Beginning

Josiah Renews the Covenant^(A)

23 Then the king sent them away and they gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. 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, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. ³ The king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord, to keep His commandments, 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. All the people agreed with the covenant.

⁴ The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the implements that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. Then he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord to the outside of Jerusalem, to the Kidron Valley. Then he burned it at the Kidron Valley, crushed it to dust, and threw its dust upon the graves of the people. ⁷ He tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were in the house of the Lord, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.

⁸ He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. He broke down the high places of the gates at the entry of the gates of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left at the gate of the city. ⁹ However the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem. Instead they ate unleavened bread among their fellow priests.

¹⁰ He defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so that no man would make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molek. ¹¹ He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entry of the house of the Lord, by the hall of Nathan-Melek the eunuch, which was in the vestibule. The chariots of the sun he burned with fire.

¹² The altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord the king tore down and banished from there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Molek the abomination of the Ammonites, the king defiled. ¹⁴ He broke the standing stones, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their sites with human bones.

¹⁵ Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he tore down. Then he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and he burned the Asherah. ¹⁶ As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mount. He took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, the one who announced these things.

¹⁷ Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?”

The men of the city said to him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel.”

¹⁸ He said, “Let him rest. No one shall disturb his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.

¹⁹ Moreover, all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah removed. He did to them just as he had done in Bethel. ²⁰ He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ²² For such a Passover had not been kept from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and 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 disposed of the mediums, the soothsayers, the teraphim, the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. ²⁵ Now there had been no king like him before or after, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses.

²⁶ However, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, by which His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. ²⁷ The Lord said, “I will also remove Judah from before Me, as I have removed Israel. I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”

Josiah Dies in Battle

²⁸ Now the rest of the deeds of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?

²⁹ In his days Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the River Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, but he killed him at Megiddo when he had seen him. ³⁰ His servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.

Jehoahaz, King of Judah^(B)

³¹ Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. ³³ Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and imposed tribute on the land of a hundred talents^[a] of silver and a talent^[b] of gold. ³⁴ Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz away and went to Egypt, and he died there. ³⁵ Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to Pharaoh’s demand. According to an assessed amount, he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land to give to Pharaoh Necho.

Jehoiakim, King of Judah^(C)

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

Judah Overrun by Enemies

24 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 The Lord sent against him bands of Chaldeans, bands of Arameans, bands of Moabites, and bands of Ammonites. He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that He spoke by His servants the prophets. ³ Surely at the decree of the Lord this came upon Judah, to remove them from before Him, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, ⁴ and also for the innocent blood that he had shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to pardon.

⁵ Now the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? ⁶ So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

⁷ The king of Egypt did not come again from his land, for the king of Babylon had taken over from the Brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates all that belonged to the king of Egypt.

Jehoiachin, King of Judah^(D)

⁸ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. ⁹ He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.

¹⁰ At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was under siege. ¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to the city while his servants were besieging it, ¹² and Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his eunuchs. The king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.

The Captivity of Jerusalem

¹³ He brought out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the implements of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, just as the Lord had spoken. ¹⁴ He exiled all Jerusalem, all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. No one remained, except the poorest people of the land.

¹⁵ He exiled Jehoiachin in Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his eunuchs, and the elite of the land he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ All the fighting men, seven thousand, the craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all those strong and fit for war the king of Babylon brought them into exile in Babylon. ¹⁷ The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, the uncle of Jehoiachin, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.

Zedekiah, King of Judah^(E)

¹⁸ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king. He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ¹⁹ He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ Because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah until He threw them out from His presence. But Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

The Fall and Exile of Judah^(F)

25 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and set up camp near it. They built siege mounds against it all around. ² The city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was severe in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land. ⁴ The city was breached, and all the fighting men fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which is by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were all around the city. They went along the way of the Arabah. ⁵ Then the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army deserted him. ⁶ So they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence upon him. ⁷ They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah. They bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.

⁸ In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He burned the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every great house he burned with fire. ¹⁰ All the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard tore down the walls of Jerusalem all around. ¹¹ The rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the crowd Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard took into exile. ¹² But the captain of the bodyguard left some of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.

¹³ The bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, the stands, and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried their bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴ The pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the incense bowls, and all the bronze implements which were used in service they took away. ¹⁵ The fire pans and sprinkling basins that were fine gold and fine silver the captain of the bodyguard took.

¹⁶ The two pillars, the one sea, and the stands, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—the bronze of all these implements was beyond weight. ¹⁷ The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits,^[c] and a bronze capital was on it. The height of the capital was three cubits.^[d] Latticework and pomegranates, all of bronze, were on the capital all around. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.

¹⁸ The captain of the bodyguard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold. ¹⁹ From the city he took a eunuch who was an officer over the fighting men, five men of the king’s council who were found in the city, the chief scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land who were found in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan captain of the bodyguard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹ Then the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath.

Thus he exiled Judah from their land.

Gedaliah, Governor of Judah

²² Over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan. ²³ When all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, that is, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maakathite, they and their men. ²⁴ Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, “Do not be afraid of being the servants of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you.”

²⁵ But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal line, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah. He died along with the Judeans and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. ²⁶ Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison^(G)

²⁷ In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Awel-Marduk king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. ²⁸ He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a throne above the thrones of the kings that were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ He changed his prison garments, and he ate food continually before him all the days of his life. ³⁰ His allowance was a regular allowance given him by the king every day, all the days of his life.