Bible in 90 Days

Pekah rules Israel

²⁷ Pekah, Remaliah’s son, became king of Israel in the fifty-second year of Judah’s King Azariah. Pekah ruled for twenty years in Samaria. ²⁸ He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. He didn’t deviate from the sins that Jeroboam, Nebat’s son, had caused Israel to commit. ²⁹ In the days of Israel’s King Pekah, Assyria’s King Tiglath-pileser came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, and Hazor. He also captured Gilead, Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali. He sent the people into exile to Assyria. ³⁰ Then Hoshea, Elah’s son, plotted against Pekah, Remaliah’s son. He struck Pekah down, murdering him. Hoshea became king after Pekah in the twentieth year of Uzziah’s son Jotham. ³¹ The rest of Pekah’s kingship and all that he accomplished are written in the official records of Israel’s kings.

Jotham rules Judah

³² Jotham, Uzziah’s son, became king of Judah in the second year of Israel’s King Pekah, Remaliah’s son. ³³ Jotham was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerusha; she was Zadok’s daughter. ³⁴ Jotham did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, just as his father Uzziah had done. ³⁵ However, he didn’t remove the shrines. The people continued to sacrifice and burn incense at them. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the Lord’s temple. ³⁶ The rest of Jotham’s deeds, aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings? ³⁷ It was in those days that the Lord began to send Aram’s King Rezin and Pekah, Remaliah’s son, against Judah. ³⁸ Jotham died and was buried with his ancestors in David’s City.^[a] His son Ahaz succeeded him as king.

Ahaz rules Judah

16 Ahaz, Jotham’s son, became king of Judah in the seventeenth year of Pekah, Remaliah’s son. ² Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do what was right in the Lord’s eyes, unlike his ancestor David. ³ Instead, he walked in the ways of Israel’s kings. He even burned his own son alive, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. ⁴ He also sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines on every hill and beneath every shady tree. ⁵ Then Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah, Remaliah’s son, came up to Jerusalem to fight. They surrounded Ahaz, but they weren’t able to defeat him. ⁶ At that time Aram’s King Rezin recovered Elath for the Arameans, driving the Judeans out of Elath. The Edomites^[b] came to Elath and settled there, and that’s still the case now.

⁷ Ahaz sent messengers to Assyria’s King Tiglath-pileser, saying, “I’m your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the power of the kings of Aram and Israel. Both of them are attacking me!” ⁸ And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was in the Lord’s temple and in the palace treasuries, and sent a gift to Assyria’s king. ⁹ The Assyrian king heard the request and marched against Damascus. He captured it and sent its citizens into exile to Kir. He also killed Rezin.

¹⁰ Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet up with Assyria’s King Tiglath-pileser. King Ahaz noticed the altar that was in Damascus, and he sent the altar’s plan and details for its construction to the priest Uriah. ¹¹ Uriah built the altar, following the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; he had it finished before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.

¹² When the king arrived from Damascus, he inspected the altar. He came close to it, then went up on it, ¹³ burning his entirely burned offering and grain offering, pouring out his drink offering, and sprinkling the blood of his well-being sacrifices on the altar. ¹⁴ As for the bronze altar that used to stand before the Lord, Ahaz moved it away from the front of the temple where it had stood between the main altar and the Lord’s temple. He put it on the north side of the new altar. ¹⁵ Then King Ahaz ordered the priest Uriah, saying, “Burn the following sacrifices on the main altar:

“Sprinkle all the blood of the entirely burned offerings and all the blood of the sacrifices on it. I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.”^{[c] 16} Uriah the priest did everything that King Ahaz commanded. ¹⁷ King Ahaz cut off the side panels from the stands and removed the basins from them. He took the Sea down from the bronze bulls that were under it and put it on a stone pavement. ¹⁸ He also took away the sabbath canopy that had been built in the temple. He removed the royal entrance outside the Lord’s temple. This was done because of the Assyrian king.

¹⁹ The rest of Ahaz’s deeds, aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings? ²⁰ Ahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in David’s City. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.

Hoshea rules Israel

17 Hoshea, Elah’s son, became king in Samaria in the twelfth year of Judah’s king Ahaz. He ruled over Israel for nine years. ² He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, but he wasn’t as bad as the Israelite kings who preceded him. ³ Assyria’s King Shalmaneser marched against Hoshea, and Hoshea became Shalmaneser’s servant, paying him tribute. ⁴ But the Assyrian king discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, because Hoshea sent messengers to Egypt’s King So. Hoshea stopped paying tribute to the Assyrian king as he had in previous years, so the Assyrian king arrested him and put him in prison. ⁵ Then the Assyrian king invaded the whole country. He marched against Samaria and attacked it for three years. ⁶ In Hoshea’s ninth year, the Assyrian king captured Samaria. He sent Israel into exile to Assyria, resettling them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

The northern kingdom falls

⁷ All this happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt, out from under the power of Pharaoh, Egypt’s king. They worshipped other gods. ⁸ They followed the practices of the nations that the Lord had removed before the Israelites, as well as the practices that the Israelite kings had done.^{[d] 9} The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that weren’t right. They built shrines in all their towns, from watchtowers to fortified cities. ¹⁰ They set up sacred pillars and sacred poles^[e] on every high hill and beneath every green tree. ¹¹ At every shrine they burned incense, just as the nations did that the Lord sent into exile before them. They did evil things that made the Lord angry. ¹² They worshipped images about which the Lord had said, Don’t do such things! ¹³ The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all the prophets and seers, telling them, Turn from your evil ways. Keep my commandments and my regulations in agreement with the entire Instruction that I commanded your ancestors and sent through my servants the prophets.

¹⁴ But they wouldn’t listen. They were stubborn like their ancestors who didn’t trust the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They rejected his regulations and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, along with the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless images so that they too became worthless. And they imitated the neighboring nations that the Lord had forbidden them to imitate. ¹⁶ They deserted all the commandments of the Lord their God. They made themselves two metal idols cast in the shape of calves and made a sacred pole.^[f] They bowed down to all the heavenly bodies. They served Baal. ¹⁷ They burned their sons and daughters alive. They practiced divination and sought omens. They gave themselves over to doing what was evil in the Lord’s eyes and made him angry.

¹⁸ So the Lord was very angry at Israel. He removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was spared. ¹⁹ But Judah didn’t keep the commands of the Lord their God either. They followed the practices of Israel. ²⁰ So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants. He punished them, and he handed them over to enemies who plundered them until he finally threw them out of his sight.

²¹ When Israel broke away^[g] from David’s dynasty, they made Nebat’s son Jeroboam the king. Jeroboam drove Israel away from the Lord. He caused them to commit great sin. ²² And the Israelites continued walking in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They didn’t deviate from them, ²³ and the Lord finally removed Israel from his presence. That was exactly what he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from its land to Assyria. And that’s still how it is today.

New settlers in Samaria

²⁴ The Assyrian king brought people from Babylon, Cuth, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, resettling them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites. These people took control of Samaria and settled in its cities. ²⁵ But when they began to live there, they didn’t worship the Lord, so the Lord sent lions against them, and the lions began to kill them. ²⁶ Assyria’s king was told about this: “The nations you sent into exile and resettled in the cities of Samaria don’t know the religious practices of the local god. He’s sent lions against them, and the lions are killing them because none of them know the religious practices of the local god.”

²⁷ So Assyria’s king commanded, “Return one of the priests that you exiled from there. He^[h] should go back and live there. He should teach them the religious practices of the local god.” ²⁸ So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria went back. He lived in Bethel and taught the people how to worship the Lord.

²⁹ But each nationality still made its own gods. They set them up in the houses that the people of Samaria had made at the shrines. Each nationality did this in whichever cities they lived. ³⁰ The Babylonian people made the god Succoth-benoth, the Cuthean people made Nergal, and the people from Hamath made Ashima. ³¹ The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak. The Sepharvites burned their children alive as a sacrifice to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the Sepharvite gods. ³² They also worshipped the Lord, but they appointed priests for the shrines from their whole population. These priests worked in the houses at the shrines. ³³ So they worshipped the Lord, but they also served their own gods according to the religious practices of the nations from which they had been exiled.

³⁴ They are still following their former religious practices to this very day. They don’t really worship the Lord. Nor do they follow the regulations, the case laws, the Instruction, or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he renamed Israel. ³⁵ The Lord had made a covenant with them, commanding them, Don’t worship other gods. Don’t bow down to them or serve them. Don’t sacrifice to them. ³⁶ Instead, worship only the Lord. He’s the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great strength and an outstretched arm. Bow down to him! Sacrifice to him! ³⁷ You must carefully keep the regulations and case laws, the Instruction, and the commandment that he wrote for you. Don’t worship other gods. ³⁸ Don’t forget the covenant that I made with you. Don’t worship other gods. ³⁹ Instead, worship only the Lord your God. He will rescue you from your enemies’ power.

⁴⁰ But they wouldn’t listen. Instead, they continued doing their former religious practices. ⁴¹ So these nations worship the Lord, but they also serve their idols. The children and the grandchildren are doing the very same thing their parents did. And that’s how things still are today.

Hezekiah rules Judah

18 Hezekiah, Ahaz’s son, became king of Judah in the third year of Israel’s King Hoshea, Elah’s son. ² He was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi;^[i] she was Zechariah’s daughter. ³ Hezekiah did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, just as his ancestor David had done. ⁴ He removed the shrines. He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the sacred pole.^[j] He crushed the bronze snake that Moses made, because up to that point the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (The snake was named Nehushtan.)

⁵ Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, Israel’s God. There was no one like him among all of Judah’s kings—not before him and not after him. ⁶ He clung to the Lord and never deviated from him. He kept the commandments that the Lord had commanded Moses. ⁷ The Lord was with Hezekiah; he succeeded at everything he tried. He rebelled against Assyria’s king and wouldn’t serve him. ⁸ He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territories, from watchtower to fortified city.

⁹ Assyria’s King Shalmaneser marched against Samaria and attacked it in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Israel’s King Hoshea, Elah’s son. ¹⁰ After three years the Assyrians captured the city. Samaria was captured in Hezekiah’s sixth year, which was Hoshea’s ninth year. ¹¹ Assyria’s king sent Israel into exile to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes. ¹² All this happened because they wouldn’t listen to the Lord their God. They broke his covenant—all that the Lord’s servant Moses had commanded them. They didn’t listen, and they didn’t do it.

¹³ Assyria’s King Sennacherib marched against all of Judah’s fortified cities and captured them in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah. ¹⁴ Judah’s King Hezekiah sent a message to the Assyrian king at Lachish, saying, “I admit wrongdoing. Please withdraw from me, and I’ll agree to whatever you demand from me.” Assyria’s king required Judah’s King Hezekiah to pay him three hundred kikkars of silver and thirty kikkars of gold. ¹⁵ So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was in the Lord’s temple and in the palace treasuries. ¹⁶ At that time King Hezekiah had to strip down the doors and doorposts of the Lord’s temple, which he had covered with gold. He gave all of it to the Assyrian king.

¹⁷ Assryia’s king sent his general, his chief officer, and his field commander from Lachish, together with a large army, to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They stood at the water channel of the Upper Pool, which is on the road to the field where clothes are washed. ¹⁸ Then they called for the king. Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder went out to them.

¹⁹ Then the field commander said to them, “Say to Hezekiah: This is what Assyria’s Great King says: Why do you feel so confident? ²⁰ Do you think that empty words are the same as good strategy and the strength to fight? Who are you trusting in that you now rebel against me? ²¹ It appears that you are trusting in a staff—Egypt—that’s nothing but a broken reed! It will stab the hand of anyone who leans on it! That’s all that Pharaoh, Egypt’s king, is to anyone who trusts in him. ²² Now suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’ Isn’t he the one whose shrines and altars Hezekiah removed, telling Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem’?

²³ “So now make a wager with my master, Assyria’s king. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you can supply the riders! ²⁴ How will you drive back even the least important official among my master’s servants when you are relying on Egypt for chariots and riders? ²⁵ What’s more, do you think I’ve marched against this place to destroy it without the Lord’s support? It was the Lord who told me, March against this land and destroy it!”

²⁶ Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic because we understand it. Don’t speak with us in Hebrew, because the people on the wall will hear it.”

²⁷ The field commander said to them, “Did my master send me to speak these words just to you and your master and not also to the men on the wall? They are the ones who will have to eat their dung and drink their urine along with you.” ²⁸ Then the field commander stood up and shouted in Hebrew at the top of his voice, saying, “Listen to the message of the great king, Assyria’s king. ²⁹ This is what the king says: Don’t let Hezekiah lie to you. He won’t be able to rescue you from the power of Assyria’s king. ³⁰ Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to trust the Lord by saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us. This city won’t be handed over to Assyria’s king.’

³¹ “Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because this is what Assyria’s king says: Surrender to me and come out. Then each of you will eat from your own vine and fig tree, and drink water from your own well ³² until I come to take you to a land just like your land. It will be a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey. Then you will live and not die! Don’t listen to Hezekiah, because he will mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ ³³ Were any of the gods of the other nations able to rescue their lands from the power of Assyria’s king? ³⁴ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they rescued Samaria from my power? ³⁵ Which one of any of the gods of those lands has rescued their country from my power? Why should the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?”

³⁶ But the people kept quiet and didn’t answer him with a single word, because King Hezekiah’s command was, “Don’t answer him!” ³⁷ Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who was the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder, came to Hezekiah with ripped clothes. They told him what the field commander had said.

Hezekiah and Isaiah

19 When King Hezekiah heard this, he ripped his clothes, covered himself with mourning clothes, and went to the Lord’s temple. ² He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son. They were all wearing mourning clothes. ³ They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, punishment, and humiliation. It’s as if children are ready to be born, but there’s no strength to see it through. ⁴ Perhaps the Lord your God has heard all the words of the field commander who was sent by his master, Assyria’s king—how he insulted the living God—perhaps God will punish him for the words the Lord your God heard. Send up a prayer for those few people who still survive.”

⁵ When King Hezekiah’s servants got to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “Say this to your master: ‘This is what the Lord says: Don’t be afraid at the words you heard, which the officers of Assyria’s king have used to insult me. ⁷ I’m about to put a spirit in him, so when he hears a rumor, he’ll go back to his own country. Then I’ll have him cut down by the sword in his own land.’”

⁸ The field commander heard that the Assyrian king had left Lachish. So he went back to the king and found him attacking Libnah. ⁹ Then the Assyrian king learned that Cush’s King Tirhakah was on his way to fight against him. So he sent messengers to Hezekiah again, saying, ¹⁰ “Say this to Judah’s King Hezekiah: Don’t let the God you trust in persuade you by saying, ‘Jerusalem won’t be handed over to the Assyrian king.’ ¹¹ You yourself have heard what Assyrian kings do to other countries, wiping them out. Is it likely that you will be saved? ¹² Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, or the people of Eden in Telassar—save them? ¹³ Where now is Hamath’s king, Arpad’s king, or the kings of Lair, Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?”^[k]

Hezekiah’s prayer

¹⁴ Hezekiah took the letters from the messengers and read them. Then he went to the temple and spread them out before the Lord. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, “Lord God of Israel, you sit enthroned on the winged creatures. You alone are God over all the earth’s kingdoms. You made both heaven and earth. ¹⁶ Lord, turn your ear this way and hear! Lord, open your eyes and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words. He sent them to insult the living God! ¹⁷ It’s true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have destroyed many nations and their lands. ¹⁸ The Assyrians burned the gods of those nations with fire because they aren’t real gods. They are only man-made creations of wood and stone. That’s how the Assyrians could destroy them. ¹⁹ So now, Lord our God, please save us from Sennacherib’s power! Then all the earth’s kingdoms will know that you, Lord, are the only true God.”

²⁰ Then Isaiah, Amoz’s son, sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says: I have heard your prayer about Assyria’s King Sennacherib. ²¹ This is the message that the Lord has spoken against him:

²⁹ “Now this will be the sign for you, Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows by itself. Next year you will eat what grows from that. But in the third year, sow seed and harvest it; plant vineyards and eat their fruit. ³⁰ The survivors of the house of Judah who have escaped will take root below and bear fruit above. ³¹ Those who remain will go out from Jerusalem, and those who survive will go out from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of heavenly forces^[m] will do this.

³² “Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Assyria’s king: He won’t enter this city. He won’t shoot a single arrow there. He won’t come near the city with a shield. He won’t build a ramp to besiege it. ³³ He will go back by the same way he came. He won’t enter this city, declares the Lord. ³⁴ I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

³⁵ That night the Lord’s messenger went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand soldiers in the Assyrian camp. When people got up the next morning, there were dead bodies everywhere. ³⁶ So Assyria’s King Sennacherib departed, returning to Nineveh, where he stayed. ³⁷ Later, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. They then escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him as king.

Hezekiah’s illness

20 Around that same time, Hezekiah became deathly ill. The prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son, came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your affairs in order because you are about to die. You won’t survive this.”

² Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, ³ “Please, Lord, remember how I have walked before you in truth and sincerity. I have done what is right in your eyes.” Then Hezekiah cried and cried.

⁴ Isaiah hadn’t even left the middle courtyard of the palace when the Lord’s word came to him: ⁵ Turn around. Say to Hezekiah, my people’s leader: This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and have seen your tears. So now I’m going to heal you. Three days from now you will be able to go up to the Lord’s temple. ⁶ I will add fifteen years to your life. I will rescue you and this city from the power of the Assyian king. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.

⁷ Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a bandage made of figs.” They did so and put it on the swelling, at which point Hezekiah started getting better.

⁸ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I’ll be able to go up to the Lord’s temple in three days?”

⁹ Isaiah said, “This will be your sign from the Lord that he will make his promise come true: Should the shadow go forward ten steps or back ten steps?”

¹⁰ “It’s easy for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” Hezekiah said, “but not for the shadow to go back ten steps.” ¹¹ So the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, who made the shadow go back ten steps, down the flight of stairs built by Ahaz.^[n]

¹² At that time Merodach-baladan, son of Babylon’s King Baladan, sent messengers to Hezekiah with letters and a gift. This was because he had heard that Hezekiah was sick. ¹³ Hezekiah granted them an audience and showed them everything in his treasury—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the fine oil. He also showed them his stock of weaponry and everything in his storehouses. There wasn’t a single thing in his palace or his whole kingdom that Hezekiah didn’t show them. ¹⁴ Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say? Where have they come from?”

Hezekiah said, “They came from a distant country: Babylon.”

¹⁵ “What have they seen in your palace?” Isaiah asked.

“They have seen everything in my palace,” Hezekiah answered. “There’s not a single thing in my storehouses that I haven’t shown them.”

¹⁶ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the Lord’s word: ¹⁷ The days are nearly here when everything in your palace and all that your ancestors collected up to now will be carried off to Babylon. Not a single thing will be left, says the Lord. ¹⁸ Some of your children, your very own offspring, will be taken away. They will become eunuchs in the palace of Babylon’s king.”

¹⁹ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word that you’ve spoken is good,” because he thought: There will be peace and security in my lifetime.

²⁰ The rest of Hezekiah’s deeds and all his powerful acts—how he made the pool and the channel and brought water inside the city—aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings? ²¹ Hezekiah lay down with his ancestors. His son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

Manasseh rules Judah

21 Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ² He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. ³ He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, set up altars for Baal, and made a sacred pole,^[o] just as Israel’s King Ahab had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky and worshipped them. ⁴ He even built altars in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple—the very place the Lord was speaking of when he said: “I will put my name in Jerusalem.” ⁵ Manasseh built altars for all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple. ⁶ He burned his own son alive, consulted sign readers and fortune-tellers, and used mediums and diviners. He did much evil in the Lord’s eyes and made him angry.

⁷ Manasseh set up the carved Asherah image he had made in the temple—the very temple the Lord had spoken about to David and his son Solomon, saying, In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all Israel’s tribes, I will put my name forever. ⁸ I will never again remove Israel from the land I gave to their ancestors, provided they carefully do everything I have commanded them—keeping all the Instruction my servant Moses commanded them. ⁹ But they wouldn’t listen. Manasseh led them into doing even more evil than the nations the Lord had wiped out before the Israelites.

¹⁰ The Lord spoke through his servants the prophets: ¹¹ Judah’s King Manasseh has done detestable things, things more evil than the Amorites had done before his time. He has caused Judah to sin with his images. ¹² Because of this, the Lord, Israel’s God, has said: I’m about to bring on Jerusalem and Judah such a great disaster that the ears of anyone who hears about it will ring. ¹³ I will stretch out over Jerusalem the same line that I used to measure Samaria and the same mason’s level that I used on Ahab’s family. I will wipe Jerusalem clean the same way someone wipes a plate clean, wiping it clean then turning it facedown. ¹⁴ Whatever survives of my inheritance, I’ll leave behind, handing them over to their enemies. They will be nothing but plunder and loot for every one of their enemies. ¹⁵ This will happen because they have done what is evil in my eyes, making me angry from the day their ancestors left Egypt until this very moment.

¹⁶ Manasseh spilled so much innocent blood that he filled up every corner of Jerusalem with it. And this doesn’t include the sins he caused Judah to commit so that they did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. ¹⁷ The rest of Manasseh’s deeds, all that he accomplished, and the sin he committed, aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings? ¹⁸ Manasseh lay down with his ancestors. He was buried in his palace garden, the Uzza Garden. His son Amon succeeded him as king.

Amon rules Judah

¹⁹ Amon was 22 years old when he became king, and he ruled for two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth; she was Haruz’s daughter and was from Jotbah. ²⁰ He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, just as his father Manasseh had done. ²¹ He walked in all the ways his father had walked. He worshipped the same worthless idols his father had worshipped, bowing down to them. ²² He deserted his ancestors’ God, the Lord—he didn’t walk in the Lord’s way.

²³ Amon’s officials plotted against him and assassinated the king in his palace. ²⁴ The people of the land then executed all those who had plotted against King Amon and made his son Josiah the next king. ²⁵ The rest of Amon’s deeds, aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings? ²⁶ He was buried in his tomb in the Uzza Garden. His son Josiah succeeded him as king.

Josiah rules Judah

22 Josiah was 8 years old when he became king, and he ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah; she was Adaiah’s daughter and was from Bozkath. ² He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, and walked in the ways of his ancestor David—not deviating from it even a bit to the right or left.

³ In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s rule, he sent the secretary Shaphan, Azaliah’s son and Meshullam’s grandson, to the Lord’s temple with the following orders: ⁴ “Go to the high priest Hilkiah. Have him carefully count^[p] the money that has been brought to the Lord’s temple and that has been collected from the people by the doorkeepers. ⁵ It should be given to the supervisors in charge of the Lord’s temple, who in turn should pay it to those who are in the Lord’s temple, repairing the temple— ⁶ the carpenters, the builders, and the masons. It should be used to pay for lumber and quarried stone to repair the temple. ⁷ But there’s no need to check on them regarding the money they receive, because they are honest workers.”

⁸ The high priest Hilkiah told Shaphan the secretary: “I have found the Instruction scroll in the Lord’s temple.” Then Hilkiah turned the scroll over to Shaphan, who read it.

⁹ Shaphan the secretary then went to the king and reported this to him: “Your officials have released the money that was found in the temple and have handed it over to those who supervise the work in the Lord’s temple.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll,” and he read it out loud before the king.

¹¹ As soon as the king heard what the Instruction scroll said, he ripped his clothes. ¹² The king ordered the priest Hilkiah, Shaphan’s son Ahikam, Micaiah’s son Achbor, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the royal officer as follows: ¹³ “Go and ask the Lord on my behalf, and on behalf of the people, and on behalf of all Judah concerning the contents of this scroll that has been found. The Lord must be furious with us because our ancestors failed to obey the words of this scroll and do everything written in it about us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah. She was married to Shallum, Tikvah’s son and Harhas’ grandson, who was in charge of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the second district. When they spoke to her, ¹⁵ she replied, “This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says: Tell this to the man who sent you to me: ¹⁶ This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring disaster on this place and its citizens—all the words in the scroll that Judah’s king has read! ¹⁷ My anger burns against this place, never to be quenched, because they’ve deserted me and have burned incense to other gods, angering me by everything they have done.^{[q] 18} But also say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to question the Lord: This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says about the message you’ve just heard: ¹⁹ Because your heart was broken and you submitted before the Lord when you heard what I said about this place and its citizens—that they will become a horror and a curse—and because you ripped your clothes and cried before me, I have listened to you, declares the Lord. ²⁰ That’s why I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will go to your grave in peace. You won’t experience the disaster I am about to bring on this place.”

Josiah’s reform

When they reported Huldah’s words to the king, 23 ¹ the king sent a message, and all of Judah’s and Jerusalem’s elders gathered before him. ² Then the king went up to the Lord’s temple, together with all the people of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets, and all the people, young and old alike. There the king read out loud all the words of the covenant scroll that had been found in the Lord’s temple. ³ The king stood beside the pillar and made a covenant with the Lord that he would follow the Lord by keeping his commandments, his laws, and his regulations with all his heart and all his being in order to fulfill the words of this covenant that were written in this scroll. All of the people accepted the covenant.

⁴ The king then commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the second-order priests, and the doorkeepers to remove from the Lord’s temple all the religious objects made for Baal, Asherah, and all the heavenly bodies. The king burned them outside Jerusalem in the Kidron fields and took the ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He got rid of the pagan priests that the Judean kings had appointed to burn incense at the shrines in Judah’s cities and the areas around Jerusalem. He did the same to those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the heavenly bodies. ⁶ He removed the Asherah image^[r] from the Lord’s temple, taking it to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. There he burned it, ground it to dust, and threw the dust on the public graveyard. ⁷ The king tore down the shrines for the consecrated workers^[s] that were in the Lord’s temple, where women made woven coverings^[t] for Asherah.

⁸ Then Josiah brought all the priests out of Judah’s cities. From Geba to Beer-sheba, he defiled the shrines where the priests had been burning incense. He also tore down the shrines at the gates at the entrance to the gate of Joshua the city’s governor, which were on the left as one entered the city gate. ⁹ Although the priests of these shrines didn’t go up on the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem, they did eat unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

¹⁰ Josiah defiled the Topheth in the Ben-hinnom Valley so no one could burn their child alive in honor of the god Molech. ¹¹ He did away with the horses that Judah’s kings had dedicated to the sun. They were kept at the entrance to the Lord’s temple near a room in the annex^[u] that belonged to an official named Nathan-melech. Josiah set fire to the chariots that were dedicated to the sun. ¹² The king also tore down the altars that were on the roof of Ahaz’s upper story, which had been made by the Judean kings, and he did the same with the altars that Manasseh had built in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He broke them up there^[v] and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The king then defiled the shrines facing Jerusalem, south of the Mountain of Destruction. Solomon the king of Israel had built these for Ashtoreth, the monstrous Sidonian god, for Chemosh, the monstrous Moabite god, and for Milcom, the detestable Ammonite god. ¹⁴ He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the sacred poles,^[w] filling the places where they had been with human bones.

¹⁵ Josiah also tore down the altar that was in Bethel. That was the shrine made by Jeroboam, Nebat’s son, who caused Israel to sin. Josiah tore down that altar and its shrine. He burned the shrine, grinding it into dust. Then he burned its sacred pole.^{[x] 16} When Josiah turned around, he noticed tombs up on the hillside. So he ordered the bones to be taken out of the tombs. He then burned them on the altar, desecrating it. (This was in agreement with the word that the Lord announced by the man of God when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the festival.) Josiah then turned and saw the tomb of the man of God^[y] who had predicted these things. ¹⁷ “What’s this gravestone I see?” Josiah asked.

The people of the city replied, “That tomb belongs to the man of God who came from Judah and announced what you would do to the altar of Bethel.”

¹⁸ “Let it be,” Josiah said. “No one should disturb his bones.” So they left his bones untouched, along with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

¹⁹ Moreover, Josiah removed all the shrines on the high hills that the Israelite kings had constructed throughout the cities of Samaria. These had made the Lord angry. Josiah did to them just what he did at Bethel. ²⁰ He actually slaughtered on those altars all the priests of the shrines who were there, and he burned human bones on them. Then Josiah returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ The king commanded all the people, “Celebrate a Passover to the Lord your God following what is instructed in this scroll containing the covenant.” ²² A Passover like this hadn’t been celebrated since the days when the judges judged Israel; neither had it been celebrated during all the days of the Israelite and Judean kings. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s rule, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Josiah burned those who consulted dead spirits and the mediums, the household gods and the worthless idols—all the monstrous things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. In this way Josiah fulfilled the words of the Instruction written in the scroll that the priest Hilkiah found in the Lord’s temple. ²⁵ There’s never been a king like Josiah, whether before or after him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, all his being, and all his strength, in agreement with everything in the Instruction from Moses.

²⁶ Even so, the Lord didn’t turn away from the great rage that burned against Judah on account of all that Manasseh had done to make him angry. ²⁷ The Lord said, “I will remove Judah from my presence just as I removed Israel. I will reject this city, Jerusalem, which I chose, and this temple where I promised my name would reside.”

²⁸ The rest of Josiah’s deeds and all that he accomplished, aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings? ²⁹ In his days, the Egyptian king Pharaoh Neco marched against the Assyrian king at the Euphrates River. King Josiah marched out to intercept him. But when Neco encountered Josiah in Megiddo, he killed the king. ³⁰ Josiah’s servants took his body from Megiddo in a chariot. They brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz, Josiah’s son, anointed him, and made him king after his father.

Jehoahaz rules Judah

³¹ Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he ruled for three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal; she was Jeremiah’s daughter and was from Libnah. ³² He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, just as all his ancestors had done. ³³ Pharaoh Neco made Jehoahaz a prisoner at Riblah in the land of Hamath, ending his rule in Jerusalem. Pharaoh Neco imposed a fine on the land totaling one hundred kikkars of silver and one kikkar of gold.

Jehoiakim rules Judah

³⁴ Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim, Josiah’s son, king after his father Josiah. Neco changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. Neco took Jehoahaz away; he later died in Egypt. ³⁵ Jehoiakim gave Pharaoh the silver and gold, but he taxed the land in order to meet Pharaoh’s financial demands. Each person was taxed appropriately. Jehoiakim exacted silver and the gold from the land’s people in order to give it to Pharaoh Neco. ³⁶ Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah; she was Pedaiah’s daughter and was from Rumah. ³⁷ He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, just as all his ancestors had done.

24 In Jehoiakim’s days, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. Jehoiakim had submitted to him for three years, but then Jehoiakim changed his mind and rebelled against him. ² The Lord sent Chaldean, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding parties against Jehoiakim, sending them against Judah in order to destroy it. This was in agreement with the word that the Lord had spoken through his servants the prophets. ³ Indeed, this happened to Judah because the Lord commanded them to be removed from his presence on account of all the sins that Manasseh had committed ⁴ and because of the innocent blood that he had spilled. Manasseh had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord didn’t want to forgive that.

⁵ The rest of Jehoiakim’s deeds and all that he accomplished, aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings? ⁶ Jehoiakim lay down with his ancestors. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

⁷ The Egyptian king never left his country again because the Babylonian king had taken over all the territory that had previously belonged to him—from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

Jehoiachin rules Judah

⁸ Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king, and he ruled for three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta; she was Elnathan’s daughter and was from Jerusalem. ⁹ He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, just as all his ancestors had done. ¹⁰ At that time, the officers of Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem and laid siege to the city. ¹¹ Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar himself arrived at the city while his officers were blockading it. ¹² Judah’s King Jehoiachin, along with his mother, his servants, his officers, and his officials, came out to surrender to the Babylonian king. The Babylonian king took Jehoiachin prisoner in the eighth year of Jehoiachin’s rule.

¹³ Nebuchadnezzar also took away all the treasures of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace. He cut into pieces all the gold objects that Israel’s King Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple, which is exactly what the Lord said would happen. ¹⁴ Then Nebuchadnezzar exiled all of Jerusalem: all the officials, all the military leaders—ten thousand exiles—as well as all the skilled workers and metalworkers. No one was left behind except the poorest of the land’s people. ¹⁵ Nebuchadnezzar exiled Jehoiachin to Babylon; he also exiled the queen mother, the king’s wives, the officials, and the land’s elite leaders from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ The Babylonian king also exiled seven thousand warriors—each one a hero trained for battle—as well as a thousand skilled workers and metalworkers to Babylon. ¹⁷ Then the Babylonian king made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, succeed Jehoiachin as king. Nebuchadnezzar changed Mattaniah’s name to Zedekiah.

Zedekiah rules Judah

¹⁸ Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal; she was Jeremiah’s daughter and was from Libnah. ¹⁹ He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, just as Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ It was precisely because the Lord was angry with Jerusalem and Judah that he thrust them out of his presence.

The southern kingdom falls

Now Zedekiah rebelled against the Babylonian king. 25 ¹ So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s rule, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem with his entire army. He camped beside the city and built a siege wall all around it. ² The city was under attack until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ³ On the ninth day of the month, the famine in the city got so bad that no food remained for the common people. ⁴ Then the enemy broke into the city. All the soldiers fled^[z] by night using the gate between the two walls near the King’s Garden. The Chaldeans were surrounding the city, so the soldiers ran toward the desert plain. ⁵ But the Chaldean army chased King Zedekiah and caught up with him in the Jericho plains. His entire army deserted him. ⁶ So the Chaldeans captured the king and brought him back to the Babylonian king, who was at Riblah. There his punishment was determined. ⁷ Zedekiah’s sons were slaughtered right before his eyes. Then he was blinded, put in bronze chains, and taken off to Babylon.

⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan arrived at Jerusalem. He was the commander of the guard and an official of the Babylonian king. ⁹ He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all of Jerusalem’s houses. He burned down every important building. ¹⁰ The whole Chaldean army under the commander of the guard tore down the walls surrounding Jerusalem. ¹¹ Then Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard exiled the people who were left in the city, those who had already surrendered to Babylon’s king, and the rest of the population. ¹² The commander of the guard left some of the land’s poor people behind to work the vineyards and be farmers. ¹³ The Chaldeans shattered the bronze columns, the stands, and the bronze Sea that were in the Lord’s temple. They carried the bronze off to Babylon. ¹⁴ They also took the pots, the shovels, the wick trimmers, the dishes, and all the bronze items that had been used in the temple. ¹⁵ The commander of the guard took the fire pans and the sprinkling bowls, which were made of pure gold and pure silver. ¹⁶ The bronze in all these objects—the two pillars, the Sea, and the stands that Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple—was too heavy to weigh. ¹⁷ Each pillar was twenty-seven feet high. The bronze capital on top of the first pillar was four and a half feet high. Decorative lattices and pomegranates, all made from bronze, were around the capital. And the second pillar was decorated with lattices just like the first.

¹⁸ The commander of the guard also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ Of those still left in the city, Nebuzaradan took away an officer who was in charge of the army and five royal advisors who were discovered in the city. He also took away the secretary of the officer responsible for drafting the land’s people to fight, as well as sixty people who were discovered in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard took all of these people and brought them to the Babylonian king at Riblah. ²¹ The king of Babylon struck them down, killing them in Riblah in the land of Hamath.

So Judah was exiled from its land.

Gedaliah governs Judah

²² Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar put Gedaliah, Ahikam’s son and Shaphan’s grandson, in charge of the people he had left behind in the land of Judah. ²³ All the army officers and their soldiers heard that the Babylonian king had appointed Gedaliah as governor, so they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers were Ishmael, Nethaniah’s son; Johanan, Kareah’s son; Seraiah, Tanhumeth’s son who was a Netophathite; and Jaazaniah, Maacathite’s son. ²⁴ Gedaliah made a solemn pledge to them and their soldiers, telling them, “Don’t be afraid of the Chaldean officials. Stay in the land and serve the Babylonian king, and things will go well for you.”

²⁵ But in the seventh month, Ishmael, Nethaniah’s son and Elishama’s grandson, who was from the royal family, came with ten soldiers, and they struck Gedaliah, and he died. They also killed the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. ²⁶ Then all the people, young and old, along with the army officers, departed for Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

Jehoiachin in Babylon

²⁷ In the year that Awil-merodach^[aa] became king of Babylon, he released Judah’s King Jehoiachin from prison. This happened in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. ²⁸ Awil-merodach spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and seated him above the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ So Jehoiachin took off his prisoner clothes and ate regularly in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. ³⁰ At the king’s command, a regular food allowance was given to him every day for the rest of his life.