Lord which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people. ^5 (AM)Let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of the Lord to repair the ^[e]damages of the house, ⁶ to the carpenters and the builders and the masons and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house. ⁷ Only ^(AN)no accounting shall be made with them for the money delivered into their hands, for they deal faithfully.”

The Lost Book

⁸ Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “^(AO)I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan who read it. ⁹ Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought back word to the king and said, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” ¹⁰ Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.

¹¹ When the king heard the words of the book of the law, ^(AP)he tore his clothes. ¹² Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, ^(AQ)Ahikam the son of Shaphan, ^[f](AR)Achbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for ^(AS)great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

Huldah Predicts

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^[g](AT)Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the ^(AU)Second Quarter); and they spoke to her. ¹⁵ She said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, ¹⁶ thus says the Lord, “Behold, I ^(AV)bring evil on this place and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. ^17 (AW)Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods that they might provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore My wrath burns against this place, and it shall not be quenched.”’ ¹⁸ But to ^(AX)the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord thus shall you say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Regarding the words which you have heard, ^19 (AY)because your heart was tender and ^(AZ)you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants that they should become ^(BA)a desolation and a ^(BB)curse, and you have ^(BC)torn your clothes and wept before Me, I truly have heard you,” declares the Lord. ²⁰ “Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and ^(BD)you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.”’” So they brought back word to the king.

Josiah’s Covenant

23 ^(BE)Then the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. ² The king went up to the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and ^(BF)he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant ^(BG)which was found in the house of the Lord. ^3 (BH)The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, ^(BI)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 carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people ^[h]entered into the covenant.

Reforms under Josiah

⁴ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and ^(BJ)the priests of the second order and the ^[i]doorkeepers, ^(BK)to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, for ^[j]Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and ^(BL)he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the ^(BM)host of heaven. ⁶ He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ^(BN)ground it to dust, and ^(BO)threw its dust on the graves of the ^[k]common people. ⁷ He also broke down the houses of the ^(BP)male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Lord, where ^(BQ)the women were weaving ^[l]hangings for the Asherah. ⁸ Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from ^(BR)Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate. ⁹ Nevertheless ^(BS)the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. ^10 (BT)He also defiled ^[m]Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, ^(BU)that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for ^(BV)Molech. ¹¹ He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the ^(BW)sun, at the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ^12 (BX)The altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and ^(BY)the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down; and he ^[n]smashed them there and ^(BZ)threw their dust into the brook Kidron. ¹³ The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of ^(CA)the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for ^(CB)Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for ^(CC)Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled. ^14 (CD)He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and ^(CE)filled their places with human bones.

¹⁵ Furthermore, ^(CF)the altar that was at Bethel and the ^(CG)high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down. Then he ^[o](CH)demolished its stones, ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah. ¹⁶ Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it ^(CI)according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. ¹⁷ Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “^(CJ)It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.” ¹⁸ He said, “Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones.” So they ^[p]left his bones undisturbed ^(CK)with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. ¹⁹ Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were ^(CL)in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking ^[q]the Lord; and he did to them ^[r]just as he had done in Bethel. ²⁰ All the priests of the high places who were there ^(CM)he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.

Passover Reinstituted

²¹ Then the king commanded all the people saying, “^(CN)Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God ^(CO)as it is written in this book of the covenant.” ^22 (CP)Surely such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the Lord in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover, Josiah ^[s]removed ^(CQ)the mediums and the spiritists and the ^(CR)teraphim and ^(CS)the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, ^(CT)that he might ^[t]confirm the words of the law which were written ^(CU)in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. ²⁵ Before him there was no king ^(CV)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 However, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, ^(CW)because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. ²⁷ The Lord said, “I will remove Judah also from My sight, ^(CX)as I have removed Israel. And ^(CY)I will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the ^[u]temple of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’”

Jehoahaz Succeeds Josiah

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 (CZ)In his days ^(DA)Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he killed him at ^(DB)Megiddo. ^30 (DC)His servants drove ^[v]his body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. ^(DD)Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

^31 (DE)Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ^(DF)Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(DG)according to all that his fathers had done. ^33 (DH)Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at ^(DI)Riblah in the land of ^(DJ)Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

Jehoiakim Made King by Pharaoh

³⁴ Pharaoh Neco made ^(DK)Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and ^(DL)changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and ^[w](DM)brought him to Egypt, and he died there. ³⁵ So Jehoiakim ^(DN)gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to give the money at the ^[x]command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, each according to his valuation, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

^36 (DO)Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. ³⁷ He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(DP)according to all that his fathers had done.

Paul before the Council

23 Paul, looking intently at ^(A)the ^[a]Council, said, “^(B)Brethren, ^(C)I have ^[b]lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.” ² The high priest ^(D)Ananias commanded those standing beside him ^(E)to strike him on the mouth. ³ Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, ^(F)you whitewashed wall! Do you ^(G)sit to try me according to the Law, and in violation of the Law order me to be struck?” ⁴ But the bystanders said, “Do you revile God’s high priest?” ⁵ And Paul said, “I was not aware, brethren, that he was high priest; for it is written, ‘^(H)You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

⁶ But perceiving that one group were ^(I)Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in ^(J)the ^[c]Council, “^(K)Brethren, ^(L)I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for ^(M)the hope and resurrection of the dead!” ⁷ As he said this, there occurred a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. ⁸ For ^(N)the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. ⁹ And there occurred a great uproar; and some of ^(O)the scribes of the Pharisaic party stood up and began to argue heatedly, saying, “^(P)We find nothing wrong with this man; ^(Q)suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” ¹⁰ And as a great dissension was developing, the ^[d]commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them and ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force, and bring him into ^(R)the barracks.

¹¹ But on ^(S)the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, “^(T)Take courage; for ^(U)as you have ^(V)solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.”

A Conspiracy to Kill Paul

¹² When it was day, ^(W)the Jews formed a ^[e]conspiracy and ^(X)bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. ¹³ There were more than forty who formed this plot. ¹⁴ They came to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have ^(Y)bound ourselves under a solemn oath to taste nothing until we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ Now therefore, you ^[f]and ^(Z)the ^[g]Council notify the ^[h]commander to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case by a more thorough investigation; and we for our part are ready to slay him before he comes near the place.”

¹⁶ But the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, ^[i]and he came and entered ^(AA)the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, “Lead this young man to the ^[j]commander, for he has something to report to him.” ¹⁸ So he took him and led him to the ^[k]commander and *said, “Paul ^(AB)the prisoner called me to him and asked me to lead this young man to you since he has something to tell you.” ¹⁹ The ^[l]commander took him by the hand and stepping aside, began to inquire of him privately, “What is it that you have to report to me?” ²⁰ And he said, “^(AC)The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down tomorrow to ^(AD)the ^[m]Council, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more thoroughly about him. ²¹ So do not ^[n]listen to them, for more than forty of them are ^(AE)lying in wait for him who have ^(AF)bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they slay him; and now they are ready and waiting for the promise from you.” ²² So the ^[o]commander let the young man go, instructing him, “Tell no one that you have notified me of these things.”

Paul Moved to Caesarea

²³ And he called to him two of the centurions and said, “Get two hundred soldiers ready by ^[p]the third hour of the night to proceed to ^(AG)Caesarea, ^[q]with seventy horsemen and two hundred ^[r]spearmen.” ²⁴ They were also to provide mounts to put Paul on and bring him safely to ^(AH)Felix the governor. ²⁵ And he wrote a letter having this form:

³¹ So the soldiers, in accordance with their orders, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. ³² But the next day, leaving ^(AU)the horsemen to go on with him, they returned to ^(AV)the barracks. ³³ When these had come to ^(AW)Caesarea and delivered the letter to ^(AX)the governor, they also presented Paul to him. ³⁴ When he had read it, he asked from what ^(AY)province he was, and when he learned that ^(AZ)he was from Cilicia, ³⁵ he said, “I will give you a hearing after your ^(BA)accusers arrive also,” giving orders for him to be ^(BB)kept in Herod’s ^[w]Praetorium.