1Now Solomon son of David prevailed over his dominion, and the Lord, his God, was with him and exalted him to the heights. 2 Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of a thousand and the leaders of a hundred and the judges and all the rulers before Israel, to the rulers of the families. 3 Solomon and the whole assembly went to the high place that was in Gibeon, where the tent of God’s witness was there, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the desert. 4 But David had brought the ark of God from the city of Kiriathjearim because he prepared a tent for it in Jerusalem. 5 The bronze altar, which Bezalel son of Uriah, son of Hur, had made, was there in the presence of the tent of the Lord, and Solomon and the assembly sought it. 6 Solomon offered a sacrifice there upon the bronze altar before the Lord that was in the tent and offered upon it a thousand burnt offerings. 7 In that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask what I might give to you.” 8 And Solomon said to God, “That which you have shown with my father, David, is great mercy, and you have made me king in his place. 9 Now, O Lord God, let your name be proven upon my father, David, because you have made me king over many people, like the chaff of the earth. 10 Now, give to me wisdom and understanding, and I will go forth and go in before this people, because who can judge this great people of yours?” 11 Then God said to Solomon, “Because this has been in your heart, and you did not ask for riches of possessions nor glory nor the life of those who oppose you, and you did not ask for many days, but you asked for yourself wisdom and understanding so that you may judge my people, over whom I have caused you to reign upon them, 12 I give you wisdom and understanding, and I will give you riches and possessions and glory such as there has not been one like you among the kings who were before you, and after you there will not be such again.” 13 Solomon went from Bama in Gibeon, which is in Jerusalem, to the face of the tent of witness and reigned over Israel. 14 Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen, and there were to him one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. And he left them in the chariot cities. The people were with the king in Jerusalem. 15 The king put gold and silver in Jerusalem like stones, and the cedars in Judah, like the mulberry trees that are in great numbers in the plains. 16 The delivery of horsemen to Solomon was from Egypt, and the price of the king’s traders, they would pay to go.
2And they embarked and brought back from Egypt one chariot for six hundred silver pieces and a horse for one hundred and fifty. Thus, they would bring for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria in their hands. Preparations for the Temple 2 aSolomon said to build a house to the name of the Lord and a house for his dominion. 2 Solomon gathered seventy thousand men and eighty-four thousand stonecutters in the mountains, and the commanders over them were three thousand six hundred. 3 Then Solomon sent to Huram, king of Tyre, saying, “As you did with my father, David, and sent to him cedars to build for himself a house to live in, 4 look, I, his son, will build a house to the name of the Lord, my God, to dedicate it to him, to burn incense before him and offering always, and to bring whole burnt offerings always, in the morning and in the evening and on the Sabbaths and on the new moons and at the festivals for the Lord our God; this is upon Israel for eternity. 5 The house that I am building is great because great is our God compared to all the gods. 6 Who is able to build him a house? For the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot bear his glory. Who am I to build him a house, other than to burn incense before him? 7 Now, send me a man who is skilled and who perceives to work with gold and with silver and with bronze and with iron and with purple and with scarlet, and one capable to carve a carving with the skilled who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father, David, prepared. 8 Send me cedar wood and juniper and pine from Lebanon, because I know how your slaves know how to cut wood from Lebanon. Look, your servants are with my servants. 9 They will go to prepare wood for me in great numbers, because the house that I am building will be great and honored. 10 Look! I have given grain for food to the laborers who cut wood, for gifts to your servants, twenty thousand koron,a and twenty thousand koron of barley and twenty thousand measures of wine.” 11 Huram, king of Tyre, said in writing and sent to Solomon, “In the Lord’s love for his people, he put you over them as king.” 12 Huram said, “Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, who gave to David a wise son and one who knows understanding and knowledge, who will build a house to the Lord and a house for his kingdom. 13 Now, I have sent you a man who is skilled and who knows understanding, my father, Huram; 14 his mother was from the daughters of Dan, and his father was a Tyrian man who knew how to work with gold and with silver and with bronze and with iron, with stones and wood, and to weave with purple and with hyacinth and with linen and with scarlet, and to carve carvings, and to intend to do any idea, as much as you give him with your skilled craftspeople and the skilled craftspeople of my lord David, your father. 15 Now, the grain and the barley and the olive oil and the wine that he mentioned, let my lord send these to his servants. 16 We shall cut wood from Lebanon according to your every need and bring them by rafts on the sea of Joppa, and you will bring them to Jerusalem.” 17 Solomon gathered all the men, the sojourners, in the land of Israel after the census, when his father, David, had counted them, and they were discovered to be one hundred and fiftythree thousand six hundred. 18 He made from them seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand stonecutters and three thousand six hundred over the people.
3Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, at the mountain of Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father, David, in the place where David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 He began the house in the second month in the fourth year of his dominion. 3 Solomon began these things, to build the house of God. The length in cubits, the first measure, was sixty cubits, and the width twenty cubits. 4 There was an ailama at the face of the house; the length on the face, the width of the house were twenty cubits, and the height one hundred and twenty cubits. And he covered it on the inside with pure gold. 5 He covered the great house with cedar wood and covered it with pure gold and carved on it palms and chains. 6 He adorned the house with valuable stones for splendor and with gold—gold that was from Parvaim. 7 He covered the house and the walls and the gates and the ceilings and the rooms with gold, and he carved cherubim upon the walls. 8 He made the house of the holy of holies: its length on the face of the width was twenty cubits, and the length was twenty cubits, and he gilded it with pure gold, for the cherubim, to six hundred talents. 9 The weight of the nails: the weight of one was fifty shekels of gold. And he covered the attic with gold. 10 He made in the house for the holy of holies a work of two cherubim from wood, and he covered them with gold. 11 The wings of the cherubim: the length was twenty cubits, and the one wing was five cubits, touching the wall of the house, and the other wing of five cubits was touching the wings of the other cherubim.b 13 The wings of the cherubim spanned twenty cubits, and they stood on their feet, and their faces were to the house. 14 He made the curtains hyacinth and purple and scarlet and linen and wove cherubim in it. 15 He made two pillars in front of the wall, thirty-five cubits in height, and their tops five cubits. 16 He made serserothc in the dabird and put them on the tops of the pillars. And he made one hundred pomegranates and placed them on the chalaston. 17 He set the pillars at the face of the temple, one by the right side and one by the left side, and he called the name of the one by the right side Success and the name of the one by the left Strength.
4He made the bronze altar twenty cubits long, and the breadth was twenty cubits, and the height was ten cubits. 2 He made the cast sea ten cubits, the distribution, being completely round, and the height five cubits, and the circumference thirty cubits. 3 The image of a calf was under it. They circled all around it ten cubits; they surrounded the basin completely. They cast two types of calves in their casting, 4 by which they made them, twelve calves: three looking north, three west, three south, and three east. The sea was nearly over them; their hind parts were inside.f 5 Its thickness was a handbreadth, and its edge was like the edge of a wine cup, engraved with shoots of lilies; it contained three thousand in measure, and it was completed. 6 He made ten basins, and he put five on the right and five on the left in order to clean in them the preparations for the whole burnt offerings and to rinse in them, and the sea was for the priests to wash in it. 7 He made ten golden lampstands, according to their judgment, and he put them in the temple, five on the right, and five on the left. 8 He made ten tables and put them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left, and he made a hundred golden saucers. 9 Then he made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court and their doorways, covered with bronze. 10 He put the sea in a corner of the house on the right, so as to face east. 11 Huram made the meat hooks and the pieces of wood and the fireplace for the altar and all its implements. And Huram completed doing all the labor that he did for King Solomon in the house of God: 12 two pillars, and upon them balls for the capitals on the top of the two pillars, and two nets to cover the tops of the capitals, which were on the tops of the pillars, 13 and four hundred golden bells for the two nets, and kinds of pomegranates in one net to cover the two balls of the capitals, which were above the pillars. 14 Then he made ten stands, and he made the basins on the stands, 15 and the one sea and the twelve calves underneath it, 16 and the long robe and bowls and kettles and meat hooks and all their implements, which Huram had made and brought to King Solomon in the house of the Lord, of pure bronze. 17 The king cast them in the region of the Jordan in the thickness of the earth in the house of Succoth and Anamesirdathai. 18 Solomon made all these implements in very great number, because the weight of the bronze did not come to an end. 19 Solomon made all the implements of the house of the Lord and the golden altar and the tables—and on them loaves for offering— 20 and the lampstands and the lamps of light according to the judgment and at the face of the dabir,a of pure gold, 21 and their snuffers and their lamps and the saucers and the censers and the firesticks, of pure gold, 22 and the inner door of the house into the holy of holies, to the doors of the house of the temple, of gold. All the labor was completed, which Solomon did in the house of the Lord.
5And Solomon brought the holy things of his father, David, the silver and the gold, and he put the implements in the treasury of the Lord. 2 Then Solomon assembled the elders and all the rulers of the tribes, the leaders of the families of the sons of Israel, in Jerusalem to bring the ark of the treaty of the Lord from the city of David (which is Zion). 3 All Israel assembled before the king on the feast; it was the seventh month. 4 All the elders of Israel came, and all the Levites took the ark 5 and the tent of witness and all the holy vessels that were in the tent, and the priests and the Levites brought it. 6 King Solomon and the whole assembly of Israel and the fearers and their gathered ones were sacrificing calves and sheep before the ark, which shall not be numbered, and which shall not be counted on account of the great number. 7 The priests carried the ark of the treaty of the Lord into its place in the dabir of the house in the holies of the holies underneath the wings of the cherubim. 8 The cherubim were spreading out their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim completely covered the ark and its carrying poles from above. 9 The carrying poles rose out, and the tops of the bearing poles could be seen from the holy places at the front of the dabir. They could not be seen outside and are there until this day. 10 There was nothing in the ark except two tablets, which Moses put in Horeb, which the Lord arranged with the sons of Israel when they came out from the land of Egypt. 11 It happened, when the priests came out from the holy places, that all the priests who were found were dedicated; they were not arranged according to their divisions. 12 And the Levites, all the psalmists who were sons of Asaph, to Heman, to Jeduthun and his sons and his brothers, who were clothed in linen garments, with cymbals and with nablaisa and with kinyrais,b were standing in front of the altar, and with them were one hundred and twenty priests trumpeting with the trumpets. 13 There was one sound with the trumpeting and with the singing and with the one voice crying out to acknowledge and praise the Lord, and they raised a sound with trumpets and with cymbals and with instruments for songs. And they said, “Acknowledge the Lord, that he is good, that his mercy is for eternity.” Then the house was filled with a cloud of the glory of the Lord. 14 The priests were not able to stand to minister from the face of the cloud because the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.
6Then Solomon said, “The Lord said to camp in darkness. 2 I have built a house for your name, devoted to you and prepared to dwell in for eternity.” 3 The king turned his face and praised the whole assembly of Israel, and the whole assembly of Israel stood. 4 He said, “Blessed is the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to my father, David, and has completed it with his hands, saying, 5 ‘From the day when I led my people out of the land of Egypt, I did not choose for a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a house for my name to be there, and I did not choose for a man to be leader over my people Israel. 6 I have chosen for David so that he be leader over my people, Israel.’ 7 It was on the heart of my father, David, to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 8 And the Lord said to my father, David, ‘Since it was in your heart to build a house for my name, it was well in your heart. 9 However, you will not build the house, because your son, who will come from your loins, he will build the house for my name.’ 10 The Lord established this saying, which he spoke, and I have come in the place of my father, David, and sat on the throne of Israel, as the Lord spoke, and I have built the house to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, 11 and I have put there the ark, in which there is the testament of the Lord, which he arranged with Israel.” 12 Then he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands— 13 because Solomon had made a bronze pedestal and had put it in the midst of the temple court, five cubits its length and five cubits its width and three cubits its height, and he stood on it and fell on his knees in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel—and he spread out his hands to the heavens 14 and said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in the heavens or on earth, who keeps covenant and mercy to your servants who go before you with their whole heart. 15 You preserved for your servant David, my father, which you spoke to him, and you spoke with your mouth and with your hands; you fulfilled it on this day. 16 Now, O Lord, God of Israel, guard for your servant David what you spoke to him, saying, ‘No man from you will come to an end from the face, sitting on the throne of Israel, only if your sons keep their way to go in my name, as you have gone before me.’ 17 Now, O Lord, God of Israel, let your saying be confirmed, indeed, that you spoke to your servant David. 18 For if God truly dwells with humans on the earth, if the the heavens and the heaven of the heavens is not sufficient for you, then what is this house that I have built? 19 Look upon the prayer of your servant and on my request, O Lord God, to hear the supplication and the prayer before you today, 20 so that your eyes may be open on this house day and night, to this place, which you said your name would be invoked there, to hear the prayer that your servant prays in this place. 21 You will hear the supplication of your servant and people Israel, whatever they might pray in this place, and you yourself will hear in the place of your dwelling from the heavens, and you will hear, and you will be gracious. 22 “If a man sins against his neighbor and takes upon him a curse in order to curse him, and he should go, and he curses before the altar in this house, 23 then you yourself will hear from the heaven of the heavens, and you shall act and judge your slaves in order to give their due to the lawless and to render his ways on his head, in order to vindicate the righteous, in order to render to him according to his righteousness. 24 If your people, Israel, are broken before the enemy, if they have sinned against you and they turn around and acknowledge your name and pray and petition before you in this house, 25 you will hear from the heavens, and you will be gracious toward the sins of your people, Israel, and return them to the land, which you gave them and their fathers. 26 “When the heavens are closed and no rain comes to pass because they will have sinned against you, and they will pray to this place and praise your name and turn from their sins because you will have humbled them, 27 and you will hear from the heavens and be gracious toward the sins of your servants and your people, Israel, because you will show to them the good way in which they will go in it, and you will give rain upon your land, which you gave to your people for an inheritance. 28 If a famine happens on the land, if death happens upon the land, blight, jaundice, locust, and if larva happens, if the enemy afflicts him before their cities according to every blow and every distress, 29 and if every prayer and every request comes from a person and by all your people Israel, if someone knows his infection and his weakness and spreads out his hands in this house, 30 then you will hear from heaven, from your prepared dwelling place, and will be merciful, and you will give to a man according to his ways, as you know his heart, because you alone know the heart of the sons of humans, 31 how they should fear all your ways all the days that they live on the face of the land, which you gave to our fathers. 32 “Every foreigner, who is not from the people of Israel and may come from a land far away on account of your great name and your mighty hand and your arm raised high, and they come and pray in this place, 33 and you will hear from the heavens, from your prepared dwelling place, and you shall act according to everything, whatever the foreigner invokes from you, so that all the people of the earth may know your name and fear you, as your people Israel, and know that your name has been invoked upon this house that I have built. 34 But if your people go out for war against their enemies on the way that you send them, and they shall pray to you according to the way of this city, which you have chosen by it, and of the house, which I have built for your name, 35 then you will hear their supplication from the heavens and their prayer and you shall act on their duty, 36 because they will sin against you (because there is no person who does not sin), and you will strike them and deliver them at the face of enemies, and the ones who take captive will take them captive into the land of enemies, in a land far away or near; 37 and should they turn their heart in their land where they have been taken, and should they indeed turn and request of you in their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned; we have done wrong; we have acted lawlessly,’ 38 and should they turn to you with their whole heart and with their whole life in the land of those who took them captive, and they shall pray in the direction of their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city, which you chose, and of the house, which I have built for your name, 39 and you will hear from the heavens, from your prepared dwelling place, of their prayer and their supplication, and you shall bring judgments and be gracious to your people who sin. 40 “Now, O Lord, let your eyes indeed be open and your ears listen to the prayer of this place. 41 And now arise, O Lord God, to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength. May your priests, O Lord God, clothe themselves with salvation, and let your sons delight in good things. 42 O Lord God, do not turn away your face; remember the mercies of your servant, David.”
7As Solomon finished praying, fire also came down from the heavens and devoured the whole burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. 2 The priests could not enter into the house of the Lord at that time because the glory of the Lord filled the house. 3 All the sons of Israel saw the fire descend and the glory of the Lord upon the house, and they fell on their face on the earth, on the mosaic, and they worshiped and began praising the Lord: “Because he is good, because his mercy is for eternity.” 4 The king and all the people were sacrificing sacrifices in the presence of the Lord. 5 Solomon sacrificed the sacrifice: twenty-two thousand calves. And the king and all the people consecrated the house of God. 6 The priests were standing at their watch, and the Levites with instruments for songs for the Lord of King David, to acknowledge in the presence of the Lord that his mercy is for eternity, with hymns of David on account of their hands, and the priests trumpeted the trumpets before them, and all Israel stood. 7 Solomon dedicated the midst of the court that is in the house of the Lord, because he made there the burnt offerings and the fat of the deliverance offerings, because the bronze altar that Solomon had made was not sufficient to accept the burnt offerings, and the manaaa and the fatted parts. 8 Solomon made the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very large assembly from the entrance of Hamath even unto the valley of Egypt. 9 He made a finale on the eighth day, because he made the consecration of the altar a festival for seven days. 10 On the twenty-third of the seventh month he sent off the people into their quarters, delighted and with a good heart over the good things that the Lord had done for David and for Solomon and for Israel, his people. 11 So Solomon completed the house of the Lord and the house of the king, and everything that Solomon made in his soul to do in the house of the Lord and in his house prospered. 12 God appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen in this place for myself for a house of sacrifice. 13 If I close the heavens and there is no rain, and if I command the locust to devour the wood, and if I send death among my people, 14 and if my people, upon whom my name has been invoked, turn around and pray and seek my face and turn back from their evil ways, then I will hear from the heavens and will be merciful toward their sins and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears listening to the prayer of this place. 16 Now I have chosen and have sanctified this house for my name to be there unto eternity. And my eyes and my heart will be there all the days. 17 If you go before me as your father, David, and do according to everything that I have commanded you, and you keep my ordinances and my judgments, 18 I will establish the throne of your dominion as I disposed to your father, David, saying, ‘A man, one who leads in Israel, will not be taken away for you.’ 19 Moreover, if you turn back and abandon my commandments and my commands, which I gave before you, and you go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 I will raise you from the land that I gave to them, and this house, which I dedicated to my name, I will turn it back from my face and give it for an illustration and for a tale among all the nations. 21 As for this lofty house, everyone who passes it will be astonished and say, ‘For what did the Lord make happen to this land and this house?’ 22 They will say, ‘Since they deserted the Lord, God of their fathers, who led them out from the land of Egypt, and laid claim to other Gods and worshiped and served them, on account of this, he brought upon them all this damage.’”
8Now it happened, after twenty years, in which Solomon built the house of the Lord and his own house, 2 even the cities that Huram gave to Solomon, Solomon built them and removed to there the sons of Israel. 3 Then Solomon went into Hamath-zobah and overpowered it. 4 He built Tadmor in the desert, and all the secure cities he built in Hamath. 5 He built the upper Bethhoron and the lower Beth-horon, secure cities with walls, gates, and bolts, 6 and Baalath, and all the secure cities that belonged to Solomon and all the chariot cities and the cities for the cavalry, and as much as Solomon yearned for according to his yearning to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all his dominion. 7 All the people who were left from the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who are not from Israel, 8 there were from their sons some who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel did not destroy utterly, and Solomon brought them for tribute until this day. 9 But Solomon did not give from the sons of Israel as servants for his dominion because, look, they were warriors and rulers and the mighty men and rulers of chariots and cavalry. 10 These were the rulers of the guardians of King Solomon, two hundred and fifty taskmasters among the people. 11 Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh from the city of David to the house that he built for her, because he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the city of David, the king of Israel, because it is sacred where the ark of the Lord has entered.” 12 Then Solomon brought up the burnt offerings for the Lord on the altar that he built in front of the temple 13 according to the saying of day in day, to bring according to the commandments of Moses on the Sabbaths and on the month and on the festivals, three times during the year, on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, on the Feast of Tents. 14 He established the divisions of the priests according to the judgment of David, according to their ministries; and the Levites were on their watch to minister and praise before the priests according to the word of the day in the day; and the porters according to their divisions into gate and gate, because so were the commandments of David, the man of God. 15 They did not transgress the commandments of the king concerning the priests and the Levites in any affair and for the treasuries. 16 All the labor was prepared from the day it was laid until Solomon completed the house of the Lord. 17 Then Solomon went into Ezion-geber and Eloth, the maritime city by the land of Edom. 18 Huram, by the hand of his servants, sent off ships and servants who knew the sea, and he went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and took from that place four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and they came to King Solomon.
9And Queen Sheba heard the name of Solomon and came to test Solomon in Jerusalem with exceedingly difficult riddles.a There were camels carrying spices and gold in plenty and costly stone, and she came to Solomon and spoke to him everything that was on her mind. 2 Solomon announced to her all her words, and no word passed from Solomon, which word he did not report to her. 3 Queen Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built 4 and the food of the table and the seating of his servants and the standing of his servants and their apparel and his cupbearer and their dress and the whole burnt offerings that he brought into the house of the Lord, and she was beside herself. 5 She said to the king, “The word is true that I heard in my land concerning your words and concerning your sound judgment. 6 I did not believe the reports until I came, and my eyes saw, and Look, it had not been reported to me half of the magnitude of your wisdom. You have added to the report that I have heard. 7 Happy are the men, happy are your servants, these are the ones who stand by you through everything and hear your wisdom. 8 Let the Lord, your God, be praised, who wanted you on his throne, to give you as king for the Lord, your God. In that the Lord, your God, loved Israel to establish it for eternity, and he put you over them as king to render judgment and righteousness.” 9 She gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and spices in great amount and prized stone. There was nothing like those spices that Queen Sheba gave to King Solomon. 10 The servants of Solomon and the servants of Huram brought gold to Solomon from Ophir and pine wood and prized stone. 11 The king made the pine wood into steps for the house of the Lord and for the house of the king and into lyres and nablas for the singers. Things such as this had not been seen before in the land of Judah. 12 King Solomon gave to Queen Sheba everything she desired, which she asked, more than everything that she had brought to King Solomon. And she returned to her land. Solomon’s Wealth 13 The weight of the gold brought to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, 14 excluding what the men who were subordinates and the travelers carried; and all the kings of Arabia and the satraps of the earth would bring gold and silver to King Solomon. 15 King Solomon made two hundred shields of beaten gold—six hundred of pure gold to one shield; six hundred gold went into one shield 16 and three hundred round shields of beaten gold; and the king put them in the house of the wood of Lebanon. 17 The king made a throne of great ivory teeth and covered it with refined gold. 18 And there were six steps to the throne, covered with gold, and there were arms on this side and that of the throne of the chair, and two lions standing beside the arms, 19 and twelve lions stood there at the six steps on this side and that; it was not like this in every kingdom. 20 All the implements of King Solomon were of gold, and all the implements of the house of the wood of Lebanon were covered with gold. Silver was not calculated in the days of Solomon for anything, 21 because a ship for the king would go into Tarshish with the servants of Huram. Once every three years ships would come from Tarshish to the king full of gold and silver and ivory teeth and apes. 22 Solomon was exalted over every king both in wealth and wisdom. 23 All the kings of the earth kept seeking the face of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God put in his heart. 24 They each brought their gifts—silver implements and gold implements and clothing, oil and seasoning, horses and mules yearly, each year. 25 There were for Solomon four thousand female horses for chariots and twelve thousand cavalry, and he put them in chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 26 He was leader of all the kings from the Euphrates River even unto the land of foreigners and unto the borders of Egypt. 27 The king gave the gold and the silver in Jerusalem like stones and cedars like mulberry trees that are plentiful in the lowland. 28 The importing of horses was from Egypt by Solomon and from the whole earth. The Death of Solomon 29 The remaining words about Solomon, the first and the last, look, they are written in the words of Nathan the prophet and in the words of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visions of Joel the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 30 King Solomon reigned over all Israel for forty years. 31 And Solomon slept, and they honored him with funeral rites in the city of his father, David, and his son, Rehoboam, reigned in his place.
10Rehoboam came to Shechem, because all Israel came to Shechem to coronate him. 2 And it happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard—for he was in Egypt from when he had fled from the face of King Solomon, and Jeroboam had settled in Egypt—then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. 3 Then he sent and called him, and Jeroboam came. And the whole assembly came to Rehoboam, saying, 4 “Your father hardened our yoke. So now let loose from the harsh slavery of your father and from his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will be slaves to you.” 5 He said to them, “Go for three days and come to me.” Then the people departed. 6 King Rehoboam gathered the elders who had stood before his father, Solomon, while he was living, saying, “How do you wish to answer this people a word?” 7 They spoke to him, saying, “If on this day you consider this people for good, and you are well pleased, and you speak kind words to them, then they will be servants for you all the days.” 8 He dispensed with the plan of the elders who had advised him and counseled with the younger ones who had grown up with him, who stood before him. 9 He said to them, “What do you wish? With what message should I answer this people who spoke to me, saying, ‘Loosen away the yoke that your father put upon us’?” 10 The younger ones, who had grown up with him, spoke to him, “Thus you should say to the people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke worse. Now you loose it from us.’ Thus, you shall say: ‘My little finger is thicker than the loins of my father. 11 Now, my father trained you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to our yoke. My father trained you with whips, but I will train you with scorpions.’” 12 Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had spoken, saying, “Return to me the third day.” 13 The king answered severely, and King Rehoboam ignored the plan of the elders. 14 Then he spoke to them according to the plan of the youths, saying, “My father made our yoke worse, but I will add to it. My father trained you with whips, but I will train you with scorpions.” 15 So the king did not listen to the people, because it was a change from God, saying, “The Lord established his word, which he spoke by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat 16 and all Israel,” because the king did not listen to them. The people answered to the king, saying, “What portion is there for us in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? Into your quarters, Israel. Now see to your house, David!” And all Israel went into its quarters. 17 But the men of Israel, even those who dwelled in the cities of Judah, Jeroboam reigned over them. 18 And Rehoboam sent to them Hadoram, the one in charge over the tribute, and the people of Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. Then King Jeroboam hastened to go up into the chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19 And Israel has spurned the house of David until this day.
11Then Rehoboam went to Jerusalem and assembled Judah and Benjamin, one hundred and eighty-four thousand youths for making war, and he intended to make war against Israel in order to return the dominion to Rehoboam. 2 A word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, a man of God, saying, 3 “Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon and all Judah and Benjamin, saying, 4 ‘This is what the Lord says: “You shall not go up, and you shall not make war against your brothers. Turn back, each to his house, because this saying is from me.” ’” They heard the word of the Lord and turned back so as to not go against Jeroboam. The Reign of Rehoboam 5 Then Rehoboam settled in Jerusalem, and he built walled cities in Judah. 6 He built Bethlehem and Etan and Tekoa 7 and Beth-zur and Socoh and Adullam 8 and Gath and Mareshah and Ziph 9 and Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah 10 and Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron—walled cities, which belong to Judah and Benjamin. 11 He fortified them with walls, and he put in them leaders and stores of food, olive oil, and wine, 12 in each city, and in each city shields and spears. And he strengthened them very much in number, and Judah and Benjamin belonged to him. 13 And the Levites and the priests who were in the whole of Israel gathered to him from all the borders, 14 because the Levites deserted the quarters of their possession and they went to Judah into Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons threw them out so as not to minister to the Lord. 15 He appointed for himself priests of the high places and the images and the worthless things and the calves, which Jeroboam had made. 16 He cast them out from the tribes of Israel, those who gave their heart to seek the Lord, the God of Israel, and they went into Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, God of their ancestors. 17 They strengthened the dominion of Judah and strengthened Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years, because he went in the ways of David and Solomon for three years. 18 Now Rehoboam took for himself as a wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David, and Abihail the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse. 19 She begat for him sons: Jeush and Shemariah and Zaham. 20 After these things he took for himself Maacah the daughter of Absalom, and she begat to him Abijah and Attai and Zina and Shelomith. 21 Rehoboam loved Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, more than all his other wives and mistresses, because he had eighteen wives and thirty mistresses, and he begat twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. 22 Then he appointed as ruler Abijah the son of Maacah as leader among his brothers, because he intended him to be king. 23 He was exalted more than all his sons within all the borders of Judah and Benjamin and in the fortified cities, and he gave them food in great quantity. And he asked for plenty of women.
12Then it happened, as the dominion of Rehoboam was ready, and as it prevailed, that he ignored the commandments of the Lord and all Israel with him. 2 It happened in the fifth year of the dominion of Rehoboam that Shishak, king of Egypt, went up against Jerusalem, because they sinned before the Lord, 3 with one thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand horses, and there was no number of the multitude who came out with him from Egypt—Libyans, Sukkites,a and Ethiopians— 4 and they prevailed over the fortified cities that were in Judah, and he went to Jerusalem. 5 Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the rulers of Judah, who gathered in Jerusalem from the face of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus said the Lord: ‘You abandoned me, so I will abandon you to the hand of Shishak.’” 6 The rulers of Israel and the king were ashamed and said, “The Lord is righteous.” 7 And when the Lord saw that they were ashamed, and a word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have felt shame; I will not destroy them, and I will give them a little while for salvation, and my wrath shall not drip onto Jerusalem, 8 because they will be as servants and shall learn my bondage and the bondage of the dominion of the land.” 9 Shishak, king of Egypt, went up and took the treasure that was in the house of the Lord and the treasures that were in the house of the king; he took everything. He took the gold shields that Solomon had made. 10 Rehoboam made bronze shields in place of them. Shishak appointed rulers of runners over him, who guard the gates of the king. 11 And it happened, when the king entered into the house of the Lord, the ones who were guarding would go in, and the runners and the ones returning to meet the runners. 12 And when he felt misgiving, the anger of the Lord turned back from him and was not finally for destruction. For matters were good in Judah. 13 Rehoboam overpowered Jerusalem, and he reigned. And Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he reigned, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, in the city that the Lord chose to name his name there above all the tribes of the sons of Israel. The name of his mother was Naamah the Ammonite. 14 He did evil because he did not direct his heart to seek out the Lord. 15 Now, the annals of Rehoboam, the first and the last, look, are they not written in the annals of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer, as well as his activities? Rehoboam made war against Jeroboam all the days. 16 Rehoboam died and was buried with his ancestors, and he was buried in the city of David, and his son, Abijah, reigned in his place.
13In the eighteenth year of the dominion of Jeroboam, Abijah reigned over Israel. 2 He reigned for three years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel, from Gibeon. There was a war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3 Abijah arrayed with strengthwarriors of strength, four hundred thousand mighty men. And Jeroboam arrayed against him for war with eight hundred thousand mighty warriors of strength. 4 Abijah arose from the mountain of Samaria, which is in Mount Ephraim, and he said, “Hear, Jeroboam and all Israel! 5 Is it not for you to know that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave a king over Israel for eternity, to David and to his sons by a testament of salt? 6 Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, arose and rose up from his Lord. 7 Pestilent men, lawless people, were gathered to him and rose up against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, and Rehoboam was young and cowardly of heart, and he did not resist against his face. 8 Now you say to resist against the face of the dominion of the Lord through the hand of the sons of David. And you are a great number, and with you are golden calves, which Jeroboam made for you for gods. 9 Or did you not throw out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and make for yourselves priests from the people from the whole land? Whoever approaches to fill the hands from a calf of the herd and seven rams also becomes as a priest for what is not god. 10 We have not forgotten the Lord, our God, and his priests minister to the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their divisions. 11 They burn to the Lord whole burnt offering in the morning and evening and incense of combination and the offering of bread on the pure table. There is a golden lampstand and the lamps for burning to light in the evening, because we defend the watches of the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and you have left him. 12 Now look, the Lord is with us in the beginning and his priests and the trumpets for signals to point out against us. The sons of Israel, you make war against the Lord, the God of our ancestors, because he shall not prosper for you.” 13 Jeroboam turned back their ambush to come from behind; and Judah was in front, and the ambush was from behind. 14 Judah turned back, and look, the war was against them from the front and from behind, and they shouted to the Lord, and the priests sounded the trumpets. 15 The men of Judah shouted, and it happened, when the men of Judah shouted, that the Lord also struck Jeroboam and Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16 The sons of Israel fled from the face of Judah, and the Lord delivered them into their hands. 17 Abijah and his people struck a great blow among them, and five hundred thousand mighty men from Israel fell wounded. 18 The sons of Israel were humbled on that day, and the sons of Judah overpowered, because they hoped in the Lord, the God of their ancestors. 19 Abijah pursued after Jeroboam and seized cities from him: Bethel and its villages, and Jeshanah and its villages, and Ephron and its villages. 20 Jeroboam did not have strength yet all the days of Abijah, and the Lord struck him, and he died. 21 Abijah strengthened and took for himself fourteen wives and begat twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22 The remaining deeds of Abijah, both his activities and his words, are written in the document of the prophet Iddo.
14aAbijah died with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city of David, and his son, Asa, reigned in his place. In the days of Asa, the land of Judah was quiet for ten years. 2 He did what was good and upright in the eyes of the Lord, his God. 3 He removed the altars of the foreigners and the high places and shattered the steles and cut the groves. 4 He told Judah to seek out the Lord, God of their ancestors, and to do the law and the commandments. 5 He removed from all the cities of Judah the altars and the idols, and he made peace. 6 Cities were walled in the land of Judah, because the land had peace. There was no war in it in these years, because the Lord put an end to it. 7 He said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make a wall and towers and gates and bolts, before we will rule the land, because just as I sought the Lord, our God, he sought us and brought peace to us all around and prospered us.” 8 There was to Asa a force of three hundred thousand soldiers carrying shields and spears in the land of Judah, and in the land of Benjamin two hundred and fifty thousand warriors with light shields and bowmen; all these were warriors of strength. 9 Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with a force by thousands and three hundred chariots and went up to Mareshah. 10 Asa went out to a meeting with him and drew up the soldiers for war in the ravine to the north of Mareshah. 11 Asa shouted to the Lord, his God, and he said, “O Lord, it is not impossible by you to save with many or with a small number. Strengthen us, O Lord, our God, because we have trusted in you and in your name to come against this great number. O Lord, our God, let no person have power, no person.” 12 The Lord struck the Ethiopians before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. 13 And Asa and his people pursued them as far as Gedor, and the Ethiopians fell so that nothing was preserved among them; because they were shattered before the Lord and before his power. And they took away many spoils. 14 They cut off their villages around Gedor, because the terror of the Lord had come upon them, and they despoiled all his cities, because many spoils had come to them. 15 Indeed, they eliminated tents of possessions, the Amazoneis, and they took many sheep and camels and returned to Jerusalem.
15Now Azariah the son of Oded, a spirit of the Lord came upon him. 2 He went out to meet them in all Judah and Benjamin and said, “The Lord is with you when we are with him. If you seek him, he will be found to you, and if you should leave him behind, he will abandon you. 3 Israel for many days was with no true God and with no law. 4 He will return them to the Lord, God of Israel, and he will be found to them. 5 In that time the one going in and going out have no peace, because the terror of the Lord was upon all those who dwelled in the territories. 6 Nation will war against nation and city against city, because God has astonished them in every affliction. 7 And you, be strong, and do not let your hands relax, because there are wages for your labor.” 8 When he heard these words and the prophecy of Hadad the prophet, he was both strengthened and he cast out the abominations from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had gained in Mount Ephraim, and he renewed the altar of the Lord that was in front of the temple of the Lord. 9 He assembled Judah and Benjamin and the proselytes who lived with him from Ephraim and from Manasseh and from Simeon, because many of Israel were added to him when they saw that the Lord, his God, was with him. 10 They were gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the dominion of Asa. 11 He sacrificed to the Lord in that day, on which was brought seven hundred calves and seven thousand sheep. 12 He entered in a covenant to seek the Lord, God of their ancestors, from his whole heart and from his whole inner being. 13 If anyone does not seek out the Lord, God of Israel, he will die, from young up to an elder, from male to female. 14 They swore by the Lord in a great voice and with trumpets. 15 All Judah was delighted about the oath, because they swore from their whole inner being, and they sought him with the whole will, and the Lord was found to them, and he put an end to things for them all around. 16 He removed his mother Maacah, so that she would not minister to Ashtoreth, and he destroyed the idol and incinerated it in the Kidron Valley. 17 However, they did not remove the high places; they yet existed in Israel. But the heart of Asa was full all his days. 18 He brought the sacred things of his father David and the sacred things of the house of the Lord God: silver and gold and implements. 19 There was no war with him until the thirty-fifth year of the dominion of Asa.
16In the thirty-eighth year of the dominion of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, went up to Judah and built Ramah in order to not give exit and entrance to Asa, king of Judah. 2 Asa took gold and silver from the treasury of the house of the Lord and the house of the king and sent them to the son of Hadad, king of Aram, who dwelled in Damascus, saying, 3 “Form a covenant between me and you and between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you gold and silver. Come and scatter abroad from me Baasha, king of Israel, and let him depart from me.” 4 The son of Hadad heard King Asa and sent the rulers of his force against the cities of Israel, and he struck Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim and all the country round about Naphtali. 5 And it happened, when Baasha heard, he left off to no longer build Ramah, and he ceased his work. 6 King Asa took all Judah, and he took the stones of Ramah and its timber, which Baasha had built, and he built with them Geba and Mizpah. 7 In that time Hanani the prophet went to Asa, king of Judah, and he said to him, “When you trusted in the king of Aram and did not trust in the Lord, your God, on account of this, the force of Aram was saved from your hand. 8 Were not the Ethiopians and Libyans a great force in courage, in a very large number of horsemen? And when you trusted in the Lord, he delivered them into your hands, 9 because the eyes of the Lord are looking upon all the earth to strengthen every heart with fullness toward him. You ignored this! From now on, war is with you.” 10 Asa was angered by the prophet and put him under watch over this. Asa mistreated the people in that time. 11 Look, the words of Asa, the first and the last, are written in the document of the kings of Judah and Israel. 12 Asa grew weak in the feet in the thirty-ninth year of his dominion. He grew very weak. And in his weakness, he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. 13 Asa slept with his ancestors and died in the thirtieth year of his dominion. 14 They buried him in the tomb that he dug for himself in the city of David, and they put him to sleep on the couch and filled it with spices and kinds of myrrh from perfumers, and they made a very great funeral procession for him.
17His son, Jehoshaphat, reigned in his place, and Jehoshaphat had power against Israel. 2 He put a force in all the fortified cities of Judah and appointed leaders in all the cities of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father, Asa, had seized before. 3 The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he went in the first ways of his father and did not seek idols. 4 But he sought the Lord, the God of his father, and he went in the commandments of his father and not like the deeds of Israel. 5 The Lord directed the dominion by his hand, and all Judah gave gifts to Jehoshaphat, and riches and great glory came to him. 6 His heart was exalted in the way of the Lord, and he took away the high places and the groves from the land of Judah. 7 In the third year of his dominion he sent his leaders and the sons of the mighty ones—Obadiah and Zechariah and Nethanel and Micaiah—to teach in the cities of Judah. 8 The Levites were with them—Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah, the Levites—and with them the priests Elishama and Joram. 9 They taught in Judah, and a book of the law of the Lord was with them, and they went through the cities of Judah and kept teaching the people. 10 And it happened that the terror of the Lord was upon all the dominions of the land, those around Judah, so they did not war with Jehoshaphat. 11 Some of the foreigners brought to Jehoshaphat gifts and silver and presents, and the Arabs brought to him seven thousand seven hundred rams of sheep. 12 Jehoshaphat was walking greater as far as in height, and he built buildings in Judah and secure cities. 13 There were many works in Judah and men, mighty strong warriors in Jerusalem. 14 This is their number according to the houses of their families: for Judah, the commanders of a thousand, Adnah the ruler, and with him three hundred thousand mighty sons of strength; 15 Jehohanan the leader was after him, and with him two hundred and eighty-four thousand; 16 after him was Amasiah the son of Zichri, who was eager for the Lord, and with him two hundred thousand mighty ones of strength. 17 From Benjamin: a mighty one of strength, and Eliada, and with him bowmen and two hundred thousand men carrying shields; 18 after him was Jehozabad, and with him one hundred and eighty-four thousand mighty ones for war. 19 These were the ones who ministered for the king, excluding those whom the king put in the fortified cities in all Judah.
18There was to Jehoshaphat further great riches and glory, but he married into the house of Ahab. 2 He came down at the end of years to Ahab in Samaria, and Ahab sacrificed many sheep and calves for him and for the people who were with him, and he loved him in order to go up with him into Ramoth of Gilead. 3 And Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, “Come with me into Ramoth of Gilead.” Then he said to him, “As I am, so also are you; as my people, also your people, with you into war.” 4 Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Indeed, seek the Lord this day.” 5 The king of Israel gathered the prophets, four hundred men, and said to them, “Should I go to Ramoth Gilead for war or hold?” They said, “Go up, and God will give it into the hands of the king.” 6 Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not yet here a prophet of the Lord, and we shall ask from him?” 7 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom to seek the Lord, but I hate him, because there is no prophesying about me for good, because all his days are for evil. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” Then Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king speak in this way.” 8 The king called one of the eunuchs and said, “Swiftly, bring Micaiah son of Imlah.” 9 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, were sitting, each upon his throne, and clothed in garments, sitting in the roomy doors at the gates of Samaria, and all the prophets kept prophesying before them. 10 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, “Thus the Lord says: ‘By these you will gore the Syriansa until it is finished.’” 11 All the prophets kept prophesying in this way, saying, “Go up to Ramoth Gilead, and you will succeed, and the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.” 12 The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, “Look, the prophets spoke by one mouth good things concerning the king. So now let your words stand as one of them, and you will say good things.” 13 Micaiah said, “The Lord lives, because whatever God says to me, I will speak it.” 14 He went to the king, and the king said to him, “Micaiah, should I go to Ramoth Gilead for war or stay?” He said, “Go up, and you will be successful, and they will be given into your hands.” 15 Then the king said to him, “How often have I made you swear that you shall not speak to me except the truth in the name of the Lord?” 16 He said, “I saw Israel scattered abroad among the regions, like sheep for whom there is no shepherd. Then the Lord said, ‘They do not have a leader. Let them, each one, return to his house in peace.’” 17 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not say to you that he does not prophesy good things concerning me, but rather evil?” 18 He said, “Not so. Hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord seated on his throne, and all the force of the heavens standing on his right and on his left. 19 The Lord said, ‘Who will trick Ahab, king of Israel, and he will go up and fall in Ramoth Gilead?’ This one said thus, and this one said it is so. 20 The spirit went out and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will trick him.’ And the Lord said, ‘By what means?’ 21 He said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You shall trick and be capable. Go out and do so.’ 22 Now look, the Lord gave a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets, and the Lord spoke evil concerning you.” 23 Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah approached and struck Micaiah on the jaw and said to him, “By what way did the very spirit of the Lord talk from me to you?”b 24 Micaiah said, “Look, you shall see in that day he shall go from chamber to chamber to hide.” 25 The king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and return to Amon, ruler of the city, and to Jehoash, a ruler, son of the king. 26 And you shall say, ‘Thus said the king: “Keep this one in a house to be guarded, and let him eat bread of oppression and water of oppression until I return in peace.” ’” 27 Micaiah said, “If returning you return in peace, the Lord did not speak by me. Hear, all peoples!” 28 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went up to Ramoth Gilead. 29 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I shall disguise myself and enter into the war, but as for you, put on my clothing.” The king of Israel completely hid himself and entered into the war. 30 Now the king of Syria had commanded the rulers of the chariots who were with him, saying, “Do not make war against the small and the great, but rather the king of Israel alone.” 31 And it happened, when the rulers of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they also said, “It is the king of Israel.” And they surrounded him in order to make war. But Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord rescued him, and God turned them back from him. 32 And it happened, when the rulers of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned away also from him. 33 Then a man stretched a bow, aiming well, and it struck the king of Israel in the midst of the lungs and in the midst of the breastplate. And he said to the driver, “Turn your hand, and take me from the battle, because I have suffered.” 34 And the war reached a turning point in that day, and the king of Israel was made to stand upon the chariot until evening, from opposite the Syrians,a and he died as the sun was sinking.
19Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, turned back to his house to Jerusalem. 2 And Jehu the son of Hanani, the prophet, went out to meet him and said to him, “King Jehoshaphat, were you assisting a sinner, or are you befriending one hated by the Lord? On account of this, anger has come upon you from the Lord; 3 except that good things were found among you, because you took away the groves from the land of Judah and directed your heart to seek out the Lord.” Jehoshaphat’s Reforms 4 Jehoshaphat settled and went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba as far as the mountains of Ephraim, and returned them to the Lord, God of their ancestors. 5 He appointed judges in all the fortified cities of Judah, in city and city. 6 He said to the judges, “Watch what you do, because you judge not for humanity but rather for the Lord, and with you are words for judgment. 7 Now, let the fear of the Lord be upon you, keep watch and act, because there is no injustice with the Lord, our God, nor admiration for a face, nor receiving gifts.” 8 For in Jerusalem, Jehoshaphat appointed the priests and the Levites and the patriarchs of Israel for the Lord’s judgment and to judge the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem. 9 He commanded to them, saying, “Thus you shall do by the fear of the Lord in truth and in fullness of heart; 10 As for any man of our brothers who are dwelling, a dispute that comes to you between blood, and an ordinance and a command, and duties and judgments; you shall give orders to them, and they shall not sin against the Lord, and there shall be no wrath against you and against your brothers. So, you will do, and you will not sin. 11 Look, Amariah the priest, a leader over you in every affair of the Lord, and Zebadiah, the leader in the house of Judah for every affair of the king, and the scribes and the Levites before your face. Be strong and act, and the Lord shall be with the good.”
20After these things the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon and with them some of the Meunitesa came to Jehoshaphat for war. 2 They came and reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great number has come upon you from beyond the sea and Syria. Look, they are in Hazazontamar (which is En-gedi).” 3 Jehoshaphat was afraid, and he gave his face to seek out the Lord and proclaim a fast. 4 Judah gathered to seek out the Lord, and they came to seek the Lord from all the cities of Judah. 5 Jehoshaphat arose in the assembly of Judah in Jerusalem in the house of the Lord, at the face of the new court. 6 And he said, “O Lord, God of our ancestors, are you not God in the heavens above? And you rule over all the dominions of the nations, and in your hand is the strength of sovereignty, and there is none to resist you. 7 Aren’t you the Lord who utterly destroyed the ones who dwelt in this land from the face of Israel, and you gave it to the seed of Abraham, your beloved, for eternity? 8 They settled in it and built in it a sanctuary to your name, saying, 9 ‘If evil comes upon us—sword, dispute, death, or hunger—we shall stand before the house and before you, because your name is upon this house, and we will shout out to you from oppression, and you will hear and deliver.’ 10 Now look, sons of Ammon and Mount Seir, for those whom you did not give to Israel to go through them when they came out from the land of Egypt, because they turned away from them and did not completely destroy them! 11 Now look, they are attempting to come out against us to throw us out from our inheritance, which you gave us. 12 O Lord, our God, will you not judge them? Because there is no strength to us to resist against this great number coming against us, and we do not know what we should do against them other than lift our eyes to you.” 13 All Judah stood before the Lord, and their children and wives. 14 With respect to Uzziel the son of Zechariah, from the sons of Eliel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite from the sons of Asaph, a spirit of the Lord came upon him in the assembly. 15 He said, “Hear, all Judah and the ones who dwell in Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat. Thus, says the Lord to you: ‘Do not fear them nor be scared from the face of this large crowd, because the line for battle is not for you but rather it is for God. 16 Tomorrow go down upon them. Look, they are going up according to the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them upon the pinnacle of the river in the desert of Jeruel. 17 It is not for you to make war. Take note of these things and observe the deliverance of the Lord with you. Look, even Jerusalem, be neither scared nor afraid of this, to go out to meet them, and the Lord will be with you.’” 18 Jehoshaphat bowed on his face, and all Judah and the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem fell before the Lord to bow before the Lord. 19 The Levites from the sons of Kohath and from the sons of Korah arose to praise the Lord, God of Israel, in a loud, grand voice. 20 They arose early in the morning and went into the desert of Tekoa, and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stopped and shouted, “Hear me, Judah and the ones who dwell in Jerusalem! Trust in the Lord, your God, and you will be trusted. Trust in his prophet, and you will be successful.” 21 He planned with the people and placed psalmists and those who praise to acknowledge and to praise the sacred things when they went out before the army and said, “Acknowledge the Lord, because his mercy is for eternity.” 22 When they began the acknowledging praise of him, the Lord made the sons of Ammon make war upon Moab and Mount Seir, who were coming out against Judah, and they were put to flight. 23 The sons of Ammon and Moab revolted from the ones who dwelt in Mount Seir to completely destroy and to eliminate. And when they finished the settlers in Seir, they arose to completely destroy one another. 24 Judah went to the lookout-place in the desert and gazed at it and saw the great number. Look, all were fallen corpses on the earth; there was none who was alive. 25 Jehoshaphat and his people came to plunder their spoils, and they found many livestock and baggage and goods and precious implements, and he plundered among them, and three days passed while they plundered the spoils, because there was so much. 26 And it came to pass on the fourth day, they gathered together at the strait of the praise, for there they praised the Lord. On account of this they called the name of that place the Valley of Praise until this day. 27 Every man of Judah returned to Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat was their leader in great joy, because the Lord gladdened them from their enemies. 28 They went into Jerusalem with nablais and with kinyrais and with trumpets into the house of the Lord. 29 The terror of the Lord came upon all the dominions of the land when they heard that the Lord had made war against the enemies of Israel. 30 The dominion of Jehoshaphat made peace, and God put an end to things for him all around. 31 Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah, being thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. 32 He went in the ways of his father, Asa, and he did not turn aside from doing what was upright before the Lord. 33 But the high places still existed, and the people still did not direct their heart to the Lord, the God of his ancestors. 34 The remaining words about Jehoshaphat, the first and the last, Look, they are written in the annals of Jehu the son of Hanani, who wrote the books of the kings of Israel. 35 After these things Jehoshaphat entered into an alliance with Ahaziah, king of Israel—and he was lawless 36 when he acted—and went to him in order to make ships to go to Tarshish. And he made ships in Ezion-geber. 37 Eliezer the son of Dodavahu prophesied from Mareshah against Jehoshaphat, saying, “As you are friends with Ahaziah, the Lord has shattered your work, and your vessels have been demolished, and they were not able to go to Tarshish.
21Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, and his son, Joram, reigned in his place. 2 There were to him six brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat, and Jehiel and Zechariah and Michael and Shephatiah. All these were sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. 3 Their father gave to them many presents: silver and gold and weapons along with walled cities in Judah. He gave the dominion to Joram, because he was the firstborn. 4 Joram arose over his dominion, and he was strengthened, and he murdered all his brothers with the sword and some from the rulers of Israel. 5 When he was thirty-two years old, Joram was appointed over his dominion, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 6 He went in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab did, because the daughter of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil before the Lord. 7 The Lord did not want to completely destroy the house of David on account of the covenant that he had arranged with David and as he said to him, to give a lamp to him and his sons all the days. 8 In those days Edom withdrew from Judah and crowned a king over themselves. 9 Joram went with the rulers, and every horse was with him. And it happened and Edom rose up at night and struck the one encircling him and the rulers of the chariots, and the people fled into their quarters. 10 Edom withdrew from Judah until this day. Then Libnah withdrew from his hand in that time, because he ignored the Lord, God of his ancestors. 11 For also he made high places in the cities of Judah, and they committed fornication, the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem, and he led Judah astray. 12 And there came to him a message in writing from Elijah the prophet, saying, “This is what the Lord, God of your father, David, says: ‘Because you have not gone in the way of your father, Jehoshaphat, and in the ways of Asa, king of Judah, 13 but you have gone in the ways of the kings of Israel and have prostituted Judah and the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem, as the house of Ahab committed fornication; and your brothers, the sons of your father, who were better than you, you murdered. 14 Look, the Lord will strike you with a great blow among your people and among your sons and among your wives and among all your possessions. 15 You will be in grievous weakness with sickness of the belly until when your belly comes out with the weakness from days to days.’” 16 The Lord assembled against Joram the foreigners and the Arabs and the neighbors of the Ethiopians. 17 They went up against Judah, and they oppressed and returned every possession that they found in the house of the king, and his sons and his daughters, and no son was not left for him other than Ahaziah, the youngest of his sons. 18 After all these things the Lord struck him in the belly with an ailment for which there was no treatment. 19 And it happened from days to days; and as a time of the days came for two days, his belly came out with the sickness, and he died in grievous weakness. His people did not make a funeral procession like a funeral procession for his ancestors. 20 He was thirty-two years old when he reigned, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He did not walk in approval and was buried in the city of David, and not in the tombs of the kings.
22The ones who dwelled in Jerusalem crowned his youngest son, Ahaziah, in his place because the band of robbers that came upon them, the Arabs and the Alimazonis, had murdered all of the elder sons. And Ahaziah son of Joram reigned as king of Judah. 2 Being twenty years old, Ahaziah reigned, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. The name of his mother was Athaliah daughter of Omri. 3 He went in the way of the house of Ahab because his mother was an adviser for sinning. 4 He did evil before the Lord, as the house of Ahab, because they were advisors to him after the death of his father, to completely destroy him. 5 He went with their plan. And he went with Joram son of Ahab to war against Hazael, king of Aram, to Ramah Gilead. And the bowmen struck Joram. 6 So Joram returned to be treated in Israel from the blows with which the Syrians struck him at Ramah when he made war against Hazael, king of Syria. Ahaziah son of Joram, king of Judah, came down to gaze at Joram son of Ahab in Israel because he was ill. 7 A catastrophe came from God to Ahaziah for coming to Joram. For when he came out, Joram went out with him against the son of Nimshi, the anointed of the Lord against the house of Ahab. 8 And it happened, as Jehu avenged the house of Ahab, and he also found the rulers of Judah and the brothers of Ahaziah ministering to Ahaziah, and he murdered them. 9 He said to seek for Ahaziah, and they seized him as he was being treated in Samaria and brought him to Jehu, and he murdered him. They buried him, because they said, “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with his whole heart.” There was no one in the house of Ahaziah to increase the power concerning the dominion. Athaliah Seizes Power 10 And Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son died, and she arose and completely destroyed all the seed of the dominion in the house of Judah. 11 But Jehoshabeath took Jehoash son of Ahaziah and stole him from the midst of the sons of the king, who were being killed, and gave him and his nurse to the storehouse beds. Jehoshabeath daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah and wife of Jehoiada, hid him. She hid him from the face of Athaliah, and she did not murder him. 12 He was with her in the house of God, hidden, for six years, and Athaliah reigned over the land.
23In the eighth year Jehoiada grew strong and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah son of Jeroham, and Ishmael son of Jehohanan, and Azariah son of Obed, and Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zechariah, with him into a house. 2 They surrounded Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah and the rulers of the families of Israel, and they went into Jerusalem. 3 All the assembly of Judah arranged a covenant with the king in the house of God, and he showed to them the son of the king and said to them, “Look, let the son of the king reign, just as the Lord spoke about the house of David. 4 Now, this is the matter that you shall do. Let a third of you, of the priests and the Levites, go on the Sabbath and into the gates of the entrance. 5 Let a third be in the house of the king, and a third in the gates in the middle, and all the people will be in the court of the house of the Lord. 6 Let no one enter into the house of the Lord except the priests and the Levites and the ones ministering of the Levites. They may enter because they are sacred; and let all the people guard the watches for the Lord. 7 The Levites will surround the king in a circle, a man’s weapon, a weapon in his hand, and the one who goes into the house will die. They will be with the king while he enters and leaves.” 8 The Levites and all Judah did according to everything, as much as Jehoiada the priest had commanded, and each one took his men from the beginning of the Sabbath until the close of the Sabbath, because Jehoiada did not dissolve the priestly divisions. 9 He gave them the large knives and the shields and the weapons that were King David’s in the house of God. 10 He established all the people, each with his weapons, from the shoulder of the house on the right side up to the shoulder on the left of the altar, and of the house, around the king in a circle. 11 He brought out the son of the king and put upon him the kingly crown, and the testimonies. Jehoiada and his sons crowned and anointed him and said, “May the king live!” 12 Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and acknowledging and praising the king, and they came to the king in the house of the Lord. 13 And she looked and look, the king was at his position, and around the entrance were the rulers and the trumpets, rulers surrounding the king, and all the people were happy. And they sounded the trumpets, and the singers singing with the instruments and hymning a tale. Athaliah ripped her clothing and cried out, “By attacking, you are attacking me.” 14 Jehoiada the priest went out, and Jehoiada the priest commanded the leaders of hundreds and the chiefs of the force and said to them, “Throw her outside of the house, and go after her, and let her die by a large knife,” because the priest said, “Let her not die in the house of the Lord.” 15 They gave her a break, and she entered through the gates of the cavalry of the house of the king, and they put her to death there. 16 Jehoiada arranged a covenant between himself and the people and the king in order to be a people to the Lord. 17 All the people entered the land into the house of Baal and pulled it down, and the altars, and they smashed its idols. They put to death Mattan, the priest of Baal, before his altar. 18 Jehoiada the priest undertook the works of the house of the Lord through the hand of the priests and the Levites and established the divisions of the priests and the Levites, which David had defined at the house of the Lord, and to bring burnt offerings to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of Moses, with joy and with songs by the hand of David. 19 The porters stood at the gates of the house of the Lord, and nothing impure would enter for any matter. 20 He took the patriarchs and the mighty and the rulers of the people and all the people of the land, and they caused the king to ride into the house of the Lord, and he entered through the inner gate into the house of the king, and they set the king on the throne of the dominion. 21 All the people of the land were happy, and the city was quiet. And they put Athaliah to death.
24Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Zibiah from Beer-sheba. 2 Joash did what was upright before the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest. 3 And Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he begat sons and daughters. 4 And it happened, after these things, that it came upon the heart of Joash to equip the house of the Lord. 5 So he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out into the cities of Judah, and gather moneya from all Israel to increase the house of the Lord, year by year, and hasten to tell everyone.” But the Levites did not trust him. 6 King Joash called Jehoiada, the ruler, and said to him, “Why have you not observed about the Levites, to bring from Judah and Jerusalem what was decided by Moses, the person of God, when he assembled Israel in the tent of witness?” 7 Because Athaliah was the lawless one, and her sons pulled down the house of God; for they made even the sacred things of the house of the Lord for Baals. 8 The king said, “Let there be a box, and let it be placed at the gates of the house of the Lord outside.” 9 They proclaimed in Judah and in Jerusalem to bring to the Lord, just as Moses, the servant of God, had said about Israel in the desert. 10 All the rulers and all the people gave and carried and threw into the box until it was full. 11 And it happened, as they would carry the box to the officials of the king by the hand of the Levites and as they saw that the money increased, the scribe of the king and the official of the great priest also came and emptied the box and put it back in its place. Thus, they continued to do day after day, and they collected a lot of money. 12 The king and Jehoiada the priest gave it to the ones who were doing the labor for the work of the house of the Lord. They hired stonecutters and carpenters to equip the house of the Lord, and workers in iron and bronze to equip the house of the Lord. 13 The ones who were doing the labor kept working, and the amount of the labors increased by their hands, and they erected the house of the Lord in its position and reinforced it. 14 When they had finished, they brought to the king and to Jehoiada the remainder of the money, and they made utensils for the house of the Lord, ministering utensils for whole burnt offerings and gold and silver censers. They offered up sacrifices of burnt offerings in the house of the Lord continuously, all the days of Jehoiada. 15 Jehoiada grew old and full of days and died, being one hundred and thirty years old when he died. 16 They buried him in the city of David with the kings because he had acted kindly with Israel and with God and his house. 17 And it happened after the death of Jehoiada that the rulers of Judah came in and worshiped the king. Then the king listened to them. 18 They deserted the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and became slaves to the Ashtoreth and to the images. Wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem on this day. 19 He sent prophets to them to return to the Lord, but they did not listen. They warned them, and they did not listen. 20 A divine spirit covered Azariah the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and he stood above the people and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Why do you bypass the commandments of the Lord? You will not be successful because you have left behind the Lord, and he will abandon you.’” 21 They attacked him and stoned him by the command of King Joash in the court of the house of the Lord. 22 Joash did not remember the compassion that Jehoiada, his father, did with him, and he killed his son. When he died, he said, “May the Lord observe, and let him judge.” 23 And it happened after the end of the year, the force of Syria went up against him and came against Judah and against Jerusalem, and they destroyed all the rulers of the people among the people and sent all their spoils to the king of Damascus. 24 Because the army of Syria came with a small number of men, God delivered a very great force into their hands, because they had deserted the Lord, God of their ancestors. He made judgments with Joash. 25 And after they had departed from him, when they left him in great weaknesses, his servants made an attempt against him on account of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they put him to death on his bed. And he died. They buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tomb for the kings. 26 The ones making an attempt against him were Zabad the son of Shimeath, the Ammonite, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith, the Moabite 27 All his sons, even the five, approached him. And the remainder, Look, they are written in the writing of the kings. And his son, Amaziah, reigned in his place.
25Amaziah reigned when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Jehoaddan from Jerusalem. 2 He did what was upright before the Lord, but not with a full heart. 3 And it happened, as the dominion was appointed in his hand, and he killed his subjects who murdered his father, the king. 4 He did not kill their sons according to the covenant of the law of the Lord, just as it is written, as the Lord commanded, saying, “Fathers shall not die instead of children, and sons shall not die instead of fathers, but each one shall die for his own sin.”a 5 Amaziah gathered the house of Judah and established them according to the houses of their families, into the commanders of a thousand and captains of hundreds in all Judah and Jerusalem. He counted them from twenty years and above and found them to be three hundred thousand mighty ones to go out for war, seizing spear and shield. 6 He hired from Israel one hundred thousand mighty ones in strength for one hundred talents of silver. 7 A man of God came to him, saying, “O King, the army of Israel will not go forth with you, because the Lord is not with Israel, all the sons of Ephraim. 8 For if you suppose to overcome with these, then the Lord will put you to flight before the enemies, because both victory and defeat are from the Lord.” 9 And Amaziah said to the man of God, “Now what shall I do about the hundred talents that I gave the force of Israel?” And the man of God said, “The Lord can give you much more than that.” 10 Amaziah separated the force that came to him from Ephraim to depart into their place. And they became very angry against Judah and returned to their place in a wrathful anger. 11 Amaziah grew stronger and took his people and went into the valley of salt, and there struck ten thousand sons of Seir. 12 The sons of Judah took ten thousand captive and brought them to the edge of the overhanging bank and threw them down from the edge of the overhanging bank, and everyone was torn apart. 13 And the sons of the force whom Amaziah had turned back so as to not be found with him in war, also attacked the cities of Judah, from Samaria until Beth-horon, and he struck three thousand among them and plundered much plunder. 14 And it happened, after Amaziah came from striking Edom, he also brought to them the gods of the sons of Seir and made them gods for himself and set them up before them to bow down before them, and he himself would sacrifice to them. 15 The wrath of the Lord came upon Amaziah, and he sent to him prophets, and they said to him, “Why did you seek the gods of the people who did not rescue their people from your hand?” 16 And it happened, when heb spoke and said to him, “I did not make you a counselor of the king. Be warned so that you are not whipped,” the prophet became quiet and said, “I know that hec wanted against you to destroy you, because you did this and did not listen to my counsel.” 17 Amaziah deliberated. 18 Then Joash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, “The chozeid in Lebanon sent to the cedar that is in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife. And look, the beasts of the field that are in Lebanon will come.’ And the beasts came and trampled down the thistle. 19 You said, ‘Look, you struck Edom, and the heavy heart lifts you. Now, sit in your house, and why do you converse with evil, and you yourself will fall, and Judah with you?’” 20 Amaziah did not listen, because it came from the Lord, to give him over into their hands because he sought the gods of Edom. 21 Joash, king of Israel, went up, and they were seen by one another, he and Amaziah, king of Judah, in Beth-shemesh, which is of Judah. 22 Judah was put to flight at the face of Israel, and each one fled into their tents. 23 Joash, king of Israel, took captive Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, in Beth-shemesh and brought them to Jerusalem. He knocked down some of the wall of Jerusalem, from the gate of Ephraim to the gate at the corner, four hundred cubits. 24 He plundered all the gold and the silver and all the utensils that were found in the house of the Lord and from Obed-edom and the treasuries of the house of the king and the sons of the mixed family and returned to Samaria. 25 Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Joash the son of Joash, king of Israel. 26 The remainder of the annals of Amaziah, the first and the last, look, are they not written in the book of Judah and Israel? 27 At the time when Amaziah withdrew from the Lord, they also made an attempt against him, for an attack against him, and he fled from Jerusalem to Lachish. He sent after him to Lachish and killed him there. 28 They put him on horses and buried him with his fathers in the city of David.
26All the people of the land took Uzziah, and he was sixteen years old, and they crowned him in the place of his father, Amaziah. 2 He built Elath and returned it to Judah after the king slept with his ancestors. 3 Uzziah was a son of sixteen years, and he reigned fiftytwo years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Jecoliah from Jerusalem. 4 He did what was upright before the Lord according to everything that Amaziah, his father, did. 5 He was seeking the Lord in all the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the fear of the Lord, and in his days he sought the Lord, and the Lord prospered him. 6 He went out and made war against the foreigners and knocked down the walls of Gath and the walls of Jabneh and the walls of Ashdod, and he built cities in Ashdod and among the foreigners. 7 The Lord strengthened him against the foreigners and against the Arabs who dwelled on the rock and on the Meunites. 8 The Meunitesa gave gifts to Uzziah, and his name was as far as the entrance of Egypt, because he was strengthened to the uppermost. 9 Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem and on the gate at the corner and on the corner gate at the ravine and at the corners, and he grew stronger. 10 He built towers in the desert and dug out many ponds, because many livestock belonged to him in the Shephelah and in the plain, and vine-dressers in the mountains and in the Carmel, because he was a farmer. 11 There were to Uzziah armies to make war and going out for battle in number, and their number was through the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the judge by the hand of Hananiah, the deputy of the king. 12 The whole number of the patriarchs of the mighty ones for war was two thousand six hundred. 13 An army, three hundred and seven thousand and five hundred for war, was with them. These were the ones making war with the power of strength to help the king against their enemies. 14 Uzziah prepared for them, the whole army, shields and spears and helmets and breastplates and bows and slings for stones. 15 He made instruments in Jerusalem contrived by a mathematician to be upon the towers and upon the corners, to cast missiles and huge stones. Their preparation was heard up to far away, so that he was wondefully helped until when he grew strong. 16 As he grew stronger, his heart was exalted with the result to be corrupt, and he did evil by the Lord, his God, and entered into the temple of the Lord to burn upon the altar of incense. 17 Azariah the priest entered after him, and with him were the priests of the Lord, eighty-four mighty sons. 18 They stood against King Uzziah and said to him, “Uzziah, it is not for you to sacrifice to the Lord, but rather for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are dedicated to sacrifice. Leave from the sanctuary because you have departed from the Lord, and this will not result in glory to you from the Lord God.” 19 Uzziah was angered, and in his hand was the censer to burn in the temple. When he became angry with the priests, leprosy also grew on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord and above the altar of incense. 20 The first priest and the priests turned to him, and look, he was leprous on the forehead. They urged him from that place, for even he himself hastened to go out because the Lord had disgraced him. 21 So King Uzziah was leprous until the day of his death, and he sat leprous in the house, aphphousion,a because he was cut off from the house of the Lord. And his son, Jotham, was over his dominion, judging the people of the land. 22 The remainder of the annals of Uzziah, the first and the last, are written by Isaiah the prophet. 23 Uzziah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him with his ancestors in the plain of the burial of the kings, because they said, “He is leprous.” And his son, Jotham, reigned in his place.
27Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Jerusha, daughter of Zadok. 2 He did what was upright before the Lord according to everything that Uzziah, his father, did; but he did not enter into the temple of the Lord. And still the people kept being corrupt. 3 He built the high gate of the house of the Lord and built much on his wall, that is, Ophel. 4 He built cities in the region of Judah and both buildings and towers in the woods. 5 He fought against the king of the sons of Ammon and prevailed against him. And each year they would give to him one hundred talents of silver and ten thousand koron of wheat and ten thousand of barley. Each year the king of Ammon would bring these to him in the first year and the second and the third. 6 Jotham became strong, because he prepared his ways before the Lord, his God. 7 The remainder of the annals of Jotham and the war and his activities, look, they are written in the document of the kings of Judah and Israel. 9 And Jotham slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David, and his son, Ahaz, reigned in his place.
28Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was upright before the Lord, like his father David. 2 He went according to the ways of the kings of Israel, for indeed, he made carved images for their idols. 3 He would sacrifice in Gaibenthom, and he passed his children through fire and the abominations of the nations whom the Lord utterly destroyed from the face of the sons of Israel. 4 He burned incense on the high places and on the houses and underneath every grove of trees. 5 The Lord, his God, delivered him through the hand of the king of Syria, and he struck at him and took prisoner from them many prisoners. For he delivered him into the hands of the king of Israel and struck a great blow for himself. 6 Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, sent away one hundred and twenty thousand mighty men in strength in one day when they abandoned the Lord, God of their ancestors. 7 Zichri, the mighty one to Ephraim, killed Maaseiah, the son of the king, and Azrikam, a leader of his house, and Elkanah, the deputy of the king. 8 The sons of Israel took prisoner three hundred thousand from their brothers, wives, sons, and daughters, and they took away many spoils from them and brought the spoils to Samaria. 9 The prophet of the Lord was there—Oded was his name —and he went out to meet the army of the ones coming into Samaria and said to them, “Look, the anger of the Lord, God of your ancestors, is against Judah, and he delivered them into your hands, and you killed among them in anger. It extended up to the heavens. 10 Now you talk of acquiring sons of Judah and Jerusalem for slaves and female slaves. Look, am I not among you to bear witness to the Lord, our God, with you? 11 Now listen to me, and return the prisoners whom you took prisoner of your brothers, because the anger of the Lord is against you.” 12 Rulers from the sons of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Jehohanan, and Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Hezekiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, arose against the ones who were coming from the war. 13 They said to them, “You should not bring the prisoners here to us, because you speak against us for sinning with respect to the Lord to add to our sins and to the ignorance, because great is our sin and the anger of the Lord God against Israel.” 14 Then the warriors handed over the prisoners and the spoils before the rulers and the whole assembly. 15 The men arose when they were called upon by name and helped the prisoners and covered all the naked from the spoils and clothed them and put shoes on them and gave provisions to them, both to eat and to be anointed, and helped them also with asses for every sick person and set them before their brothers in Jericho, the city of palms, and they returned to Samaria. 16 In that time, Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria to help him, 17 and in this time, because the Edomites had attacked and struck in Judah, and they took prisoner prisoners. 18 The foreigners attacked against the cities of the plains and from the southwest of Judah, and they took Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, and Gederoth, and Socoh and its villages, and Gimzo and its villages, and they settled there. 19 For the Lord humbled Judah on account of Ahaz, king of Judah, because he had revolted with a rebellion from the Lord. 20 Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came against him, and they afflicted him. 21 Ahaz took the things in the house of the Lord and the things in the house of the king and the rulers and gave it to the king of Assyria, but it was not helpful for them. 22 But rather, when he was afflicted, he added even to rebel from the Lord, and the king said, 23 “I will seek out the gods of Damascus who beat me.” Then he said, “The gods of the king of Syria themselves will strengthen them; therefore, I will sacrifice to them, and they will help me.” But they became a hindrance to him and to all Israel. 24 Ahaz removed the implements of the house of the Lord and cut them in pieces and barred the doors of the house of the Lord, and he made for himself altars on every corner. 25 In every city and city in Judah he made high places to burn incense to the foreign gods, and he angered the Lord, God of their ancestors. 26 The remainder of his annals and his activities, the first and the last, look, they are written in the document of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27 And Ahaz slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David, because they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. And his son, Hezekiah, reigned in his place.
29Hezekiah reigned at twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And the name for his mother was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 2 He did what was upright before the Lord according to everything that his father David had done. 3 And it happened, as he was appointed over his dominion, in the first month, that he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and fixed them. 4 He brought in the priests and the Levites and set them on the slope toward the east. 5 He said to them, “Hear, O Levites, now be cleansed and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and cast out impurity from the holy places, 6 because our ancestors revolted and did evil before the Lord and abandoned him and turned their face back from the tent of the Lord and gave their neck 7 and closed off the doors of the temple and put out the lamps and did not burn incense and did not bring burnt offerings into the holy place to the God of Israel. 8 The Lord was angered with wrath against Judah and Jerusalem, and he gave them into terror and into hissing, as you see with your eyes. 9 Look, your ancestors were attacked with a large knife, and your sons and your daughters and your wives are in captivity in a land not theirs, which is the way it is even now. 10 As a result of these things, now it is upon our hearts to arrange my covenant, a covenant of the Lord, God of Israel, and he will divert the anger of his wrath away from us. 11 Now, do not waste time, for in you he has chosen to stand before him to minister and to be ministers and incense burners for him.” 12 The Levites arose: Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, from the sons of Kohath. And from the sons of Merari: Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel. And from the sons of Gershon: from the son of Zimmah and Eden, these sons of Joah. 13 And of the sons of Elizaphan: Shimri and Jeiel. And of the sons of Asaph: Zechariah and Mattaniah. 14 And of the sons, those of Heman: Jehiel and Shimei. And of the sons of Jeduthun: Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15 They gathered together their brothers and were cleansed according to the commands of the king through the ordinance of the Lord. 16 The priests went up to the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they threw out every impurity that they found in the house of the Lord and in the court of the house of the Lord, and the Levites received it to throw it out into the Kidron Valley outside. 17 They began to cleanse on the third day, on the new moon of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered into the temple of the Lord. And they cleansed the house of the Lord in eight days, and on the thirteenth day of the first month, they finished. 18 They entered inside to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed everything that is in the house of the Lord: the altar for sacrifice and its implements, and the table for public presentation and its implements, 19 and all the implements that King Ahaz defiled during his dominion in his defection, we have prepared and cleansed. Look, it is before the altar of the Lord.” 20 King Hezekiah woke early and gathered the rulers of the city and went up into the house of the Lord. 21 He brought seven calves, seven rams, seven lambs, seven male-goats of goats for sin, for the dominion and for the sacred things and for Israel. And he told the sons of Aaron, the priests, to go up to the altar of the Lord. 22 They sacrificed the calves, and the priests took the blood and poured it on the altar. And they sacrificed the rams and poured the blood on the altar. 23 They brought the male goats, which were for sin, before the king and the assembly and put their hands on them. 24 The priests sacrificed them, and they atoned by their blood to the altar, and they atoned for all Israel, because the king said the sacrifices and the things done concerning sin were for all Israel. 25 He placed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals and with nablais and with kinyrais according to the command of King David and Gad the prophet and Nathan the prophet, because the ordinance was through the command of the Lord by the hand of the prophets. 26 The Levites stood with instruments of David and the priests with the trumpets. 27 Hezekiah said to carry the sacrifice to the altar, and when they began to bring the sacrifices, they began to sing to the Lord, and trumpets were near the instruments of King David. 28 And the whole assembly began to bow, and the psalmists were singing, and trumpets were trumpeting until when the sacrifice was completed. 29 As they finished offering, the king bent down, and all the ones who were found there also began to worship. 30 King Hezekiah and the rulers said that the Levites should sing to the Lord in the words of David and Asaph the prophet. Then they began to sing with joy and fell and worshiped. 31 Hezekiah answered and said, “Now you have filled your hands for the Lord. Bring and carry sacrifices and praise in the house of the Lord.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and praise into the house of the Lord, and everyone who was eager in heart brought sacrifices. 32 And it happened, the number of the burnt offering that the assembly brought was seventy calves, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for burnt offerings to the Lord. 33 And those dedicated were six hundred calves and three thousand five hundred sheep. 34 Other than this, the priests were few and could not flay the burnt offering, and their brothers the Levites, helped them until the work was completed and until the priests were cleansed, because the Levites cleansed themselves more readily than the priests. 35 The burnt offering was plentiful with the fat of the completion for the deliverance and the drink offering of the burnt offering. The work in the house of the Lord was accomplished successfully. 36 And Hezekiah and all the people were delighted because God had prepared for the people, because the affair had happened suddenly.
30Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote messages to Ephraim and Manasseh to come to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem to do the Passover to the Lord, God of Israel. 2 The king and the rulers and the whole assembly that was in Jerusalem deliberated to make the Passover for the second month, 3 for they were not able to do it in that time because the priests were not cleansed sufficiently, and the people had not gathered in Jerusalem. 4 The word was good before the king and before the assembly. 5 They established a decree for a proclamation to go through all Israel from Beer-sheba until Dan to come to make the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Jerusalem, because the multitude did not do according to the writing. 6 The ones running with the messages from the king and the rulers went in all Israel and Judah according to the ordinance of the king, saying, “Sons of Israel, return to the God of Abraham and Isaac and Israel, and you shall return the ones who were rescued, who had been left alone from the hand of king of Assyria. 7 Do not be as your ancestors and your brothers who departed from the Lord, the God of their ancestors; and he delivered them into desolation, just as you can see. 8 Now, do not harden your heart. Give glory to the Lord God, and enter into his sanctuary, which he dedicated for eternity, and be a slave to the Lord, your God, and he will turn the anger of his wrath back from you; 9 because when you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will be pitied in the place of all who captured them, and he will return them into this land, because the Lord, our God, is compassionate and merciful and will not turn his face from you if we turn back to him.” 10 The ones running were passing through city by city in the region of Ephraim and Manasseh and up to Zebulun; and they were as ones laughing at them and mocking. 11 But the people of Asher and from Manasseh and from Zebulun were turned back, and they came to Jerusalem and into Judah. 12 The hand of the Lord was to give them one heart to come to act according to the command of the king and the rulers on the word of the Lord. 13 Many people gathered in Jerusalem to make the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the second month, a very great assembly. 14 They arose and took down the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all in which they burned incense to the false idols they pulled down and threw into the valley of Kidron. 15 They sacrificed the Passover on the fourteenth of the second month. The priests and the Levites felt ashamed and cleansed away, and they brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord. 16 They stood at their posts according to their judgment, according to the commandment of Moses, the person of God, and the priests began to receive the blood from the hand of the Levites. 17 For a great number of the assembly had not been cleansed, and the Levites were to sacrifice the Passover for everyone who was not able to be cleansed for the Lord. 18 Because the majority of the people from Ephraim and Manasseh and Issachar and Zebulun had not been cleansed, but kept eating the Passover contrary to this writing. And Hezekiah prayed about them, saying, “May the good Lord make atonement 19 on behalf of every heart that has been directed to seek out the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and not according to the purity of the sacred things.” 20 The Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people. 21 The sons of Israel who were found in Jerusalem made the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy and were singing to the Lord day by day, and the priests and the Levites with instruments to the Lord. 22 Hezekiah spoke to every heart of the Levites and the ones who understood good knowledge for the Lord, and they finished the Feast of Unleavened Bread, sacrificing sacrifices of deliverance for seven days and acknowledging the Lord, God of their ancestors. 23 The assembly deliberated together to celebrate for another seven days, and they did for seven days with joy, 24 for Hezekiah dedicated to the assembly of Judah one thousand calves and seven thousand sheep, and the rulers offered for the people one thousand calves and ten thousand sheep, and the sacred things of the priests were plentiful. 25 The whole assembly was delighted: the priests and the Levites and the whole assembly of Judah and the ones who were found from Israel and the proselytes who went in from the land of Israel and the ones who dwelled away from Judah. 26 There was great joy in Jerusalem. From the days of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, there had not been a feast such as this in Jerusalem. 27 The priests and the Levites arose and praised the people. And their sound was heard, and their prayer went into his sacred dwelling-place in the heavens.
31When all these things were completed, all Israel who were found in the cities of Judah went out and shattered the steles and cut down the groves and pulled down the high places and the altars from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim and Manasseh, until in the end. All Israel returned, each to his inheritance and into their cities. 2 Hezekiah arranged the divisions of the priests and the Levites and the divisions of each according to their own ministry for the priests and the Levites in burnt offerings and for the sacrifice for deliverance and to praise and acknowledge and to minister in the city gates in the courts of the house of the Lord. 3 The share of the king from his belongings was for the sacrifices of burnt offerings early in the day and the evening and sacrifices of burnt offerings for the Sabbath and for the new moons and for the feasts that are written in the law of the Lord. 4 They told the people who were living in Jerusalem to give the share of the priests and the Levites so that they might be strengthened in the ministry of the house of the Lord. 5 When he assigned the task, Israel increased the firstfruits of grain and wine and olive oil and honey and every product of the field, and they brought a tithe, everything in abundance. The sons of Israel and Judah 6 and those who dwelled in the cities of Judah also brought a tithe of calves and sheep and a tithe of goats, and they dedicated to their Lord God, and they brought and put them in piles. 7 In the third month the foundation piles began to form firmly, and in the seventh month they were finished. 8 Hezekiah and the rulers went and saw the heaps, and they praised the Lord and his people, Israel. 9 Hezekiah heard from the priests and the Levites about the heaps. 10 Then Azariah, the ruling priest in the house of Zadok, spoke and said, “From when the firstfruits began to be brought into the house of the Lord, we have eaten, and we have drunk, and we have leftovers, because the Lord has blessed his people, and we still have left this bounty.” 11 Hezekiah said to prepare a priest’s chamber for the house of the Lord, and they prepared it. 12 And they brought there the firstfruits and the tithes faithfully,a and Conaniah the Levite was superintendent over them, and Shimei, his brother, was relief. 13 Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jehozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah and his sons were appointed by Conaniah and Shimei, his brother, just as King Hezekiah and Azariah, the leader of the house of the Lord, commanded. 14 Kore the son of Imnah, the Levite, the gatekeeper to the east, was over the gifts to give the firstfruits to the Lord and the holy of the holies 15 through the hand of Eden and Benjamin and Jeshua and Shemaiah and Amariah and Shecaniah, through the hand of the priests, to give faithfully to their brothers according to the divisions, to the greatest and the least, 16 each of the offspring of the males from three years and above, including all who entered into the house of the Lord, for the matter of days, into day ministry by the priestly divisions of their arrangements. 17 This was the register of the priests according to the houses of the families, and the Levites were in their divisions from twenty years and above by arrangement, 18 to enter in a register every offspring of their sons and their daughters for the whole number, because they cleansed the sacred place faithfully 19 for the sons of Aaron, who were priests. Those from their cities, in every city and city, men who were named by name, were to give a share to every male among the priests and to everyone who was counted among the Levites. 20 Thus Hezekiah did in all Judah and did what was good and upright before the Lord, his God. 21 In every labor that he began of the labor in the house of the Lord and in the law and in the commands, he sought his God from his entire inner being, and he acted and prospered.
32After these things and this truth, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and went against Judah and encamped against the walled cities and said to occupy them. 2 Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and his face was to make war against Jerusalem. 3 He deliberated with his elders and the mighty to close off the waters of the running waters that were outside the city, and they assisted him. 4 He gathered many people and stopped the waters of the streams and the river that drew a boundary through the city, saying, “Lest the king of Assyria should go and find much water and be strengthened.” 5 Hezekiah became strong and built the whole wall that was utterly destroyed and towers and another outside fortification and strengthened the retaining wall of the city of David and prepared many weapons. 6 He placed rulers for the war over the people, and they gathered to him upon the town square of the gates at the ravine, and they spoke to their heart, saying, 7 “Be strong, and be a man. Do not be scared from the face of the king of Assyria and from the face of all the nations who are with him, because with us are greater than with him. 8 With him are arms of flesh, but with us is the Lord, our God, to deliver and to make our war.” The people were emboldened at the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah. 9 After these things, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem. He was at Lachish, and all the army was with him. And he sent to Hezekiah, king of Judah, and to all Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying, 10 “Thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Upon what have you trusted that you shall stay in the enclosure in Jerusalem? 11 Is not Hezekiah cheating you to deliver you into death and to hunger and to thirst, saying, “The Lord, our God, will save you from the hand of the king of Assyria”? 12 Was it this Hezekiah who took away his altars and his high places and said to Judah and to those who dwelt in Jerusalem, saying, “In front of this altar you will worship, and upon it you shall burn incense”? 13 Shall you not know that thing that I and my ancestors have done for all the peoples of the territories? Were the mighty gods of the nations of all the earth able to save their people from my hand? 14 Who is among all the gods of these nations whom my ancestors completely destroyed? Were they able to save their people from my hand, that your God is able to save you from my hand? 15 Now, do not let Hezekiah cheat you, and do not trust him. Do according to these things, and do not trust in him, because no god of any nation or dominion is able to save his people from my hand and from the hand of my ancestors, because your God is surely not able to save you from my hand.’” 16 His servants spoke still more against the Lord God and against Hezekiah, his servant. 17 He wrote a document to reproach the Lord, God of Israel, and he said about him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the earth did not deliver their peoples from my hand, thus the God of Hezekiah will surely not deliver his people from my hand.” 18 He shouted with a loud voice in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to aid them and to draw them down in order that they might occupy the city. 19 He spoke about the God of Jerusalem and also about the gods of the people of the earth, works of the hands of humans. 20 King Hezekiah and Isaiah son of Amoz, the prophet, prayed about these things. And he cried into the heavens. 21 The Lord sent a messenger, and he destroyed every mighty one and warrior and ruler and commander in the encampment of the king of Assyria, and he returned with disgrace of face to his land. He went into the house of his god, and some of the ones who came out from his belly brought him down by the sword. 22 The Lord rescued Hezekiah and the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and from the hand of all his enemies, and he put everything to rest for them all around. 23 Many brought gifts to the Lord in Jerusalem and presents for Hezekiah, king of Judah, and he was glorified in the eyes of all the nations after these things. 24 In those days Hezekiah was weak to the point of death. And he prayed to the Lord, and he listened to him and gave him a sign. 25 Hezekiah did not deliver according to the recompense that he gave him, but his heart was exalted. And wrath came upon him and against Judah and Jerusalem. 26 Hezekiah was humbled from the grandeur of his heart, and the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem, and the wrath of God did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. 27 Very great riches and glory came to Hezekiah. And he made treasuries for himself of silver and gold and prized stones, and for spices and armories, and for precious implements, 28 and he built cities for the product of grain and olive oil and wine, and mangers for all the livestock, and corrals for the flocks, 29 and cities, which he built for himself, and plentiful stuff for the sheep and oxen, because the Lord gave him a very great amount of stuff. 30 Hezekiah himself blocked the exit of the water of Zion that was above and directed them below toward the southwest of the city of David; and Hezekiah prospered in all his deeds, 31 and in this way the ambassadors of the rulers from Babylon, who were sent to him to inquire from him the wonder that came upon the land, and the Lord abandoned him in order to test him to understand the things in his heart. 32 The remainder of the words of Hezekiah and his mercy, look, they are written in the prophecy of Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, and in the document of the kings of Judah and Israel. 33 Hezekiah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him on the ascent to the tombs of the sons of David. And all Judah and the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem gave him glory and honor in his death. And his son, Manasseh, reigned in his place.
33Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 He did evil before the Lord, from all the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had utterly destroyed from the face of the sons of Israel. 3 He turned and built the high places that his father, Hezekiah, had knocked down and set up pillars to Baals and made groves and worshiped all the army of the heavens and was a slave to them. 4 He built altars in the house of the Lord, about which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem my name shall be for eternity.” 5 He built altars to all the army of the heavens in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 He brought his children through fire even in Ben-hinnom, and he was divining and practiced sorcery and divined from omens and did as ventriloquists and used charms. He increased doing evil before the Lord to provoke him. 7 He placed the carved image and the molten image that he had made in the house of God, which God had said to David and his son, Solomon, “In this house and Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for eternity. 8 I will not add to shake the foot of Israel from the land that I gave to their ancestors, as long as they ensure to do everything that I have commanded them, according to the whole law, the commands and the judgments, by the hand of Moses.” 9 Manasseh deceived Judah and the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem to do more evil than all the nations that the Lord had removed from the face of the sons of Israel. 10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but he did not listen. 11 The Lord brought against them the rulers of the forces of the king of Assyria, and they seized Manasseh in bindings and tied him with fetters and brought him to Babylon. 12 When he was afflicted, he sought the face of the Lord, his God, and was very humbled from the face of the God of his ancestors. 13 He prayed to him, and he listened to him. And he listened to his cry and returned him to Jerusalem, to his dominion. Manasseh knew that the Lord, he is God. 14 And after these things he built a wall outside the city of David from the southwest, corresponding to Gihon in the stream, and when people go out the surrounding gate and into Ophel, and he raised it very much. And he appointed rulers of the force in all the fortified cities in Judah. 15 He removed the foreign gods and the carved image from the house of the Lord and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem and from without the city. 16 He repaired the altar of the Lord and sacrificed upon it a sacrifice for deliverance and praise. And he told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. 17 However, the people were still upon the high places, but the Lord was their God. 18 The remainder of the affairs of Manasseh and his prayer to God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the God of Israel, 19 look, they are in the words of his prayer, and how he listened to him, and all his sins and his apostasies and the places upon which he built the high places and how he placed there groves and carved images before he changed, look, it is written in the annals of the seers. 20 And Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in an orchard of his house. And his son, Amon, reigned in his place. The Reign of Amon 21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. 22 He did what was evil before the Lord, just as his father, Manasseh, had done. And Amon kept sacrificing to all the images that his father, Manasseh, had made, and he was a slave to them. 23 He was not humbled before the Lord as his father, Manasseh, was humbled, because his son, Amon, increased offenses. 24 His servants conspired against him and struck him in his house. 25 The people of the land struck those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land crowned his son, Josiah, in his place.
34Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 He did what was upright before the Lord and went in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. 3 In the eighth year of his dominion, while he was still young, he began to seek the Lord, the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year of his dominion he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places and the groves and of the molten images. 4 He knocked down the altars of the Baals that were at his face and the high places that were on them. And he cut down the groves and the carved images and the molten images; he shattered and smashed them to tiny pieces and threw them on the face of the tombs of those who were sacrificing to them. 5 And he incinerated the bones of the priests on the altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. 6 In the cities of Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon and Naphtali, and the places around them, 7 he knocked down the groves and the altars and destroyed the idols into nothing and cut down all the high places from all the land of Israel. And he returned to Jerusalem. 8 In the eighteenth year of his dominion, in order to cleanse the land and the house, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah, ruler of the city, and Joah son of Jehoahaz, his historian, to strengthen the house of the Lord, his God. 9 They went to Hilkiah the great priest and gave the silver that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites who were guarding the gate had collected from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim and the rulers and from all who were left remaining in Israel and the sons of Judah and Benjamin and the residents in Jerusalem. 10 The ones appointed in the house of the Lord placed it in the hands of those doing the repairs. And they gave it to the ones doing the repairs who were working in the house of the Lord to get ready to strengthen the house. 11 And they gave it to the carpenters and to the contractors so as to buy stones with four surfaces and lumber for beams to cover the houses that the kings of Judah had completely destroyed. 12 There were men faithfully over the labors, and over them as overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites from the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam from the sons of Kohath, to inspect, and every Levite, everyone skilled in instruments for songs, 13 and over the beasts of burden and over all the ones who were making the labors, task and task. From the Levites were scribes and judges and porters. 14 When they carried out the silver that had been collected in the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a document of the law of the Lord by the hand of Moses. 15 Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found a document of the law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the document to Shaphan. 16 Shaphan brought the scroll to the king, and he gave yet another account to the king: “All the moneya that was given is in the hand of your servants, who are doing the work. 17 They smelted the silver found in the house of the Lord and put it on the hand of the overseers of the ones doing the work.” 18 Shaphan the scribe reported to the king, saying, “Here is a document that Hilkiah the priest gave to me.” And Shaphan read it before the king. 19 And it happened, when the king heard of the law, he ripped his cloak. 20 The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, the servant of the king, saying, 21 “Go, seek the Lord about me and about all the ones who remain in Israel and Judah about the words of the document that has been found; because the wrath of the Lord burning among us is great because our ancestors did not listen to the words of the Lord, to do according to everything that is written in this document.” 22 Hilkiah went, and those to whom the king spoke, to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tivkath, son of Hasrah, who kept the commands, and she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter, and they spoke to her according to these things. 23 She said to them, “Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Say to the man who sent you to me, 24 “Thus says the Lord: ‘Look, I am bringing evil against this place, all the words that were written in the document that was read before the king of Judah, 25 because they abandoned me and burned incense to the foreign gods so that they have provoked me to anger due to all the works of their hands. My wrath was enflamed in this place and will not be quenched.’” 26 And about the king of Judah who sent you to seek the Lord, thus you shall say to him: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The words which you heard, 27 and your heart was ashamed, and you were humbled from my face when you heard my words about this place and about the ones who dwell in it, and you were humbled before me and ripped your garments and lamented before me, and I heard,’ declares the Lord. 28 ‘Look, I will add you to your ancestors, and you will be added to your tombs in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evils that I am bringing on this place and on the ones who dwell in it.’” ’” They gave the announcement to the king. 29 Then the king sent and gathered the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 The king went up into the house of the Lord, and all Judah and those who dwelled in Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, and all the people, from the greatest to the least. In their ears he read all the words of the document of the treaty that was found in the house of the Lord. 31 The king stood by the pillar and arranged a covenant before the Lord, to go before the Lord in order to keep his commandments and testimonies and his commands with the whole heart and with the whole soul, the words of the covenant that are written in this scroll. 32 He made all the ones who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand, and the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem made a covenant with the house of the Lord, the God of their father. 33 Josiah removed all the abominations from the whole land, which belonged to the sons of Israel, and he made all the ones who were found in Jerusalem and in Israel to be a slave to the Lord, their God, all his days. He did not turn aside from following the Lord, the God of his ancestors.
35Josiah made the Passover to the Lord, his God, and they sacrificed the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month. 2 He placed the priests at their watch posts and strengthened them for the labors for the house of the Lord. 3 He told the Levites who were strong in all Israel that they should be dedicated to the Lord, and they put the sacred ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, the king of Israel, had built. The king said, “It is not for you to carry anything on your shoulders. Now, therefore, minister to the Lord, your God, and his people Israel. 4 Get ready according to your paternal houses and according to your divisions, according to the writing of David, king of Israel, and through the hand of his son, King Solomon. 5 Stand in the house according to the divisions of the houses of your families for your brothers, the sons of the people, and a share of the house of the family is for the Levites. 6 Sacrifice the Passover and prepare it for your brothers in order to do according to the word of the Lord through the hand of Moses.” 7 Josiah dedicated for the sons of the people sheep and lambs and young goats from the offspring of the goats, everything that was for the Passover and all the ones who were found, for the number of thirty thousand and three thousand calves. These were from the property of the king. 8 His rulers offered to the people and the priests and Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests. For the Passover, they gave sheep and lambs and two thousand six hundred young goats and three hundred calves. 9 Conaniah and Benaiah and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brother, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jehozabad, rulers of the Levites, offered five thousand five hundred calves to the Levites for the Passover. 10 The ministry was prepared. The priests stood at their stations, and the Levites in their divisions, according to the command of the king. 11 They sacrificed the Passover, and the priests poured the blood from their hand, and the Levites flayed the victims. 12 They prepared the burnt offerings, to give them over according to the divisions, according to the houses of the families for the sons of the people in order to offer to the Lord, just as it is written in the document of Moses, and thus into the morning. 13 They roasted the Passover by fire according to the judgment and boiled the sacred parts in the vessels of copper and in the caldrons. It was successful, and they ran to all the sons of the people.[1] 14 After the preparing for them and for the priests, because the priests were offering the fatted parts and the burnt offerings until evening, and the Levites prepared for themselves and their brothers, the sons of Aaron. 15 The psalmists, sons of Asaph, were at their positions according to the commandments of David. Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the prophets of the king, and the rulers and the porters at the gate and gate, it was not for them to move from the ministry for sacred things, because their brothers, the Levites, prepared for them. 16 The whole ministry of the Lord was made ready and was prepared on that day to make the Passover and to offer the whole burnt offerings upon the altar of the Lord according to the command of King Josiah. 17 The children of Israel who were found there made the Passover at that time and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. 18 There had been no Passover like it in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, and for every king of Israel they had not made such a Passover like Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel, the ones who were found there and the ones who dwelled in Jerusalem, made to the Lord, 19 in the eighteenth year of the dominion of Josiah. 19a And King Josiah set on fire those who have a divining spirit and the wizards and the teraphin and the idols and the karasima that were in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law that are written in the document that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 19b There was no one like him before him, who returned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses, and after him, one like him did not arise, 19c except the Lord did not turn back from the wrath of his great rage, with which rage the Lord was angry against Judah over all the commands that Manasseh provoked to anger. 19d And the Lord said, “And I removed Judah from my face just as I removed Israel, and I thrust away the city that I chose, Jerusalem, and the house about which I said, ‘My name will be there.’” The Death of Josiah 20 Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria at the river Euphrates, and King Josiah went to a meeting with him. 21 He sent to him messengers, saying, “What is it with me and you, O king of Judah? I have not come forth against you this day to wage war, but God said that I should press forward. Be warned from the God who is with me, so that he does not destroy you.” 22 Josiah did not turn his face away from him, but he was strengthened to battle him and did not heed the words of Neco through the mouth of God and went to make war in the plain of Megiddo. 23 And the bowmen shot at King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, “Carry me out, because I have suffered very much.” 24 His servants brought him out from the chariot and mounted him on the second chariot that was to him and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried with his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned over Josiah. 25 And Jeremiah sang a dirge for Josiah, and all the rulers and the women rulers said a lament over Josiah until today. They gave it for an ordinance over Israel, and look, it is written in the laments. 26 The matters of Josiah and his hope are written in the law of the Lord. 27 And his matters, the first and the last, look, they are written in the document of the kings of Israel and Judah.
36The people of the land took Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, and anointed him and appointed him as king in the place of his father. 2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. 2a The name of his mother was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 2b And he did evil before the Lord according to everything that his ancestors did. 2c And Pharaoh Neco bound him in Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem. 3 The king transferred him to Egypt and imposed tribute upon the land of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 4 Pharaoh Neco appointed Eliakim son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the place of his father, Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh Neco took Jehoahaz, his brother, and brought him to Egypt, and he died there. 4a He gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh. Then he began to levy tribute from the land in order to give the silver by the mouth of Pharaoh, and each according to their power began to demand silver and gold from the people of the land to give it to Pharaoh Neco. The Reign of Jehoiakim 5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Zechora daughter of Neriah, from Ramah. He did evil before the Lord according to everything that his ancestors did. 5a In his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to the land, and he was subject to him for three years; then he withdrew from him. 5b The Lord sent against him the Chaldeans and a band of robbers from Syria and a band of robbers from Moab and the sons of Ammon and Samaria, and they revolted after this matter according to the word of the Lord by the hand of his servants, the prophets. 5c However, the wrath of the Lord was against Judah to remove it from his face on account of Manasseh, in everything that he did, 5d and due to the innocent blood that Jehoiakim poured out. He filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord did not want to completely destroy them. 6 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, went up against him and bound him with bronze fetters and took him away to Babylon. 7 He carried off a portion of the implements from the house of the Lord to Babylon and placed them in his temple in Babylon. 8 The remainder of the affairs of Jehoiakim and everything that he did, look, are these not written in the book of the accounts of the days for the kings of Judah? And Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and he was buried in Ganoza with his ancestors. And his son, Jehoiachin, reigned in his place. The Reign of Jehoiachin 9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. And he did evil before the Lord. 10 When the year was changing, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon with the desirable implements from the house of the Lord and crowned Zedekiah, the brother of his father, over Judah and Jerusalem. The Reign of Zedekiah 11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He did evil before the Lord, his God. He was not ashamed from the face of Jeremiah the prophet and out of the mouth of the Lord, 13 when he set aside the things with King Nebuchadnezzarwhich he made him swear by God—and he hardened his neck and strengthened his heart to not return to the Lord, the God of Israel. 14 All those who were held in esteem of Judah and the priests and the people of the land increased in committing the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. 15 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, dispatched by the hand, and sending his messengers, being aware early, because he was trying to spare his people and his sanctuary. 16 But they were mocking his messengers and denying his words and jeering at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord went up against his people, until there was no way to bring healing. 17 He brought against them a king of the Chaldeans, and he killed their youths with the sword in the house of his sanctuary. And he did not spare Zedekiah, and they showed no mercy to their virgins, and their elders they took away. He delivered everything into their hands. 18 All the implements of the house of God, the large and the small, and the treasures, and all the treasures of the king and nobles, he brought everything to Babylon. 19 He set on fire the house of the Lord and completely destroyed the wall of Jerusalem. And he burned its bastions with fire, and every implement for different seasons was earmarked for destruction. 20 He sent away the ones who were left remaining to Babylon, and they were slaves for him and his sons until the dominion of the Medes, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord through the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land received its Sabbath to keep the Sabbath, until seventy years were completed.a The Decree of Cyrus 22 In the first year of the king of Persia, after the word of the Lord was fulfilled through the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord raised up the spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia, and he proclaimed to herald in all his dominion by writing, saying, 23 “Thus says Cyrus, the king of Persia: ‘The Lord, the God of the heavens, has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth. And he commanded me to build a house for him in Jerusalem in Judah. Who of you is from all his people? His God shall be with him, and let him go up.’”