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◄ BBE 2CH ►

2CH

1 And Solomon, the son of David, made himself strong in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and made him very great. 2 And Solomon sent word to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every chief in all Israel, heads of their families. 3 Then Solomon, and all the men of Israel with him, went to the high place at Gibeon, because the Tent of meeting of God, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the waste land, was there. 4 But the ark of God had been moved by David from Kiriath-jearim to the place which he had made ready for it, for he had put up a tent for it at Jerusalem. 5 And the altar of brass which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the Tent of the Lord; and Solomon and all the people went to give worship there. 6 And Solomon went up there to the brass altar before the Lord at the Tent of meeting, offering on it a thousand burned offerings. 7 In that night God came to Solomon in a vision, and said to him, Say what I am to give you. 8 And Solomon said to God, Great was your mercy to David my father, and you have made me king in his place. 9 Now, O Lord God, let your word to David my father come true; for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in number. 10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge, so that I may go out and come in before this people: for who is able to be the judge of this great people of yours? 11 And God said to Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you did not make request for money, property, or honour, or for the destruction of your haters, or for long life; but you have made request for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, so that you may be the judge of my people over whom I have made you king: 12 Wisdom and knowledge are given to you; and I will give you wealth and honour, such as no king has had before you or ever will have after you. 13 So Solomon went back from the high place at Gibeon, from before the Tent of meeting, to Jerusalem; and he was king over Israel. 14 And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, which he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem. 15 And the king made silver and gold as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedar like the sycamore-trees of the lowland in number. 16 And Solomon's horses came out of Egypt; the king's traders got them from Kue at a price. 17 A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: they got them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.

2 Now it was Solomon's purpose to put up a house for the name of the Lord and a house for himself as king. 2 And Solomon had seventy thousand men numbered for transport, and eighty thousand for cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers. 3 And Solomon sent to Huram, king of Tyre, saying, As you did for my father David, sending him cedar-trees for the building of his house, 4 See! I am building a house for the name of the Lord my God, to be made holy to him, where perfumes of sweet spices will be burned before him, and the holy bread will be placed at all times, and burned offerings will be offered morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and at the new moons, and on the regular feasts of the Lord our God. This is a law for ever to Israel. 5 And the house which I am building is to be great, for our God is greater than all gods. 6 But who may have strength enough to make a house for him, seeing that the heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be his resting-place? who am I then to make a house for him? But I am building it only for the burning of perfume before him. 7 So now send me an expert worker in gold and silver and brass and iron? in purple and red and blue, and in the cutting of all sorts of ornament, to be with the expert workmen who are here in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father David got together. 8 And send me cedar-trees, cypress-trees and sandal-wood from Lebanon, for, to my knowledge, your servants are expert wood-cutters in Lebanon; and my servants will be with yours, 9 To get trees for me in great numbers, for the house which I am building is to be great and a wonder. 10 And I will give as food to your servants, the wood-cutters, twenty thousand measures of grain, and twenty thousand measures of barley and twenty thousand measures of wine and twenty thousand measures of oil. 11 Then Huram, king of Tyre, sent Solomon an answer in writing, saying, Because of his love for his people the Lord has made you king over them. 12 And Huram said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, maker of heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, full of wisdom and good sense, to be the builder of a house for the Lord and a house for himself as king. 13 And now I am sending you a wise and expert man, Huram who is as my father, 14 The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father was a man of Tyre, an expert worker in gold and silver and brass and iron, in stone and wood, in purple and blue and fair linen and red, trained in the cutting of every sort of ornament and the invention of every sort of design; let him be given a place among your expert workmen and those of my lord, your father David. 15 So now let my lord send to his servants the grain and the oil and the wine as my lord has said; 16 And we will have wood cut from Lebanon, as much as you have need of, and will send it to you on flat boats by sea to Joppa, and from there you may take it up to Jerusalem. 17 Then Solomon took the number of all the men from strange lands who were living in Israel, as his father David had done; there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand, six hundred. 18 Seventy thousand he put to the work of transport, eighty thousand to cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers to put the people to work.

3 Then Solomon made a start at building the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where the Lord had been seen by his father David, in the place which David had made ready in the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 The building was started in the second month in the fourth year of his rule. 3 And Solomon put the base of the house of God in position; by the older measure it was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. 4 And the covered way in front of the house was twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and a hundred and twenty cubits high, all plated inside with the best gold. 5 And the greater house was roofed with cypress-wood, plated with the best gold and ornamented with designs of palm-trees and chains. 6 And the house was made beautiful with stones of great value, and the gold was gold of Parvaim. 7 All the house was plated with gold, the supports, the steps, the walls and the doors; and the walls were ornamented with designs of winged ones. 8 And he made the most holy place; it was twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, like the greater house, and was plated all over with the best gold; six hundred talents were used for it. 9 And fifty shekels weight of gold was used for the nails. He had all the higher rooms plated with gold. 10 And in the most holy place he made images of two winged beings, covering them with gold. 11 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; one wing, five cubits long, touching the wall of the house, and the other, of the same size, meeting the wing of the other winged one. 12 And in the same way, the wings of the other, five cubits long, were stretched out, one touching the wall and the other meeting the wing of the first winged one. 13 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; they were placed upright on their feet, facing the inner part of the house. 14 And he made the veil of blue and purple and red, of the best linen, worked with winged ones. 15 And in front of the house he made two pillars, thirty-five cubits high, with crowns on the tops of them, five cubits high. 16 And he made chains, like neck ornaments, and put them on the tops of the pillars, and a hundred apples on the chains. 17 He put up the pillars in front of the Temple, one on the right side and one on the left, naming the one on the right Jachin and that on the left Boaz.

4 Then he made a brass altar, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high. 2 And he made the great water-vessel of metal, round in form, measuring ten cubits across from edge to edge; it was five cubits high and thirty cubits round. 3 And under it was a design of flowers all round it, ten to a cubit, circling the water-vessel in two lines; they were made from liquid metal at the same time as the water-vessel. 4 It was supported on twelve oxen, three facing to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east, the water-vessel resting on top of them; their back parts were all turned to the middle of it. 5 It was as thick as a man's open hand, and the edge of it was curved like the edge of a cup, like a lily flower; it would take three thousand baths. 6 And he made ten washing-vessels, putting five on the right side and five on the left; such things as were used in making the burned offering were washed in them; but the great water-vessel was to be used by the priests for washing themselves. 7 And he made the ten gold supports for the lights, as directions had been given for them, and he put them in the Temple, five on the right side and five on the left. 8 He made ten tables, and put them in the Temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made a hundred gold basins. 9 Then he made the open space for the priests, and the great open space and its doors, plating the doors with brass. 10 He put the great water-vessel on the right side of the house to the east, facing south. 11 And Huram made all the pots and the spades and the basins. So he came to the end of all the work he did for King Solomon in the house of God: 12 The two pillars, and the two crowns on the tops of the pillars, and the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the tops of the pillars; 13 And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines of apples for the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the pillars. 14 And he made the ten bases and the ten washing-vessels which were on the bases; 15 The great water-vessel with the twelve oxen under it. 16 All the pots and the spades and the meat-hooks and their vessels, which Huram, who was as his father, made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass. 17 The king made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan, in the soft earth between Succoth and Zeredah. 18 So Solomon made all these vessels, a very great store of them, and the weight of the brass used was not measured. 19 And Solomon made all the vessels used in the house of God, the gold altar and the tables on which the holy bread was placed, 20 And the supports for the lights with their lights, to be burning in the regular way in front of the inmost room, of the best gold; 21 The flowers and the vessels for the lights and the instruments used for them, were all of gold; it was the best gold. 22 The scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-trays, of the best gold; and the inner doors of the house, opening into the most holy place, and the doors of the Temple, were all of gold.

5 So all the work which Solomon did for the house of the Lord was complete. And Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of God. 2 Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel, all the chiefs of the tribes and the heads of families of the children of Israel, to come to Jerusalem and take the ark of the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David, which is Zion. 3 And all the men of Israel came together to the king at the feast in the seventh month. 4 All the responsible men of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. 5 They took up the ark and the Tent of meeting and all the holy vessels which were in the Tent; all these the priests, the Levites, took up. 6 And King Solomon and all the men of Israel who had come together there with him, were before the ark, making offerings of sheep and oxen more than might be numbered. 7 And the priests took the ark of the Lord's agreement and put it in its place, in the inner room of the house, in the most holy place, under the wings of the winged ones. 8 For their wings were outstretched over the place where the ark was, covering the ark and its rods. 9 The rods were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place before the inmost room; but they were not seen from outside; and there they are to this day. 10 Nothing was in the ark but the two flat stones which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made an agreement with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. 11 Now when the priests had come out of the holy place, (for all the priests who were present had made themselves holy, not keeping to their divisions; 12 And the Levites who made the music, all of them, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and brothers, robed in fair linen, were in their places with their brass and corded instruments at the east side of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing horns;) 13 And when the players on horns, and those who made melody in song, with one voice were sounding the praise and glory of the Lord; with loud voices and with wind instruments, and brass and corded instruments of music, praising the Lord and saying, He is good; his mercy is unchanging for ever: then the house was full of the cloud of the glory of the Lord, 14 So that the priests were not able to keep their places to do their work because of the cloud; for the house of God was full of the glory of the Lord.

6 Then Solomon said, O Lord, to the sun you have given the heaven for a living-place, but your living-place was not seen by men, 2 So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which you may be for ever present. 3 Then, turning his face about, the king gave a blessing to all the men of Israel; and they were all on their feet together. 4 And he said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who himself gave his word to my father David, and with his strong hand has made his word come true, saying, 5 From the day when I took my people out of the land of Egypt, no town in all the tribes of Israel has been marked out by me for the building of a house for the resting-place of my name; and I took no man to be a ruler over my people Israel; 6 But now I have made selection of Jerusalem, that my name might be there, and of David, to be over my people Israel. 7 Now it was in the heart of my father David to put up a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 8 But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to have in your heart the desire to make a house for my name: 9 But you yourself will not be the builder of the house; but your son, the offspring of your body, he it is who will put up a house for my name. 10 And the Lord has kept his word; for I have taken my father David's place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel, as the Lord gave his word; and I have made the house for the name of the Lord the God of Israel. 11 And there I have put the ark, in which is the agreement of the Lord, which he made with the people of Israel. 12 Then he took his place in front of the altar of the Lord, all the men of Israel being present, 13 (For Solomon had made a brass stage, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had put it in the middle of the open space; on this he took his place and went down on his knees before all the meeting of Israel, stretching out his hands to heaven.) 14 And he said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth; keeping faith and mercy unchanging for your servants, while they go in your ways with all their hearts; 15 For you have kept the word which you gave to your servant David, my father; with your mouth you said it and with your hand you have made it come true this day. 16 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, let your word to your servant David, my father, come true, when you said, You will never be without a man to take his place before me on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; if only your children give attention to their ways, walking in my law, as you have done before me. 17 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, make your word come true which you said to your servant David. 18 But is it truly possible that God may be housed with men on earth? see, heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be your resting-place: how much less this house which I have made: 19 Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your servant and to his prayer for grace, O Lord my God, and give ear to the cry and the prayer which your servant makes before you; 20 That your eyes may be open to this house day and night, to this place of which you have said that you would put your name there; to give ear to the prayer which your servant may make, turning to this place. 21 And give ear to the prayers of your servant and of your people Israel, when they make their prayers, turning to this place; give ear from heaven your living-place; and hearing have mercy. 22 If a man does wrong to his neighbour and has to take an oath, and comes before your altar to take his oath in this house: 23 Then let your ear be open in heaven, and be the judge of your servants, giving punishment to the wrongdoer, so that his sin may come on his head; and, by your decision, keeping from evil him who has done no wrong. 24 And if your people Israel are overcome in war, because of their sin against you; if they are turned to you again, honouring your name, making prayers and requesting your grace in this house: 25 Then give ear from heaven, and let the sin of your people Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers. 26 When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because of their sin against you: if they make prayers with their faces turned to this place, honouring your name and turning away from their sin when you send trouble on them: 27 Then give ear from heaven, so that the sin of your servants and the sin of your people Israel may have forgiveness, when you make clear to them the good way in which they are to go; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for their heritage. 28 If there is no food in the land, if there is disease, if the fruits of the earth are damaged by heat or water, locust or worm; if their towns are shut in by their attackers: whatever trouble or whatever disease there may be: 29 Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, whatever his trouble may be, whose hands are stretched out to this house: 30 Then give ear from heaven your living-place, answering with forgiveness, and give to every man, whose secret heart is open to you, the reward of all his ways; (for you, and you only, have knowledge of the hearts of the children of men;) 31 So that they may give you worship, walking in your ways, as long as they are living in the land which you gave to our fathers. 32 And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of your people Israel but comes from a far country because of the glory of your name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm; when he comes to make his prayer, turning to this house: 33 Then give ear from heaven your living-place, and give him his desire, whatever it may be; so that all the peoples of the earth may have knowledge of your name, worshipping you as do your people Israel, and may see that this house which I have made is truly named by your name. 34 If your people go out to war against their attackers, by whatever way you may send them, if they make their prayers to you turning their faces to this town of yours and to this house which I have put up for your name: 35 Then give ear from heaven to their prayer and their cry for grace, and see right done to them. 36 If they do wrong against you, (for no man is without sin,) and you are angry with them, and give them up into the power of those who are fighting against them, so that they take them away prisoners to a land far off or near; 37 And if they take thought, in the land where they are prisoners, turning again to you, crying out in prayer to you in that land, and saying, We are sinners, we have done wrong, we have done evil; 38 If with all their heart and soul they are turned again to you, in the land where they are prisoners, the land where they have been taken, and make their prayers, turning their eyes to their land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I have made for your name: 39 Then give ear from heaven your living-place to their prayer and their cry, and see right done to them, answering with forgiveness your people who have done wrong against you. 40 Now, O my God, may your eyes be open and your ears awake to the prayers made in this place. 41 Up! now, O Lord God, come back to your resting-place, you and the ark of your strength: let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints be glad in what is good. 42 O Lord God, let him whom you have taken for yourself never be given up by you: keep in mind your mercies to David your servant.

7 Now when Solomon's prayers were ended, fire came down from heaven, burning up all the offerings; and the house was full of the glory of the Lord. 2 And the priests were not able to go into the house of the Lord, for the Lord's house was full of the glory of the Lord. 3 And all the children of Israel were looking on when the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord was on the house; and they went down on their knees, with their faces to the earth, worshipping and praising the Lord, and saying, He is good; for his mercy is unchanging for ever. 4 Then the king and all the people made offerings before the Lord. 5 King Solomon made an offering of twenty-two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people kept the feast of the opening of the house of God. 6 And the priests were in their places, and the Levites with their instruments of music for the Lord's song, which David the king had made for the praise of the Lord whose mercy is unchanging for ever, when David gave praise by their hand; and the priests were sounding horns before them; and all Israel were on their feet. 7 Then Solomon made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering the burned offerings there, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar which Solomon had made for all the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat. 8 So Solomon kept the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, for the people had come together from the way into Hamath and from as far as the river of Egypt. 9 And on the eighth day they had a holy meeting; the offerings for making the altar holy went on for seven days, and the feast for seven days. 10 And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, full of joy and glad in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people. 11 So Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house; and everything which it was in his mind to make in the house of the Lord and for himself had been well done. 12 Now the Lord came to Solomon in a vision by night, and said to him, I have given ear to your prayer, and have taken this place for myself as a house where offerings are to be made. 13 If, at my word, heaven is shut up, so that there is no rain, or if I send locusts on the land for its destruction, or if I send disease on my people; 14 If my people, on whom my name is named, make themselves low and come to me in prayer, searching for me and turning from their evil ways; then I will give ear from heaven, overlooking their sin, and will give life again to their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears awake to the prayers made in this place. 16 For I have taken this house for myself and made it holy, so that my name may be there for ever; and my eyes and my heart will be there at all times. 17 And as for you, if you will go on your way before me as David your father did, doing whatever I have given you orders to do and keeping my laws and my decisions: 18 Then I will make strong the seat of your kingdom, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never be without a man to be ruler in Israel. 19 But if you are turned away from me, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods, giving them worship: 20 Then I will have this people uprooted out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will put away from before my eyes, and make it an example and a word of shame among all peoples. 21 And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, and will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house? 22 And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord, the God of their fathers, who took them out of the land of Egypt, and took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why he has sent all this evil on them.

8 Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the house of the Lord and a house for himself, 2 He took in hand the building up of the towns which Huram had given him, causing the children of Israel to make living-places for themselves there. 3 And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and overcame it. 4 And he put up the buildings of Tadmor in the waste land, and of all the store-towns in Hamath; 5 And of Beth-horon the higher and the lower, walled towns with walls and doorways and locks; 6 And of Baalath, and all the store-towns which Solomon had, and the towns where he kept his war-carriages and his horse men, and everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule. 7 As for all the rest of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel: 8 Their men who were still living in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not put an end to, these Solomon put to forced work, as is done to this day; 9 But Solomon did not make use of the children of Israel as servants for his work; they were men of war, his chiefs and his captains, and captains of his war-carriages and his horsemen. 10 Now these were the chief men in authority whom King Solomon had: two hundred and fifty of them, in authority over the people. 11 Then Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her; for he said, I will not have my wife living in the house of David, king of Israel, because those places where the ark of the Lord has come are holy. 12 Then Solomon made burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had put up in front of the covered way, 13 Offering every day what had been ordered by Moses, on the Sabbaths and at the new moon and at the regular feasts three times a year, that is at the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents. 14 And he gave the divisions of the priests their places for their work, as ordered by his father David, and to the Levites he gave their work of praise and waiting on the priests, to do what was needed day by day; and he gave the door-keepers their places in turn at every door; for so David, the man of God, had given orders. 15 All the orders given by the king to the priests and Levites, in connection with any business or stores, were done with care. 16 And all the work of Solomon was complete, from the day when he put the base of the Lord's house in position, till Solomon had come to the end of building the Lord's house. 17 Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth by the sea in the land of Edom. 18 And Huram sent him, by his servants, ships and experienced seamen, who went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and came back with four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they took to King Solomon.

9 Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of Solomon, came to Jerusalem to put his wisdom to the test with hard questions; and with her came a very great train, and camels weighted down with spices, and great stores of gold and jewels: and when she came to Solomon she had talk with him of everything in her mind. 2 And Solomon gave her answers to all her questions; there was no secret which he did not make clear to her. 3 And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had made, 4 And the food at his table, and all his servants seated there, and those who were waiting on him in their places, and their robes, and his wine-servants and their robes, and the burned offerings which he made in the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. 5 And she said to the king, The account which was given to me in my country of your acts and your wisdom was true. 6 But I had no faith in what was said about you, till I came and saw for myself; and truly, word was not given me of half your great wisdom; you are much greater than they said. 7 Happy are your wives and happy these your servants whose place is ever before you, hearing your words of wisdom. 8 Praise be to the Lord your God whose pleasure it was to put you on the seat of his kingdom to be king for the Lord your God: because, in his love for Israel, it was the purpose of your God to make them strong for ever, he made you king over them, to be their judge in righteousness. 9 And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a great store of spices and jewels: never had such spices been seen as the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon. 10 And the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon, in addition to gold from Ophir, came back with sandal-wood and jewels. 11 And with the sandal-wood the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, and instruments of music for the makers of melody; never before had such been seen in the land of Judah. 12 And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what she had taken to the king. So she went back to her country with her servants. 13 Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents; 14 And in addition to what he got from traders of different sorts, all the kings of Arabia and the rulers of the country gave gold and silver to Solomon. 15 And King Solomon made two hundred body-covers of hammered gold, every one having six hundred shekels of gold in it. 16 And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of hammered gold, using three hundred shekels of gold for every cover, and the king put them in the house of the Woods of Lebanon. 17 Then the king made a great ivory seat, plated with the best gold. 18 There were six steps up to it, and a foot-rest of gold fixed to it, and arms on the two sides of the seat, with two lions at the side of the arms. 19 And twelve lions were placed on one side and on the other side on the six steps: there was nothing like it in any kingdom. 20 All King Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Woods of Lebanon were of the best gold: no one gave a thought to silver in the days of Solomon. 21 For the king had Tarshish-ships sailing with the servants of Huram: once every three years the Tarshish-ships came back with gold and silver, ivory and monkeys and peacocks. 22 And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom. 23 And all the kings of the earth came to see Solomon and to give ear to his wisdom, which God had put into his heart. 24 And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes, and coats of metal, and spices, and horses and beasts for transport, regularly year by year. 25 Solomon had four thousand buildings for his horses and his war-carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king in Jerusalem. 26 And he was ruler over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the limit of Egypt. 27 The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem and cedars like the sycamore-trees of the lowlands in number. 28 They got horses for Solomon from Egypt and from every land. 29 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not recorded in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the words of Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh, and in the visions of Iddo the seer about Jeroboam, the son of Nebat? 30 Solomon was king over Israel in Jerusalem for forty years. 31 And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David his father; and Rehoboam his son became king in his place.

10 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king. 2 And when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had news of it, (for he was in Egypt where he had gone in flight from King Solomon,) he came back from Egypt. 3 And they sent for him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said, 4 Your father put a hard yoke on us: if you will make the conditions under which your father kept us down less cruel, and the weight of the yoke he put on us less hard, then we will be your servants. 5 And he said to them, Come to me again after three days. So the people went away. 6 Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men who had been with Solomon his father when he was living, and said, In your opinion, what answer am I to give to this people? 7 And they said to him, If you are kind to this people, pleasing them and saying good words to them, then they will be your servants for ever. 8 But he gave no attention to the opinion of the old men, but went to the young men of his generation who were waiting before him. 9 And he said to them, What is your opinion? What answer are we to give to this people who have said to me, Make less the weight of the yoke which your father put on us? 10 And the young men of his generation said to him, This is the answer to give to the people who came to you saying, Your father put a hard yoke on us, but will you make it less; say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's body; 11 If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it harder: my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give you blows with snakes. 12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had given orders, saying, Come to me again on the third day. 13 And the king gave them a rough answer. So King Rehoboam gave no attention to the suggestion of the old men, 14 But gave them the answer put forward by the young men, saying, My father made your yoke hard, but I will make it harder; my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give it with snakes. 15 So the king did not give ear to the people; for this came about by the purpose of God, so that the Lord might give effect to his word which he had said by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. 16 And when all Israel saw that the king would give no attention to them, the people in answer said to the king, What part have we in David? what is our heritage in the son of Jesse? every man to your tents, O Israel; now see to your house, David. So all Israel went to their tents. 17 But Rehoboam was still king over those of the children of Israel who were living in the towns of Judah. 18 Then Rehoboam sent Adoniram, the overseer of the forced work; and he was stoned to death by all Israel. And King Rehoboam went quickly and got into his carriage to go in flight to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel was turned away from the family of David to this day.

11 And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and got together the men of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand of his best fighting-men, to make war against Israel and get the kingdom back for Rehoboam. 2 But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, 3 Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, 4 The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your brothers: let every man go back to his house, for this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to the words of the Lord and were turned back from fighting against Jeroboam. 5 Now Rehoboam kept in Jerusalem, building walled towns in Judah. 6 He was the builder of Beth-lehem and Etam and Tekoa 7 And Beth-zur and Soco and Adullam 8 And Gath and Mareshah and Ziph 9 And Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah 10 And Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron, walled towns in Judah and Benjamin. 11 And he made the walled towns strong, and he put captains in them and stores of food, oil, and wine. 12 And in every town he put stores of body-covers and spears, and made them very strong. And Judah and Benjamin were his. 13 And the priests and Levites who were in all Israel came together to him from every part of their country. 14 For the Levites gave up their living-places and their property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had sent them away, not letting them be priests to the Lord; 15 And he himself made priests for the high places, and for the images of he-goats and oxen which he had made. 16 And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, all those whose hearts were fixed and true to the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to make offerings to the Lord, the God of their fathers. 17 So they went on increasing the power of the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong for three years; and for three years they went in the ways of David and Solomon. 18 And Rehoboam took as his wife Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David and of Abihail, the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse; 19 And she had sons by him, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. 20 And after her he took Maacah, the daughter of Absalom; and she had Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith by him. 21 Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, was dearer to Rehoboam than all his wives and his servant-wives: (for he had eighteen wives and sixty servant-wives, and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.) 22 Rehoboam made Abijah, the son of Maacah, chief and ruler among his brothers, for it was his purpose to make him king. 23 And in his wisdom he had his sons stationed in every walled town through all the lands of Judah and Benjamin; and he gave them a great store of food, and took wives for them.

12 Now when Rehoboam's position as king had been made certain, and he was strong, he gave up the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him. 2 Now in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, because of their sin against the Lord, 3 With twelve hundred war-carriages and sixty thousand horsemen: and the people who came with him out of Egypt were more than might be numbered: Lubim and Sukkiim and Ethiopians. 4 And he took the walled towns of Judah, and came as far as Jerusalem. 5 Now Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the chiefs of Judah, who had come together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, The Lord has said, Because you have given me up, I have given you up into the hands of Shishak. 6 Then the chiefs of Israel and the king made themselves low and said, The Lord is upright. 7 And the Lord, seeing that they had made themselves low, said to Shemaiah, They have made themselves low: I will not send destruction on them, but in a short time I will give them salvation, and will not let loose my wrath on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. 8 But still they will become his servants, so that they may see how different my yoke is from the yoke of the kingdoms of the lands. 9 So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem and took away all the stored wealth of the house of the Lord and the king's house: he took everything away, and with the rest the gold body-covers which Solomon had made. 10 And in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house. 11 And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord, the armed men went with him taking the body-covers, and then took them back to their room. 12 And when he made himself low, the wrath of the Lord was turned back from him, and complete destruction did not come on him, for there was still some good in Judah. 13 So King Rehoboam made himself strong in Jerusalem and was ruling there. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he was ruling for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the town which the Lord had made his out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there; and his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. 14 And he did evil because his heart was not true to the Lord. 15 Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not recorded in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. 16 And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David; and Abijah his son became king in his place.

13 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah. 2 He was king in Jerusalem for three years; his mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3 And Abijah went out to the fight with an army of men of war, four hundred thousand of his best men; and Jeroboam put his forces in line against him, eight hundred thousand of his best men of war. 4 And Abijah took up his position on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill-country of Ephraim, and said, Give ear to me, O Jeroboam and all Israel: 5 Is it not clear to you that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave the rule over Israel to David and to his sons for ever, by an agreement made with salt? 6 But Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, took up arms against his lord. 7 And certain foolish and good-for-nothing men were joined with him, and made themselves strong against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when he was young and untested and not able to keep them back. 8 And now it is your purpose to put yourselves against the authority which the Lord has put into the hands of the sons of David, and you are a very great number, and you have with you the gold oxen which Jeroboam made to be your gods. 9 And after driving out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, have you not made priests for yourselves as the people of other lands do? so that anyone who comes to make himself priest by offering an ox or seven sheep, may be a priest of those who are no gods. 10 But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not been turned away from him; we have priests who do the work of the Lord, even the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their places; 11 By whom burned offerings and perfumes are sent up in smoke before the Lord every morning and every evening; and they put out the holy bread on its table and the gold support for the lights with its lights burning every evening; for we keep the orders given to us by the Lord our God, but you have gone away from him. 12 And now God is with us at our head, and his priests with their loud horns sounding against you. O children of Israel, do not make war on the Lord, the God of your fathers, for it will not go well for you. 13 But Jeroboam had put some of his men to make a surprise attack on them from the back, so some were facing Judah and others were stationed secretly at their back. 14 And Judah, turning their faces, saw that they were being attacked in front and at the back; and they gave a cry for help to the Lord, while the priests were sounding their horns. 15 And the men of Judah gave a loud cry; and at their cry, God put fear into Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16 And the children of Israel went in flight before Judah, and God gave them up into their hands. 17 And Abijah and his people put them to death with great destruction: five hundred thousand of the best of Israel were put to the sword. 18 So at that time the children of Israel were overcome, and the children of Judah got the better of them, because they put their faith in the Lord, the God of their fathers. 19 And Abijah went after Jeroboam and took some of his towns, Beth-el with its small towns and Jeshanah with its small towns and Ephron with its small towns. 20 And Jeroboam did not get back his power again in the life-time of Abijah; and the Lord sent death on him. 21 But Abijah became great, and had fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22 And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways and his sayings, are recorded in the account of the prophet Iddo.

14 So Abijah went to rest with his fathers, and they put him into the earth in the town of David, and Asa his son became king in his place; in his time the land was quiet for ten years. 2 And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God; 3 For he took away the altars of strange gods and the high places, and had the upright stones broken and the wood pillars cut down; 4 And he made Judah go after the Lord, the God of their fathers, and keep his laws and his orders. 5 And he took away the high places and the sun-images from all the towns of Judah; and the kingdom was quiet under his rule. 6 He made walled towns in Judah, for the land was quiet and there were no wars in those years, because the Lord had given him rest. 7 He said to Judah, Let us make these towns, building walls round them with towers and doors and locks. The land is still ours, because we have been true to the Lord our God; we have been true to him and he has given us rest on every side. So they went on building and all went well for them. 8 And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men of Judah armed with body-covers and spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand of Benjamin armed with body-covers and bows; all these were men of war. 9 And Zerah the Ethiopian, with an army of a million, and three hundred war-carriages, came out against them to Mareshah. 10 And Asa went out against him, and they put their forces in position in the valley north of Mareshah. 11 And Asa made prayer to the Lord his God and said, Lord, you only are able to give help against the strong to him who has no strength; come to our help, O Lord our God, for our hope is in you, and in your name we have come out against this great army. O Lord, you are our God; let not man's power be greater than yours. 12 So the Lord sent fear on the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah; and the Ethiopians went in flight. 13 And Asa and the people who were with him went after them as far as Gerar; and so great was the destruction among the Ethiopians that they were not able to get their army together again, for they were broken before the Lord and before his army; and they took away a great amount of their goods. 14 And they overcame all the towns round Gerar, because the Lord sent fear on them; and they took away their goods from the towns, for there were stores of wealth in them. 15 And they made an attack on the tents of the owners of the cattle, and took away great numbers of sheep and camels and went back to Jerusalem.

15 And the spirit of God came on Azariah, the son of Oded; 2 And he came face to face with Asa and said to him, Give ear to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you while you are with him; if your heart's desire is for him, he will be near you, but if you give him up, he will give you up. 3 Now for a long time Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without the law; 4 But when in their trouble they were turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, searching after him, he let their search be rewarded. 5 In those times there was no peace for him who went out or for him who came in, but great trouble was on all the people of the lands. 6 And they were broken by divisions, nation against nation and town against town, because God sent all sorts of trouble on them. 7 But be you strong and let not your hands be feeble, for your work will be rewarded. 8 And Asa, hearing these words of Azariah, the son of Oded the prophet, took heart and put away all the disgusting things out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the towns which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he made new again the altar of the Lord in front of the covered way of the Lord's house. 9 And he got together all Judah and Benjamin and those of Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon who were living with them; for numbers of them came to him out of Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10 So they came together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the rule of Asa. 11 And that day they made offerings to the Lord of the things they had taken in war, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. 12 And they made an agreement to be true to the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and all their soul; 13 And that anyone, small or great, man or woman, who was not true to the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to death. 14 And they made an oath to the Lord, with a loud voice, sounding wind-instruments and horns. 15 And all Judah was glad because of the oath, for they had taken it with all their heart, turning to the Lord with all their desire; and he was with them and gave them rest on every side. 16 And Asa would not let Maacah, his mother, be queen, because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and Asa had her image cut down and broken up and burned by the stream Kidron. 17 But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life. 18 He took into the house of God all the things which his father had made holy and those which he himself had made holy, silver and gold and vessels. 19 And there was no more war till the thirty-fifth year of the rule of Asa.

16 In the thirty-sixth year of the rule of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah, building Ramah so that no one was able to go out or in to Asa, king of Judah. 2 Then Asa took silver and gold out of the stores of the Lord's house and of the king's store-house, and sent to Ben-hadad, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying, 3 Let there be an agreement between me and you as there was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me. 4 And Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim, and all the store-towns of Naphtali. 5 Then Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building of Ramah, and let his work come to an end. 6 Then King Asa, with all Judah, took away the stones and wood with which Baasha was building Ramah, and he made use of them for building Geba and Mizpah. 7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, Because you have put your faith in the king of Aram and not in the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has got away out of your hands. 8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a very great army, with war-carriages and horsemen more than might be numbered? but because your faith was in the Lord, he gave them up into your hands. 9 For the eyes of the Lord go this way and that, through all the earth, letting it be seen that he is the strong support of those whose hearts are true to him. In this you have done foolishly, for from now you will have wars. 10 Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, burning with wrath against him because of this thing. And at the same time Asa was cruel to some of the people. 11 Now the acts of Asa, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his rule, Asa had a very bad disease of the feet; but he did not go to the Lord for help in his disease, but to medical men. 13 So Asa went to rest with his fathers, and death came to him in the forty-first year of his rule. 14 And they put him into the resting-place which he had made for himself in the town of David, in a bed full of sweet perfumes of all sorts of spices, made by the perfumer's art, and they made a great burning for him.

17 And Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place, and made himself strong against Israel. 2 He put forces in all the walled towns of Judah, and responsible chiefs in the land of Judah and in the towns of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. 3 And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he went in the early ways of his father, not turning to the Baals, 4 But turning to the God of his father and keeping his laws, and not doing as Israel did. 5 So the Lord made his kingdom strong; and all Judah gave offerings to Jehoshaphat, and he had great wealth and honour. 6 His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord; and he went so far as to take away the high places and the wood pillars out of Judah. 7 In the third year of his rule he sent Benhail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nethanel and Micaiah, his captains, as teachers into the towns of Judah; 8 And with them, Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tob-adonijah, the Levites; and Elishama and Jehoram the priests. 9 And they gave teaching in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them; they went through all the towns of Judah teaching the people. 10 And the fear of the Lord was on all the kingdoms of the lands round Judah, so that they made no wars against Jehoshaphat. 11 And some of the Philistines took offerings to Jehoshaphat, and made him payments of silver; and the Arabians gave him flocks, seven thousand, seven hundred sheep, and seven thousand, seven hundred he-goats. 12 Jehoshaphat became greater and greater, and made strong towers and store-towns in Judah. 13 He had much property in the towns of Judah; he had forces of armed men, great and strong, in Jerusalem. 14 This is the number of them, listed by their families, the captains of thousands of Judah: Adnah, the captain, and with him three hundred thousand men of war; 15 Second to him Jehohanan, the captain, and with him two hundred and eighty thousand; 16 After him Amasiah, the son of Zichri, who freely gave himself to the Lord, and with him two hundred thousand men of war; 17 And the captains of Benjamin: Eliada, a great man of war, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bows and body-covers; 18 And after him Jehozabad, and with him a hundred and eighty thousand trained for war. 19 These were the men who were waiting on the king, in addition to those placed by the king in the walled towns through all Judah.

18 Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honour, and his son was married to Ahab's daughter. 2 And after some years he went down to Samaria to see Ahab. And Ahab made a feast for him and the people who were with him, putting to death great numbers of sheep and oxen; and he got Jehoshaphat to go with him to Ramoth-gilead. 3 For Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And he said, I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in the war. 4 Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now get directions from the Lord. 5 So the king of Israel got together all the prophets, four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for God will give it into the hands of the king. 6 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions? 7 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, but I have no love for him, because he has never been a prophet of good to me, but only of evil: he is Micaiah, the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. 8 Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed servants and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the son of Imla. 9 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in their robes, by the doorway into Samaria; and all the prophets were acting as prophets before them. 10 And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself iron horns and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans with these, you will put an end to them completely. 11 And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king. 12 Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, See now, all the prophets with one voice are saying good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs, and say good things. 13 And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the Lord says to me I will say. 14 When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And he said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and they will be given up into your hands. 15 And the king said to him, Have I not, again and again, put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true in the name of the Lord? 16 Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said, These have no master: let them go back, every man to his house in peace. 17 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say that he would not be a prophet of good to me, but of evil? 18 Then he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, and all the army of heaven in their places, at his right hand and at his left. 19 And the Lord said, How may Ahab, king of Israel, be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one thing and one another. 20 Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick. And the Lord said to him, How? 21 And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so. 22 And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the mouth of these prophets of yours; and the Lord has said evil against you. 23 Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and gave Micaiah a blow on the side of his face, saying, Where is the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you? 24 And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe. 25 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's son; 26 And say, By the king's order this man is to be put in prison, and given prison food till I come back in peace. 27 And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by me. 28 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead. 29 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king, and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So the king of Israel made a change in his dress, and they went to the fight. 30 Now the king of Aram had given orders to the captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel. 31 So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said, It is the king of Israel. And turning about, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry, and the Lord came to his help, and God sent them away from him. 32 Now when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after him. 33 And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded. 34 But the fight became more violent while the day went on; and the king of Israel was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans till the evening; and by sundown he was dead.

19 And Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went back to his house in Jerusalem in peace. 2 And Jehu, the son of Hanani the seer, went to King Jehoshaphat and said to him, Is it right for you to go to the help of evil-doers, loving the haters of the Lord? because of this, the wrath of the Lord has come on you. 3 But still there is some good in you, for you have put away the wood pillars out of the land, and have given your heart to the worship of God. 4 And Jehoshaphat was living in Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill-country of Ephraim, guiding them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers. 5 And he put judges through all the land, in every walled town of Judah, 6 And said to the judges, Take care what you do, for you are judging not for man but for the Lord, and he is with you in the decisions you give. 7 So now let the fear of the Lord be in you; do your work with care; for in the Lord our God there is no evil, or respect for high position, or taking of payment to do wrong. 8 Then in Jerusalem he gave authority to certain of the Levites and the priests and the heads of families of Israel to give decisions for the Lord, and in the causes of those living in Jerusalem. 9 And he gave them their orders, saying, You are to do your work in the fear of the Lord, in good faith and with a true heart. 10 And if any cause comes before you from your brothers living in their towns, where the death punishment is in question, or where there are questions of law or order, or rules or decisions, make them take care that they are not in the wrong before the Lord, so that wrath may not come on you and on your brothers; do this and you yourselves will not be in the wrong. 11 And now, Amariah, the chief priest, is over you in all questions to do with the Lord; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the head of the family of Judah, in everything to do with the king's business; and the Levites will be overseers for you. Be strong to do the work; and may the Lord be with the upright.

20 Now after this, the children of Moab and the children of Ammon, and with them some of the Meunim, made war against Jehoshaphat. 2 And they came to Jehoshaphat with the news, saying, A great army is moving against you from Edom across the sea; and now they are in Hazazon-tamar (which is En-gedi). 3 Then Jehoshaphat, in his fear, went to the Lord for directions, and gave orders all through Judah for the people to go without food. 4 And Judah came together to make prayer for help from the Lord; from every town of Judah they came to give worship to the Lord. 5 And Jehoshaphat took his place in the meeting of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord in front of the new open space, 6 And said, O Lord, the God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? are you not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? and in your hands are power and strength so that no one is able to keep his place against you. 7 Did you not, O Lord our God, after driving out the people of this land before your people Israel, give it to the seed of Abraham, your friend, for ever? 8 And they made it their living-place, building there a holy house for your name, and saying, 9 If evil comes on us, the sword, or punishment, or disease, or need of food, we will come to this house and to you, (for your name is in this house,) crying to you in our trouble, and you will give us salvation in answer to our cry. 10 And now, see, the children of Ammon and Moab and the people of Mount Seir, whom you kept Israel from attacking when they came out of Egypt, so that turning to one side they did not send destruction on them: 11 See now, how as our reward they have come to send us out of your land which you have given us as our heritage. 12 O our God, will you not be their judge? for our strength is not equal to this great army which is coming against us; and we are at a loss what to do: but our eyes are on you. 13 And all Judah were waiting before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. 14 Then, before all the meeting, the spirit of the Lord came on Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite and one of the family of Asaph; 15 And he said, Give ear, O Judah, and you people of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat: the Lord says to you, Have no fear and do not be troubled on account of this great army; for the fight is not yours but God's. 16 Go down against them tomorrow: see, they are coming up by the slope of Ziz; at the end of the valley, before the waste land of Jeruel, you will come face to face with them. 17 There will be no need for you to take up arms in this fight; put yourselves in position, and keep where you are, and you will see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: have no fear and do not be troubled: go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you. 18 Then Jehoshaphat went down with his face to the earth, and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave worship to the Lord, falling down before him. 19 And the Levites, the children of the Kohathites and the Korahites, got to their feet and gave praise to the Lord, the God of Israel, with a loud voice. 20 And early in the morning they got up and went out to the waste land of Tekoa: and when they were going out, Jehoshaphat took his station and said to them, Give ear to me, O Judah and you people of Jerusalem: have faith in the Lord your God and you will be safe; have faith in his prophets and all will go well for you. 21 And after discussion with the people, he put in their places those who were to make melody to the Lord, praising him in holy robes, while they went at the head of the army, and saying, May the Lord be praised, for his mercy is unchanging for ever. 22 And at the first notes of song and praise the Lord sent a surprise attack against the children of Ammon and Moab and the people of Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were overcome. 23 And the children of Ammon and Moab made an attack on the people of Mount Seir with a view to their complete destruction; and when they had put an end to the people of Seir, everyman's hand was turned against his neighbour for his destruction. 24 And Judah came to the watchtower of the waste land, and looking in the direction of the army, they saw only dead bodies stretched on the earth; no living man was to be seen. 25 And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their goods from them, they saw beasts in great numbers, and wealth and clothing and things of value, more than they were able to take away; all this they took for themselves, and they were three days getting it away, there was so much. 26 On the fourth day they all came together in the Valley of Blessing, and there they gave blessing to the Lord; for which cause that place has been named the Valley of Blessing to this day. 27 Then all the men of Judah and Jerusalem went back, with Jehoshaphat at their head, coming back to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them glad over their haters. 28 So they came to Jerusalem with corded instruments and wind-instruments into the house of the Lord. 29 And the fear of God came on all the kingdoms of the lands, when they had news of how the Lord made war on those who came against Israel. 30 So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for the Lord gave him rest on every side. 31 And Jehoshaphat was king over Judah: he was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling for twenty-five years in Jerusalem: his mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. 32 He went in the ways of his father Asa, not turning away, but doing right in the eyes of the Lord. 33 The high places, however, were not taken away, and the hearts of the people were still not true to the God of their fathers. 34 Now as for the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, they are recorded in the words of Jehu, the son of Hanani, which were put in the book of the kings of Israel. 35 After this Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, became friends with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who did much evil: 36 Together they made ships to go to Tarshish, building them in Ezion-geber. 37 Then the word of Eliezer the prophet, the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah, came against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because you have let yourself be joined with Ahaziah, the Lord has sent destruction on your works. And the ships were broken and were not able to go to Tarshish.

21 And Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and his body was put into the earth in the town of David. And Jehoram his son became king in his place. 2 And he had brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. 3 And their father gave them much silver and gold and things of great value, as well as walled towns in Judah; but the kingdom he gave to Jehoram, because he was the oldest. 4 Now when Jehoram had taken his place over his father's kingdom, and had made his position safe, he put all his brothers to death with the sword, as well as some of the princes of Israel. 5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for eight years. 6 He went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and did as the family of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife; and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. 7 But it was not the Lord's purpose to send destruction on the family of David, because of the agreement he had made with David, when he said he would give to him and to his sons a light for ever. 8 In his time Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah, and took a king for themselves. 9 Then Jehoram went over with his captains and all his war-carriages ... made an attack by night on the Edomites, whose forces were all round him ... on the captains of the war-carriages. 10 So Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah, to this day: and at the same time Libnah made itself free from his rule; because he was turned away from the Lord, the God of his fathers. 11 And more than this, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, teaching the people of Jerusalem to go after false gods, and guiding Judah away from the true way. 12 And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, The Lord, the God of your father David, says, Because you have not kept to the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or the ways of Asa, king of Judah, 13 But have gone in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the people of Jerusalem go after false gods, as the family of Ahab did: and because you have put to death your father's sons, your brothers, who were better than yourself: 14 Now, truly, the Lord will send a great destruction on your people and your children and your wives and everything which is yours: 15 And you yourself will undergo the cruel pains of a disease in your stomach, so that day by day your inside will be falling out because of the disease. 16 Then the Philistines and the Arabians, who are by Ethiopia, were moved by the Lord to make war on Jehoram; 17 And they came up against Judah, forcing a way into it, and took away all the goods in the king's house, as well as his sons and his wives; so that he had no son but only Jehoahaz, the youngest. 18 And after all this the Lord sent on him a disease of the stomach from which it was impossible for him to be made well. 19 And time went on, and after two years, his inside falling out because of the disease, he came to his death in cruel pain. And his people made no burning for him like the burning made for his fathers. 20 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for eight years: and at his death he was not regretted; they put his body into the earth in the town of David, but not in the resting-place of the kings.

22 And the people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men who came with the Arabians to the army had put all the older sons to death. So Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, became king. 2 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri. 3 He went in the ways of the family of Ahab, for his mother was his teacher in evil-doing. 4 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the family of Ahab did; for after the death of his father they were his guides to his destruction. 5 Acting on their suggestion, he went with Jehoram, son of Ahab, king of Israel, to make war on Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth-gilead: and Joram was wounded by the bowmen. 6 And he went back to Jezreel to get well from the wounds which they had given him at Ramah when he was fighting against Hazael, king of Aram. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to see Jehoram, the son of Ahab, because he was ill. 7 Now by the purpose of God, Ahaziah's journey to see Jehoram was the cause of his downfall: for when he came there, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu, the son of Nimshi, who had been marked out by the Lord for the destruction of the family of Ahab. 8 Now when Jehu was effecting the punishment of the family of Ahab, he came to the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers, the servants of Ahaziah, and put them to death. 9 And he went in search of Ahaziah; and when they came where he was, (for he was in a secret place in Samaria,) they took him to Jehu and put him to death; then they put his body to rest in the earth, for they said, He is the son of Jehoshaphat, whose heart was true to the Lord. So the family of Ahaziah had no power to keep the kingdom. 10 Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she had all the rest of the seed of the kingdom of Judah put to death. 11 But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, secretly took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, away from among the king's sons who were put to death, and put him and the woman who took care of him in a bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest and sister of Ahaziah, kept him safe from Athaliah, so that she did not put him to death. 12 And she kept him safe with her in the house of God for six years, while Athaliah was ruling the land.

23 In the seventh year, Jehoiada made himself strong, and made an agreement with the captains of hundreds, Azariah, the son of Jeroham, Ishmael, the son of Jehohanan, Azariah, the son of Obed, Maaseiah, the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat, the son of Zichri. 2 And they went through Judah, getting together the Levites and the heads of families in Israel from all the towns of Judah, and they came to Jerusalem. 3 And all the people made an agreement with the king in the house of God. And he said to them, Truly, the king's son will be king, as the Lord has said about the sons of David. 4 This is what you are to do: let a third of you, of the priests and Levites, who come in on the Sabbath, keep the doors; 5 And a third are to be stationed at the king's house; and a third at the doorway of the horses: while all the people are waiting in the open spaces round the house of the Lord. 6 But let no one come into the house of the Lord but only the priests and those of the Levites who have work to do there; they may go in for they are holy; but the rest of the people are to keep the orders of the Lord. 7 And the Levites are to make a circle round the king, every man being armed; and any man who comes into the house is to be put to death; you are to keep with the king when he comes in and when he goes out. 8 So the Levites and all Judah did as Jehoiada the priest had given them orders: every one took with him his men, those who were to come in and those who were to go out on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada had not sent away the divisions. 9 Then Jehoiada the priest gave to the captains of hundreds the spears and body-covers which had been King David's and which were kept in the house of God. 10 And he put all the people in position, every man with his instruments of war in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left, by the altar and the house and all round the king. 11 Then they made the king's son come out, and they put the crown on his head and gave him the arm-bands and made him king: and Jehoiada and his sons put the holy oil on him and said, Long life to the king. 12 Now Athaliah, hearing the noise of the people running and praising the king, came to the people in the house of the Lord: 13 And looking, she saw the king in his place by the pillar at the doorway, and the captains and the horns by his side; and all the people of the land were giving signs of joy and sounding the horns; and the makers of melody were playing on instruments of music, taking the chief part in the song of praise. Then Athaliah, violently parting her robes, said, Broken faith, broken faith! 14 Then Jehoiada the priest gave orders to the captains of hundreds who had authority over the army, saying, Take her outside the lines, and let anyone who goes after her be put to death with the sword. For the priest said, Let her not be put to death in the house of the Lord. 15 So they put their hands on her, and she went to the king's house by the doorway of the king's horses; and there she was put to death. 16 And Jehoiada made an agreement between the Lord and all the people and the king, that they would be the Lord's people. 17 Then all the people went to the house of Baal and had it pulled down, and its altars and images broken up; and Mattan, the priest of Baal, they put to death before the altars. 18 And Jehoiada put the work and the care of the house of the Lord into the hands of the priests and the Levites, who had been grouped in divisions by David to make burned offerings to the Lord, as it is recorded in the law of Moses, with joy and song as David had said. 19 And he put door-keepers at the doors of the Lord's house, to see that no one who was unclean in any way might come in. 20 Then he took the captains of hundreds and the chiefs and the rulers of the people and all the people of the land, and they came down with the king from the house of the Lord through the higher doorway into the king's house, and put the king on the seat of the kingdom. 21 So all the people of the land were glad and the town was quiet, for they had put Athaliah to death with the sword.

24 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he was ruling for forty years in Jerusalem: his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. 2 And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as long as Jehoiada the priest was living. 3 And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters. 4 Now after this Joash had a desire to put the house of the Lord into good order again; 5 And getting together the priests and Levites, he said to them, Go out into the towns of Judah year by year, and get from all Israel money to keep the house of your God in good condition; and see that this is done without loss of time. The Levites, however, were slow in doing so. 6 Then the king sent for Jehoiada, the chief priest, and said to him, Why have you not given the Levites orders that the tax fixed by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and by the meeting of Israel, for the Tent of witness, is to be got in from Judah and Jerusalem and handed over? 7 For the house of the Lord had been broken up by Athaliah, that evil woman, and her sons; and all its holy things they had given to the Baals. 8 So at the king's order they made a chest and put it outside the doorway of the house of the Lord. 9 And an order was sent out through all Judah and Jerusalem that payment was to be made to the Lord of the tax which Moses, the servant of God, had put on Israel in the waste land. 10 And all the chiefs and all the people came gladly and put their money into the chest, till they had all given. 11 So when the chest was taken to the king's servants by the Levites, and they saw that there was much money in it, the king's scribe and the chief priest's servant took the money out, and put the chest back in its place. They did this day by day, and got together a great amount of money. 12 Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who were responsible for getting the work done on the Lord's house, and with it they got wall-builders and woodworkers and metal-workers to put the house of the Lord in good order again. 13 So the workmen did their work, making good what was damaged and building up the house of God till it was strong and beautiful again. 14 And when the work was done, they took the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and it was used for making the vessels for the house of the Lord, all the vessels needed for the offerings, the spoons and the vessels of gold and silver. And as long as Jehoiada was living, the regular burned offerings were offered in the house of the Lord. 15 But Jehoiada became old and full of days, and he came to his end; he was a hundred and thirty years old at the time of his death. 16 And they put him into his last resting-place in the town of David, among the kings, because he had done good in Israel for God and for his house. 17 Now after the death of Jehoiada, the chiefs of Judah came and went down on their faces before the king. Then the king gave ear to them. 18 And they gave up the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and became worshippers of pillars of wood and of the images; and because of this sin of theirs, wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem. 19 And the Lord sent them prophets to make them come back to him; and they gave witness against them, but they would not give ear. 20 Then the spirit of God came on Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, and, getting up before the people, he said to them, God has said, Why do you go against the orders of the Lord, so that everything goes badly for you? because you have given up the Lord, he has given you up. 21 But when they had made a secret design against him, he was stoned with stones, by the king's order, in the outer square of the Lord's house. 22 So King Joash did not keep in mind how good Jehoiada his father had been to him, but put his son to death. And in the hour of his death he said, May the Lord see it and take payment! 23 Now in the spring, the army of the Aramaeans came up against him; they came against Judah and Jerusalem, putting to death all the great men of the people and sending all the goods they took from them to the king of Damascus. 24 For though the army of Aram was only a small one, the Lord gave a very great army into their hands, because they had given up the Lord, the God of their fathers. So they put into effect the punishment of Joash. 25 And when they had gone away from him, (for he was broken with disease,) his servants made a secret design against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they put him to death on his bed; and they put his body into the earth in the town of David, but not in the resting-place of the kings. 26 Those who made designs against him were Zabad, the son of Shimeath, an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, the son of Shimrith, a Moabite woman. 27 Now the story of his sons, and all the words said by the prophet against him, and the building up again of the Lord's house, are recorded in the account in the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son became king in his place.

25 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but his heart was not completely true to the Lord. 3 Now when he became strong in the kingdom, he put to death those men who had taken the life of the king his father. 4 But he did not put their children to death, for he kept the orders of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses, saying, The fathers are not to be put to death for their children or the children for their fathers, but a man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done. 5 Then Amaziah got all Judah together and put them in order by their families, even all Judah and Benjamin, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds: and he had those of twenty years old and over numbered, and they came to three hundred thousand of the best fighting-men, trained for war and in the use of the spear and the body-cover. 6 And for a hundred talents of silver, he got a hundred thousand fighting-men from Israel. 7 But a man of God came to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with you; for the Lord is not with Israel, that is, the children of Ephraim. 8 But go yourself, and be strong in war; God will not let you go down before those who are fighting against you; for God has power to give help or to send you down before your attackers. 9 Then Amaziah said to the man of God, But what is to be done about the hundred talents which I have given for the armed band of Israel? And the man of God in answer said, God is able to give you much more than this. 10 So Amaziah, separating the armed band which had come to him from Ephraim, sent them back again; which made them very angry with Judah, and they went back burning with wrath. 11 Then Amaziah took heart, and went out at the head of his people and came to the Valley of Salt, where he put to death ten thousand of the children of Seir; 12 And ten thousand more the children of Israel took living, and made them go up to the top of the rock, pushing them down from the top of the rock so that their bodies were broken by the fall. 13 But the men of the band which Amaziah sent back and did not take with him to the fight, made attacks on the towns of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, putting to death three thousand of their people and taking away a great store of their goods. 14 Now when Amaziah came back from the destruction of the Edomites, he took the gods of the children of Seir and made them his gods, worshipping them and burning offerings before them. 15 And so the wrath of the Lord was moved against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, Why have you gone after the gods of the people who have not given their people salvation from your hands? 16 But while he was talking to him the king said to him, Have we made you one of the king's government? say no more, or it will be the cause of your death. Then the prophet gave up protesting, and said, It is clear to me that God's purpose is your destruction, because you have done this and have not given ear to my words. 17 Then Amaziah, king of Judah, acting on the suggestion of his servants, sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us have a meeting face to face. 18 And Joash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife: and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing the thorn under his feet. 19 You say, See, I have overcome Edom; and your heart is lifted up with pride: now keep in your country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you, in danger of downfall? 20 But Amaziah gave no attention; and this was the purpose of God, so that he might give them up into the hands of Joash, because they had gone after the gods of Edom. 21 And so Joash, king of Israel, went up; and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face at Beth-shemesh in Judah. 22 And Judah was overcome before Israel, and they went in flight, every man to his tent. 23 And Joash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, prisoner at Beth-shemesh, and took him to Jerusalem; and he had the wall of Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the doorway in the angle, four hundred cubits. 24 And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels which were in the house of the Lord, under the care of Obed-edom, and all the wealth from the king's house, as well as those whose lives would be the price of broken faith, and went back to Samaria. 25 Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, went on living for fifteen years after the death of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. 26 Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, are they not recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? 27 Now from the time when Amaziah gave up worshipping the Lord, they made secret designs against him in Jerusalem; and he went in flight to Lachish: but they sent to Lachish after him and put him to death there. 28 And they took his body on horseback and put it into the earth with his fathers in the town of David.

26 Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. 2 He was the builder of Eloth, which he got back for Judah after the death of the king. 3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name was Jechiliah of Jerusalem. 4 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Amaziah had done. 5 He gave himself to searching after God in the days of Zechariah, who made men wise in the fear of God; and as long as he was true to the Lord, God made things go well for him. 6 He went out and made war against the Philistines, pulling down the walls of Gath and Jabneh and Ashdod, and building towns in the country round Ashdod and among the Philistines. 7 And God gave him help against the Philistines, and against the Arabians living in Gur-baal, and against the Meunim. 8 The Ammonites gave offerings to Uzziah: and news of him went out as far as the limit of Egypt; for he became very great in power. 9 Uzziah made towers in Jerusalem, at the doorway in the angle and at the doorway in the valley and at the turn of the wall, arming them. 10 And he put up towers in the waste land and made places for storing water, for he had much cattle, in the low hills and in the table land; and he had farmers and vine-keepers in the mountains and in the fertile land, for he was a lover of farming. 11 In addition, Uzziah had an army of fighting-men who went out to war in bands, as they had been listed by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the ruler, under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king's captains. 12 The heads of families, the strong men of war, were two thousand, six hundred. 13 And under their orders was a trained army of three hundred and seven thousand, five hundred, of great strength in war, helping the king against any who came against him. 14 And Uzziah had all these forces armed with body-covers and spears and head-covers and coats of metal and bows and stones for sending from leather bands. 15 And in Jerusalem he made machines, the invention of expert men, to be placed on the towers and angles of the walls for sending arrows and great stones. And his name was honoured far and wide; for he was greatly helped till he was strong. 16 But when he had become strong, his heart was lifted up in pride, causing his destruction; and he did evil against the Lord his God; for he went into the Temple of the Lord for the purpose of burning perfumes on the altar of perfumes. 17 And Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty of the Lord's priests, who were strong men; 18 And they made protests to Uzziah the king, and said to him, The burning of perfumes, Uzziah, is not your business but that of the priests, the sons of Aaron, who have been made holy for this work: go out of the holy place, for you have done wrong, and it will not be to your honour before God. 19 Then Uzziah was angry; and he had in his hand a vessel for burning perfume; and while his wrath was bitter against the priests, the mark of the leper's disease came out on his brow, before the eyes of the priests in the house of the Lord by the altar of perfumes. 20 And Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests, looking at him, saw the mark of the leper on his brow, and they sent him out quickly and he himself went out straight away, for the Lord's punishment had come on him. 21 So King Uzziah was a leper till the day of his death, living separately in his private house; for he was cut off from the house of God; and Jotham his son was ruling over his house, judging the people of the land. 22 Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, were recorded by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 23 So Uzziah went to rest with his fathers; and they put his body into the earth in the field used for the resting-place of the kings, for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son became king in his place.

27 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years; and his mother's name was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Uzziah had done; but he did not go into the Temple of the Lord. And the people still went on in their evil ways. 3 He put up the higher doorway of the house of the Lord, and did much building on the wall of the Ophel. 4 In addition, he made towns in the hill-country of Judah, and strong buildings and towers in the woodlands. 5 He went to war with the king of the children of Ammon and overcame them. That year, the children of Ammon gave him a hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of grain and ten thousand measures of barley. And the children of Ammon gave him the same amount the second year and the third. 6 So Jotham became strong, because in all his ways he made the Lord his guide. 7 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. 8 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years. 9 And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the earth in the town of David; and Ahaz his son became king in his place.

28 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years; he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father: 2 But he went in the ways of the kings of Israel and made images of metal for the Baals. 3 More than this, he had offerings burned in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and made his children go through fire, copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before the children of Israel. 4 And he made offerings and had perfumes burned in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. 5 So the Lord his God gave him up into the hands of the king of Aram; and they overcame him, and took away a great number of his people as prisoners to Damascus. Then he was given into the hands of the king of Israel, who sent great destruction on him. 6 For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, in one day put to death a hundred and twenty thousand men of Judah, all of them good fighting-men; because they had given up the Lord, the God of their fathers. 7 And Zichri, a great fighting-man of Ephraim, put to death Maaseiah, the king's son, and Azrikam, the controller of his house, and Elkanah, who was second in authority to the king. 8 And the children of Israel took away as prisoners from their brothers, two hundred thousand, women and sons and daughters, and a great store of their goods, and took them to Samaria. 9 But a prophet of the Lord was there, named Oded; and he went out in front of the army which was coming into Samaria and said to them, Truly, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them up into your hands, and you have put them to death in an outburst of wrath stretching up to heaven. 10 And now your purpose is to keep the children of Judah and Jerusalem as men-servants and women-servants under your yoke: but are there no sins against the Lord your God to be seen among yourselves? 11 And now give ear to me, and send back the prisoners whom you have taken from your brothers: for the wrath of the Lord is burning against you. 12 Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshillemoth Jehizkiah, the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, put themselves against those who had come from the war, 13 And said to them, You are not to let these prisoners come here; for what you are designing to do will be a cause of sin against the Lord to us, making even greater our sin and our wrongdoing, which now are great enough, and his wrath is burning against Israel. 14 So the armed men gave up the prisoners and the goods they had taken to the heads and the meeting of the people. 15 And those men who have been named went up and took the prisoners, clothing those among them who were uncovered, with things from the goods which had been taken in the war, and putting robes on them and shoes on their feet; and they gave them food and drink and oil for their bodies, and seating all the feeble among them on asses, they took them to Jericho, the town of palm-trees, to their people, and then went back to Samaria. 16 At that time King Ahaz sent for help to the king of Assyria. 17 For the Edomites had come again, attacking Judah and taking away prisoners. 18 And the Philistines, forcing their way into the towns of the lowlands and the south of Judah, had taken Beth-shemesh and Aijalon and Gederoth and Soco, with their daughter-towns, as well as Timnah and Gimzo and their daughter-towns, and were living there. 19 For the Lord made Judah low, because of Ahaz, king of Israel; for he had given up all self-control in Judah, sinning greatly against the Lord. 20 Then Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came to him, but was a cause of trouble and not of strength to him. 21 For Ahaz took a part of the wealth from the house of the Lord, and from the house of the king and of the great men, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it was no help to him. 22 And in the time of his trouble, this same King Ahaz did even more evil against the Lord. 23 For he made offerings to the gods of Damascus, who were attacking him, and said, Because the gods of the kings of Aram are giving them help, I will make offerings to them so that they may give me help. But they were the cause of his downfall, and of that of all Israel. 24 And Ahaz got together the vessels of the house of God, cutting up all the vessels of the house of God, and shutting the doors of the Lord's house; and he made altars in every part of Jerusalem. 25 And in every town of Judah he made high places where perfumes were burned to other gods, awaking the wrath of the Lord, the God of his fathers. 26 Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27 And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the earth in Jerusalem; but they did not put him in the resting-place of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son became king in his place.

29 Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old; and he was king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. 3 In the first year of his rule, in the first month, opening the doors of the Lord's house, he made them strong. 4 And he sent for the priests and the Levites, and got them together in the wide place on the east side, 5 And said to them, Give ear to me, O Levites: now make yourselves holy, and make holy the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and take away everything unclean from the holy place. 6 For our fathers have done evil, sinning in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have given him up, turning away their faces from the house of the Lord, and turning their backs on him. 7 The doors of his house have been shut and the lights put out; no perfumes have been burned or offerings made to the God of Israel in his holy place. 8 And so the wrath of the Lord has come on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has given them up to be a cause of fear and wonder and shame, as your eyes have seen. 9 For see, our fathers have been put to death with the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives have been taken away prisoners because of this. 10 Now it is my purpose to make an agreement with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from us. 11 My sons, take care now: for you have been marked out by the Lord to come before him and to be his servants, burning offerings to him. 12 Then the Levites took their places; Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, among the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah, the son of Zimmah, and Eden, the son of Joah; 13 And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14 And of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15 And they got their brothers together and made themselves holy, and went in, as the king had said by the word of the Lord, to make the house of the Lord clean. 16 And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to make it clean, and everything unclean which was to be seen in the Temple of the Lord they took out into the outer square of the Lord's house, and the Levites got it together and took it away to the stream Kidron. 17 On the first day of the first month the work of making the house holy was started, and on the eighth day they came to the covered way of the Lord; in eight days they made the Lord's house holy, and on the sixteenth day of the first month the work was done. 18 Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, We have made all the house of the Lord clean, as well as the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and the table for the holy bread, with all its vessels. 19 And all the vessels which were turned out by King Ahaz in his sin while he was king, we have put in order and made holy, and now they are in their places before the altar of the Lord. 20 Then Hezekiah the king got up early, and got together the great men of the town, and went up to the house of the Lord. 21 And they took with them seven oxen and seven male sheep and seven lambs and seven he-goats as a sin-offering for the kingdom and for the holy house and for Judah. And he gave orders to the sons of Aaron, the priests, that these were to be offered on the altar of the Lord. 22 So they put the oxen to death and their blood was given to the priests to be drained out against the altar; then they put the male sheep to death, draining out their blood against the altar, and they put the lambs to death, draining out their blood against the altar. 23 Then they took the he-goats for the sin-offering, placing them before the king and the meeting of the people, and they put their hands on them: 24 And the priests put them to death, and made a sin-offering with their blood on the altar, to take away the sin of all Israel: for the king gave orders that the burned offering and the sin-offering were for all Israel. 25 Then he put the Levites in their places in the house of the Lord, with brass and corded instruments of music as ordered by David and Gad, the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for the order was the Lord's, given by his prophets. 26 So the Levites took their places with David's instruments, and the priests with their horns. 27 And Hezekiah gave the word for the burned offering to be offered on the altar. And when the burned offering was started, then the song of the Lord was started, with the blowing of horns and with all the instruments of David, king of Israel. 28 And all the people gave worship, to the sound of songs and the blowing of horns; and this went on till the burned offering was ended. 29 And at the end of the offering, the king and all who were present with him gave worship with bent heads. 30 Then King Hezekiah and the captains gave orders to the Levites to give praise to God in the words of David and Asaph the seer. And they made songs of praise with joy, and with bent heads gave worship. 31 Then Hezekiah made answer and said, Now that you have given yourselves to the Lord, come near and take offerings and praise-offerings into the house of the Lord. So all the people took in offerings and praise-offerings: and those whose hearts were moved, took in burned offerings. 32 The number of burned offerings which the people took in was seventy oxen, a hundred male sheep, and two hundred lambs: all these were for burned offerings to the Lord. 33 And the holy things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep. 34 There were not enough priests for the work of cutting up all the burned offerings; so their brothers the Levites gave them help till the work was done and the priests had made themselves holy: for the Levites were more upright in heart to make themselves holy than the priests. 35 And there was a great amount of burned offerings, with the fat of the peace-offerings and the drink offerings for every burned offering. So the work of the Lord's house was put in order. 36 And Hezekiah and all the people were full of joy, because God had made the people ready: for the thing was done suddenly.

30 Then Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and sent letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, requesting them to come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel. 2 For the king, after discussion with his chiefs and all the body of the people in Jerusalem, had made a decision to keep the Passover in the second month. 3 It was not possible to keep it at that time, because not enough priests had made themselves holy, and the people had not come together in Jerusalem. 4 And the thing was right in the eyes of the king and all the people. 5 So it was ordered that word was to be sent out through all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that they were to come to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: because they had not kept it in great numbers in agreement with the law. 6 So runners went with letters from the king and his chiefs through all Israel and Judah, by the order of the king, saying, O children of Israel, come back again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may come again to that small band of you which has been kept safe out of the hands of the kings of Assyria. 7 Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were sinners against the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he made them a cause of fear, as you see. 8 Now do not be hard-hearted, as your fathers were; but give yourselves to the Lord, and come into his holy place, which he has made his for ever, and be the servants of the Lord your God, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from you. 9 For if you come back to the Lord, those who took away your brothers and your children will have pity on them, and let them come back to this land: for the Lord your God is full of grace and mercy, and his face will not be turned away from you if you come back to him. 10 So the runners went from town to town through all the country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun: but they were laughed at and made sport of. 11 However, some of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun put away their pride and came to Jerusalem. 12 And in Judah the power of God gave them one heart to do the orders of the king and the captains, which were taken as the word of the Lord. 13 So a very great number of people came together at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month. 14 And they got to work and took away all the altars in Jerusalem, and they put all the vessels for burning perfumes into the stream Kidron. 15 Then on the fourteenth day of the second month they put the Passover lambs to death: and the priests and the Levites were shamed, and made themselves holy and took burned offerings into the house of the Lord. 16 And they took their places in their right order, as it was ordered in the law of Moses, the man of God: the priests draining out on the altar the blood given them by the Levites. 17 For there were still a number of the people there who had not made themselves holy: so the Levites had to put Passover lambs to death for those who were not clean, to make them holy to the Lord. 18 For a great number of the people from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not made themselves clean, but they took the Passover meal, though not in the right way. For Hezekiah had made prayer for them, saying, May the good Lord have mercy on everyone 19 Who, with all his heart, is turned to God the Lord, the God of his fathers, even if he has not been made clean after the rules of the holy place. 20 And the Lord gave ear to Hezekiah, and made the people well. 21 So the children of Israel who were present in Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great joy: and the Levites and the priests gave praise to the Lord day by day, making melody to the Lord with loud instruments. 22 And Hezekiah said kind words to the Levites who were expert in the ordering of the worship of the Lord: so they kept the feast for seven days, offering peace-offerings and praising the Lord, the God of their fathers. 23 And by the desire of all the people, the feast went on for another seven days, and they kept the seven days with joy. 24 For Hezekiah, king of Judah, gave to the people for offerings, a thousand oxen and seven thousand sheep; and the rulers gave a thousand oxen and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests made themselves holy. 25 And all the people of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and those who had come from Israel, and men from other lands who had come from Israel or who were living in Judah, were glad with great joy. 26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for nothing like this had been seen in Jerusalem from the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. 27 Then the priests and the Levites gave the people a blessing: and the voice of their prayer went up to the holy place of God in heaven.

31 Now when all this was over, all the men of Israel who were present went out into the towns of Judah, causing the stone pillars to be broken up and the wood pillars to be cut down, pulling down the high places and the altars in all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, till all were gone. Then all the children of Israel went back to their towns, every man to his property. 2 Then Hezekiah put in order the divisions of the priests and Levites, every man in his division, in relation to his work, for the burned offerings and peace-offerings, and for the ordering of worship and for giving praise at the doors of the Lord's house. 3 And he gave the king's part of his private property for the burned offerings, that is, for the morning and evening offerings, and the offerings for the Sabbath and the new moons and the regular feasts, as it is recorded in the law of the Lord. 4 In addition, he gave orders to the people of Jerusalem to give to the priests and Levites that part which was theirs by right, so that they might be strong in keeping the law of the Lord. 5 And when the order was made public, straight away the children of Israel gave, in great amounts, the first-fruits of their grain and wine and oil and honey, and of the produce of their fields; and they took in a tenth part of everything, a great store. 6 And the children of Israel and Judah, who were living in the towns of Judah came with the tenth part of their oxen and sheep, and a tenth of all the holy things which were to be given to the Lord their God, and put them in great masses. 7 The first store of things was put down in the third month, and in the seventh month the masses were complete. 8 And when Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw all the store of goods, they gave praise to the Lord and to his people Israel. 9 Then Hezekiah put questions to the priests and Levites about the store of goods. 10 And Azariah, the chief priest, of the family of Zadok, said in answer, From the time when the people first came with their offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had food enough, and more than enough: for the blessing of the Lord is on his people; and there is this great store which has not been used. 11 Then Hezekiah said that store-rooms were to be made ready in the house of the Lord; and this was done. 12 And in them they put all the offerings and the tenths and the holy things, keeping nothing back, and over them was Conaniah the Levite, with Shimei his brother second to him. 13 And Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah were overseers, under the directions of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the order of Hezekiah the king and Azariah, the ruler of the house of God. 14 And Kore, the son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the east door, had control of the offerings freely given to God, and the distribution of the offerings of the Lord and the most holy things. 15 And under him were Eden and Miniamin and Jeshua and Shemaiah and Amariah and Shecaniah, in the towns of the priests, who were made responsible for giving it to all their brothers, by divisions, to small and great: 16 As well as to all the males, of three years old and over, listed by their families, who went into the house of the Lord to do what was needed day by day, for their special work with their divisions. 17 And the families of the priests were listed by their fathers' names, but the Levites, of twenty years old and over, were listed in relation to their work in their divisions; 18 And in the lists were all their little ones and their wives and their sons and daughters, through all the people: they made themselves holy in the positions which they were given. 19 And as for the sons of Aaron, the priests, living in the country on the outskirts of their towns, every different town there were men, marked out by name, to give their part of the goods to all the males among the priests, and to all who were listed among the Levites. 20 This Hezekiah did through all Judah; he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. 21 And for everything he undertook, in connection with the work of the house of God and his law and orders, he got directions from God and did it with serious purpose; and things went well for him.

32 Now after these things and this true-hearted work, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came into Judah, and put his army in position before the walled towns of Judah, designing to make his way into them by force. 2 And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come for the purpose of fighting against Jerusalem, 3 He took up with his rulers and men of war the question of stopping up the water-springs outside the town; and they gave him their support. 4 So they got together a great number of people, and had all the water-springs and the stream flowing through the land stopped up, saying, Why let the kings of Assyria come and have much water? 5 Then he took heart, building up the wall where it was broken down, and making its towers higher, and building another wall outside; and he made strong the Millo in the town of David, and got together a great store of all sorts of instruments of war. 6 And he put war chiefs over the people, and sent for them all to come together to him in the wide place at the doorway into the town, and to give them heart he said to them, 7 Be strong and take heart; have no fear, and do not be troubled on account of the king of Assyria and all the great army with him: for there is a greater with us. 8 With him is an arm of flesh; but we have the Lord our God, helping us and fighting for us. And the people put their faith in what Hezekiah, king of Judah, said. 9 After this, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem (at that time he was stationed with all his army in front of Lachish), to say to Hezekiah and all the men of Judah in Jerusalem, 10 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, says, In what are you placing your hope, waiting here in the walled town of Jerusalem? 11 Is it not Hezekiah who has got you to do it, causing your death from need of food and water, by saying, The Lord our God will give us salvation out of the hands of the king of Assyria? 12 Has not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, Give worship before one altar only, burning offerings on it? 13 Have you no knowledge of what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of every land? were the gods of the nations of those lands able to keep their land from falling into my hands? 14 Who was there among all the gods of those nations, which my fathers put to destruction, who was able to keep his people safe from my hands? and is it possible that your God will keep you safe from my hands? 15 So do not be tricked by Hezekiah or let him get you to do this, and do not put any faith in what he says: for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to keep his people safe from my hands, or the hands of my fathers: how much less will your God keep you safe from my hands! 16 And his servants said even more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. 17 And he sent letters, in addition, to put shame on the Lord, the God of Israel, and to say evil against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not been able to keep their people safe from my hands, no more will the God of Hezekiah keep his people safe from my hands. 18 These things they said, crying out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, with the purpose of troubling them and putting fear into them, so that they might take the town; 19 Talking of the God of Jerusalem as if he was like the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men's hands. 20 And Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, made prayer because of this, crying out to heaven. 21 And the Lord sent an angel who put to death all the men of war and the chiefs and the captains in the army of the king of Assyria. So he went back to his country in shame. And when he came into the house of his god, his sons, the offspring of his body, put him to death there with the sword. 22 So the Lord gave Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem salvation from the power of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and from all others, giving them rest on every side. 23 And great numbers came to Jerusalem with offerings for the Lord, and things of great price for Hezekiah, king of Judah: so that he was honoured among all nations from that time. 24 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death; and he made prayer to the Lord, and the Lord in answer gave him a sign. 25 But Hezekiah did not do as had been done to him; for his heart was lifted up in pride; and so wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. 26 But then, Hezekiah, in sorrow for what he had done, put away his pride; and he and all Jerusalem made themselves low, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come on them in Hezekiah's life-time. 27 And Hezekiah had very great wealth and honour; and he made himself store-houses for his gold and silver and jewels and spices, and for body-covers and all sorts of beautiful vessels. 28 And store-houses for the produce of grain and wine and oil; and buildings for all sorts of beasts and flocks. 29 And he made towns for himself, and got together much property in flocks and herds: for God had given him great wealth. 30 It was Hezekiah who had the higher spring of the water of Gihon stopped, and the water taken down on the west side of the town of David. In everything he undertook, Hezekiah did well. 31 However, in the business of the representatives sent by the rulers of Babylon to get news of the wonder which had taken place in the land, God gave up guiding him, testing him to see what was in his heart. 32 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and the good he did, are recorded in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 33 So Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the higher part of the resting-places of the sons of David: and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave him honour at his death. And Manasseh his son became king in his place.

33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was ruling for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before the children of Israel. 3 For he put up again the high places which had been pulled down by his father Hezekiah; and he made altars for the Baals, and pillars of wood, and was a worshipper and servant of all the stars of heaven; 4 And he made altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will my name be for ever. 5 And he made altars for all the stars of heaven in the two outer squares of the house of the Lord. 6 More than this, he made his children go through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he made use of secret arts, and signs for reading the future, and unnatural powers, and gave positions to those who had control of spirits and to wonder-workers: he did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath. 7 And he put the image he had made in the house of God, the house of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: 8 And never again will I let the feet of Israel be moved out of the land which I have given to their fathers; if only they will take care to do all my orders, even all the law and the orders and the rules given to them by Moses. 9 And Manasseh made Judah and the people of Jerusalem go out of the true way, so that they did more evil than those nations whom the Lord gave up to destruction before the children of Israel. 10 And the word of the Lord came to Manasseh and his people, but they gave no attention. 11 So the Lord sent against them the captains of the army of Assyria, who made Manasseh a prisoner and took him away in chains to Babylon. 12 And crying out to the Lord his God in his trouble, he made himself low before the God of his fathers, 13 And made prayer to him; and in answer to his prayer God let him come back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh was certain that the Lord was God. 14 After this he made an outer wall for the town of David, on the west side of Gihon in the valley, as far as the way into the town by the fish doorway; and he put a very high wall round the Ophel; and he put captains of the army in all the walled towns of Judah. 15 He took away the strange gods and the image out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars he had put up on the hill of the Lord's house and in Jerusalem, and put them out of the town. 16 And he put the altar of the Lord in order, offering peace-offerings and praise-offerings on it, and said that all Judah were to be servants of the Lord, the God of Israel. 17 However, the people still made offerings in the high places, but only to the Lord their God. 18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words which the seers said to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are recorded among the acts of the kings of Israel. 19 And the prayer which he made to God, and how God gave him an answer, and all his sin and his wrongdoing, and the places where he made high places and put up pillars of wood and images, before he put away his pride, are recorded in the history of the seers. 20 So Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body to rest in his house, and Amon his son became king in his place. 21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king; and he was ruling for two years in Jerusalem. 22 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done; and Amon made offerings to all the images which his father Manasseh had made, and was their servant. 23 He did not make himself low before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done, but went on sinning more and more. 24 And his servants made a secret design against him, and put him to death in his house. 25 But the people of the land put to death all those who had taken part in the design against King Amon, and made his son Josiah king in his place.

34 Josiah was eight years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. 2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, walking in the ways of his father David, without turning to the right hand or to the left. 3 In the eighth year of his rule, while he was still young, his heart was first turned to the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he undertook the clearing away of all the high places and the pillars and the images of wood and metal from Judah and Jerusalem. 4 He had the altars of the Baals broken down, while he himself was present; and the sun-images which were placed on high over them he had cut down; and the pillars of wood and the metal images he had broken up and crushed to dust, dropping the dust over the resting-places of the dead who had made offerings to them. 5 And he had the bones of the priests burned on their altars, and so he made Judah and Jerusalem clean. 6 And in all the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon as far as Naphtali, he made waste their houses round about. 7 He had the altars and the pillars of wood pulled down and the images crushed to dust, and all the sun-images cut down, through all the land of Israel, and then he went back to Jerusalem. 8 Now in the eighteenth year of his rule, when the land and the house had been made clean, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah, the ruler of the town, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to make good what was damaged in the house of the Lord his God. 9 And they came to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and gave him all the money which had been taken into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the door, had got from Manasseh and Ephraim and those of Israel who had not been taken away as prisoners, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the people of Jerusalem. 10 And they gave it to the overseers of the work of the Lord's house, and the overseers gave it to the workmen working in the house, for building it up and making good what was damaged; 11 Even to the woodworkers and builders to get cut stone and wood for joining the structure together and for making boards for the houses which the kings of Judah had given up to destruction. 12 And the men did the work well; and those who had authority over them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, who were to be responsible for seeing that the work was done; and others of the Levites, who were expert with instruments of music, 13 Had authority over the transport workers, giving directions to all who were doing any sort of work; and among the Levites there were scribes and overseers and door-keepers. 14 Now when they were taking out the money which had come into the Lord's house, Hilkiah the priest came across the book of the law of the Lord, which he had given by the mouth of Moses. 15 Then Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, I have made discovery of the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. 16 And Shaphan took the book to the king; and he gave him an account of what had been done, saying, Your servants are doing all they have been given to do; 17 They have taken out all the money which was in the Lord's house and have given it to the overseers and to the workmen. 18 Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book; and he made a start at reading some of it to the king. 19 And the king, hearing the words of the law, took his robe in his hands, violently parting it as a sign of his grief. 20 And he gave orders to Hilkiah and to Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah, the king's servant, saying, 21 Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for those who are still in Israel and for Judah, about the words of this book which has come to light; for great is the wrath of the Lord which has been let loose on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord or done what is recorded in this book. 22 So Hilkiah, and those whom the king sent, went to Huldah the woman prophet, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the robes (now she was living in Jerusalem, in the second part of the town); and they had talk with her about this thing. 23 And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Say to the man who sent you to me, 24 These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on this place and on its people, even all the curses in the book which they have been reading before the king of Judah; 25 Because they have given me up, burning offerings to other gods and moving me to wrath by all the works of their hands; so my wrath is let loose on this place and will not be put out. 26 But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said: Because you have given ear to my words, 27 And your heart was soft, and you made yourself low before God, on hearing his words about this place and its people, and with weeping and signs of grief have made yourself low before me, I have given ear to you, says the Lord God. 28 See, I will let you go to your fathers, and be put in your last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will send on this place and on its people. So they took this news back to the king. 29 Then the king sent and got together all the responsible men of Judah and of Jerusalem. 30 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites and all the people, small and great; and they were present at his reading of the book of the law which had come to light in the house of the Lord. 31 Then the king, taking his place by the pillar, made an agreement before the Lord, to go in the way of the Lord, and to keep his orders and his decisions and his rules with all his heart and with all his soul, and to keep the words of the agreement recorded in this book. 32 And he made all the people in Jerusalem and Benjamin give their word to keep it. And the people of Jerusalem kept the agreement of God, the God of their fathers. 33 Josiah took away all the disgusting things out of all the lands of the children of Israel, and made all who were in Israel servants of the Lord their God. And as long as he was living they were true to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

35 And Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; on the fourteenth day of the first month they put the Passover lamb to death. 2 And he gave the priests their places, making them strong for the work of the house of God. 3 And he said to the Levites, the teachers of all Israel, who were holy to the Lord, See, the holy ark is in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, made; it will no longer have to be transported on your backs: now be the servants of the Lord your God and his people Israel, 4 And make yourselves ready in your divisions, by your families, as it is ordered in the writings of David, king of Israel, and of Solomon his son; 5 And take your positions in the holy place, grouped in the families of your brothers, the children of the people, and for every division let there be a part of a family of the Levites. 6 And put the Passover lamb to death, and make yourselves holy, and make it ready for your brothers, so that the orders given by the Lord through Moses may be done. 7 And Josiah gave lambs and goats from the flock as Passover offerings for all the people who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand oxen: these were from the king's private property. 8 And his captains freely gave an offering to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand, six hundred small cattle and three hundred oxen. 9 And Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small cattle and five hundred oxen. 10 So everything was made ready and the priests took their places with the Levites in their divisions, as the king had said. 11 And they put the Passover lambs to death, the blood being drained out by the priests when it was given to them, and the Levites did the skinning. 12 And they took away the burned offerings, so that they might give them to be offered to the Lord for the divisions of the families of the people, as it is recorded in the book of Moses. And they did the same with the oxen. 13 And the Passover lamb was cooked over the fire, as it says in the law; and the holy offerings were cooked in pots and basins and vessels, and taken quickly to all the people. 14 And after that, they made ready for themselves and for the priests; for the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burned offerings and the fat till night; so the Levites made ready what was needed for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. 15 And the sons of Asaph, the makers of melody, were in their places, as ordered by David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king's seer; and the door-keepers were stationed at every door: there was no need for them to go away from their places, for their brothers the Levites made ready for them. 16 So everything needed for the worship of the Lord was made ready that same day, for the keeping of the Passover and the offering of burned offerings on the altar of the Lord, as King Josiah had given orders. 17 And all the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread at that time for seven days. 18 No Passover like it had been kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; and not one of the kings of Israel had ever kept a Passover like the one kept by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all those of Judah and Israel who were present, and the people of Jerusalem. 19 In the eighteenth year of the rule of Josiah this Passover was kept. 20 After all this, and after Josiah had put the house in order, Neco, king of Egypt, went up to make war at Carchemish by the river Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him. 21 But he sent representatives to him, saying, What have I to do with you, O king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against those with whom I am at war; and God has given me orders to go forward quickly: keep out of God's way, for he is with me, or he will send destruction on you. 22 However, Josiah would not go back; but keeping to his purpose of fighting against him, and giving no attention to the words of Neco, which came from God, he went forward to the fight in the valley of Megiddo. 23 And the bowmen sent their arrows at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am badly wounded. 24 So his servants took him out of the line of war-carriages, and put him in his second carriage and took him to Jerusalem, where he came to his end, and they put his body in the resting-place of his fathers. And in all Judah and Jerusalem there was great weeping for Josiah. 25 And Jeremiah made a song of grief for Josiah; and to this day Josiah is named by all the makers of melody, men and women, in their songs of grief; they made it a rule in Israel; and the songs are recorded among the songs of grief. 26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and the good he did, in keeping with what is recorded in the law of the Lord, 27 And all his acts, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

36 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father. 2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months. 3 Then the king of Egypt took the kingdom from him in Jerusalem, and put on the land a tax of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, changing his name to Jehoiakim. And Neco took his brother Jehoahaz away to Egypt. 5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God. 6 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him, and took him away in chains to Babylon. 7 And Nebuchadnezzar took away some of the vessels of the Lord's house, and put them in the house of his god in Babylon. 8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and the disgusting things he did, and all there is to be said against him, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah; and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place. 9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months and ten days, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. 10 In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and took him away to Babylon, with the beautiful vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah, his father's brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem. 11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years. 12 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did not make himself low before Jeremiah the prophet who gave him the word of the Lord. 13 And he took up arms against King Nebuchadnezzar, though he had made him take an oath by God; but he made his neck stiff and his heart hard, turning away from the Lord, the God of Israel. 14 And more than this, all the great men of Judah and the priests and the people made their sin great, turning to all the disgusting ways of the nations; and they made unclean the house of the Lord which he had made holy in Jerusalem. 15 And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them by his servants, sending early and frequently, because he had pity on his people and on his living-place; 16 But they put shame on the servants of God, making sport of his words and laughing at his prophets, till the wrath of God was moved against his people, till there was no help. 17 So he sent against them the king of the Chaldaeans, who put their young men to death with the sword in the house of their holy place, and had no pity for any, young man or virgin, old man or white-haired: God gave them all into his hands. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the stored wealth of the Lord's house and the wealth of the king and his chiefs, he took away to Babylon. 19 And the house of God was burned and the wall of Jerusalem broken down; all its great houses were burned with fire and all its beautiful vessels given up to destruction. 20 And all who had not come to death by the sword he took away prisoners to Babylon; and they became servants to him and to his sons till the kingdom of Persia came to power: 21 So that the words of the Lord, which he said by the mouth of Jeremiah, might come true, till the land had had pleasure in her Sabbaths; for as long as she was waste the land kept the Sabbath, till seventy years were complete. 22 Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order that the words which the Lord had said by the mouth of Jeremiah might come true, the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, was moved by the Lord, and he made a public statement and had it given out through all his kingdom and put in writing, saying, 23 Cyrus, king of Persia, has said, All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord, the God of heaven; and he has made me responsible for building a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up.