Beginning

Chapter 23

Josiah the Reformer. ¹ The king then sent and assembled all of the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ² The king went up to the temple of the Lord, and all of the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem went with him, including the priests, the prophets, and all of the people, both the humble and the important. He read aloud all of the words from the book of the covenant that had been found in the temple of the Lord.

³ The king stood by the pillar, and he made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord and to observe his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, fulfilling the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All of the people joined in the covenant.

⁴ The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doormen to carry out of the temple of the Lord all of the utensils that had been used for Baal, for Asherah, and for the heavenly host. He burned them outside of Jerusalem in a field in the Kidron Valley, and they took their ashes to Bethel.

⁵ He expelled the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and those that surrounded Jerusalem, those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the planets, and to all of the hosts of heaven. ⁶ He brought the Asherah out of the temple of the Lord, taking it outside of Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley. He smashed it to pieces, tossing its dust upon the graves of the common people.

⁷ He also tore down the quarters that housed the male prostitutes in the temple of the Lord, and where the women did the weavings for the Asherah. ⁸ He brought all of the priests from the cities of Judah, and he desecrated all of the high places from Geba to Beer-sheba where the priests had burned incense. He demolished the shrines at the gates, at the entrance to the gate of Joshua, the leader of the city, which was to the left of the city gate. ⁹ Although the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord, they did eat the unleavened bread with their brethren.

¹⁰ He desecrated Topheth^[a] in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in fire to Molech. ¹¹ He removed the horses that the king of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance to the temple of the Lord. They had been in the court near the room of the official Nathan-melech. He burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.

¹² The king demolished the altars^[b] that the kings of Judah had built on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz as well as the two altars that Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. He broke them to pieces and cast them into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The king also desecrated the high places that were to the east of Jerusalem, that is, to the south of the Hill of Corruption which Solomon, the king of Israel, had dedicated to the Ashtaroth, the vile goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the vile god of the Moabites, and to Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites.

¹⁴ He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He defiled these places with human bones. ¹⁵ He broke down the altar in Bethel, the altar and the high place that Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had built. He burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and he also burned the Asherah.

¹⁶ Josiah looked around and when he saw that there were graves on the hillside, he sent for and removed the bones from the graves. He burned them upon the altar to defile it. This fulfilled the word of the Lord that the man of God had proclaimed through these words.

¹⁷ He then asked, “What is that monument that I see?” The men of the city told 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, “Leave it alone! Do not let anyone disturb his bones!” So they left his bones and the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

¹⁹ Josiah also removed all of the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria that the kings of Israel had established, thus provoking the Lord to anger, just as he had done at Bethel.

²⁰ Josiah killed all of the priests of the high places upon the altars and he burned human bones upon them. He then returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ The king then commanded all of the people saying, “Observe the Passover of the Lord, your God, according to what is written in this book of this covenant.” ²² Passover had not been observed from the days of the judges who governed Israel nor all throughout the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³ This Passover of the Lord was celebrated in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah.

²⁴ Josiah also expelled the mediums and the wizards. He did away with the household gods, the idols, and all the other abominations that were to be found in the land of Judah and Jerusalem. He did this to fulfill the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the temple of the Lord.

²⁵ There had never before been any king like him nor will there ever be one after him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and all his soul and all his might according to the law of Moses.

²⁶ In spite of this, the Lord did not turn away the heat of his fierce anger which raged against Judah because all of the things that Manasseh had done to provoke his anger. ²⁷ The Lord said, “I will remove Judah from out of my sight just as I have removed Israel. I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the temple of which I said: My name will be there.”

^28 [c]As for all of the other deeds of Josiah, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁹ During his reign, Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, traveled up to the Euphrates River to give his assistance to the king of Assyria. King Josiah attacked him. When Pharaoh Neco saw him at Megiddo, he killed him. ³⁰ His servants brought his dead body back from Megiddo to Jerusalem and they buried him in his own tomb.

The people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and they anointed him as king in his father’s stead.

³¹ Reign of Jehoahaz. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, and she was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

³² He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, everything that his fathers had done.

³³ Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he could not reign in Jerusalem. He imposed a tribute upon the land of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.^[d]

³⁴ Pharaoh Neco appointed Eliakim, the son of Josiah, as king in his father’s stead. He changed his name to Jehoiakim, and he took Jehoahaz away when he returned to Egypt, where he died.

³⁵ Jehoiakim gave silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to get the money that Pharaoh had demanded. He taxed the people of the land according to their assessments for the silver and the gold that he had to give to Pharaoh.

³⁶ Reign of Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Zebidah, and she was the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah.

³⁷ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, everything that his fathers had done.

Chapter 24

^1 [e]During his reign Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. He then changed his path and rebelled against him.

² The Lord sent bands of Chaldeans, bands of Arameans, bands of Moabites, and bands of Ammonites against him. They attacked Judah to destroy it, fulfilling the word of the Lord which he had spoken through his servants, the prophets. ³ This surely came upon Judah at the command of the Lord so that he might remove them from out of his sight on account of the sins of Manasseh and everything that he had done ⁴ and on account of the innocent blood that he had shed, for he covered Jerusalem with innocent blood, something that the Lord would not forgive.

⁵ As for the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim, all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

⁶ Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin, his son, reigned in his stead.

⁷ The king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore because the king of Babylon had taken everything that belonged to him all the way from the River of Egypt up to the Euphrates River.

Reign of Jehoiachin.^{[f] 8} Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta. She was the daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.

⁹ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, everything that his fathers had done. ¹⁰ During his reign, the servants of Nebu-chadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came up to Jerusalem and the city was besieged. ¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem while his servants were besieging it.

¹² Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officials. The king of Babylon carried him off during the eighth year of his reign. ¹³ He carried off all of the treasures from the temple of the Lord and the treasures from the royal palace. He cut to pieces all of the gold vessels that Solomon, the king of Israel, had made for the temple of the Lord, just as the Lord had foretold. ¹⁴ He carried away all of Jerusalem and all of its princes and all of its brave warriors. There were ten thousand captives, and no craftsmen or iron smiths remained, only the poorest of the people were left. ¹⁵ He carried Jehoiachin off to Babylon along with the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers, and the important people of the land. He carried them off into captivity in Babylon. ¹⁶ The king of Babylon brought them into captivity, all of the important people, seven thousand of them, and the craftsmen and iron smiths, one thousand of them, and all of those who were strong and ready for war.

¹⁷ The king of Babylon made Mattaniah king in his father’s stead, and he changed his name to Zedekiah.

¹⁸ Reign of Zedekiah.^[g] Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal. She was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

¹⁹ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, everything that Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ This happened to Jerusalem and Judah on account of the anger of the Lord, and he cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah then rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Chapter 25

¹ It was during the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and all his army came up against Jerusalem. He camped and made siege-works all around it.^{[h] 2} The city was under siege until the eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah. ³ By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe that there was no food left for the people of the land.

⁴ There was a breach in the city wall, and all of the warriors fled at night by way of the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They went toward the Arabah.

⁵ The Chaldean army chased after them and caught up with the king in the plains of Jericho, scattering his entire army. ⁶ They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon who was at Riblah where he pronounced his judgment. ⁷ They killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and then they put out his eyes, bound him in brass fetters, and carried him off to Babylon.

Destruction of Jerusalem. ⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month of the ninth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and a servant of the king of Babylon, came up to Jerusalem. ⁹ He burned down the temple of the Lord, the royal palace, all of the buildings of Jerusalem. He burned down every large building. ¹⁰ All of the Chaldean army that was with the captain of the guard broke down all of the walls surrounding Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried off the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

¹² But the captain of the guard left the poorest of the people who were to be vinedressers and herdsmen.

¹³ The Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars in the temple of the Lord and the bronze sea and its base in the temple of the Lord. They carried the bronze off to Babylon. ¹⁴ They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all of the bronze vessels that were used for ministry there. ¹⁵ The captain of the guard also took away the censers and the bowls, and everything that was made with gold or silver. ¹⁶ One could not even measure the weight of the bronze from all these things: the two pillars, the sea, and its base that were made by Solomon for the temple of the Lord. ¹⁷ Each bronze pillar with its capital was eighteen cubits tall. The capital was three cubits high, along with a bronze network and pomegranates upon the capital. The other pillar was identical with its network.

¹⁸ The captain of the guard took away Seraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah, the second priest, as well as three of the doormen. ¹⁹ He also took the officer who was in charge of the fighting men out of the city as well as five of the king’s advisors who were caught in the city. He took the scribe assigned to the leader of the army, the one who would muster the people of the land. He also took sixty of the people of the land who were found in the city.

²⁰ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon in Riblah. ²¹ The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus, Judah was carried away from their land into exile.

²² Gedaliah Governs Judah.^[i] As for the rest of the people who had remained in the land of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over them.

²³ When all of the captains of the army (they and their men) heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah in Mizpah. They were Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, Johanan, the son of Kareah, Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah, the son of the Maachathite, and their men.

²⁴ Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, saying to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and everything will be all right with you.”

²⁵ But during the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, a member of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah. He died along with the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him in Mizpah.

²⁶ All of the people then rose up, the small and the great, and the captains of the army, and they went to Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

²⁷ Jehoiachin’s Release from Prison.^[j] In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach who had become king that year, released Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, from prison. ²⁸ He spoke kindly to him and he set him upon his throne which was above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ He changed his prison clothes, and he ate his meals with him for the rest of his life. ³⁰ He was given a regular allowance from the king, a portion for each day of the rest of his life.