Bible in 90 Days

King Pekah of Israel

²⁷ In the fifty-second year of the reign of King Uzziah of Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for twenty years. ²⁸ He sinned against the Lord, following the wicked example of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin.

²⁹ It was while Pekah was king that Tiglath Pileser, the emperor of Assyria, captured the cities of Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, and Hazor, and the territories of Gilead, Galilee, and Naphtali, and took the people to Assyria as prisoners.

³⁰ In the twentieth year of the reign of Jotham son of Uzziah as king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah plotted against King Pekah, assassinated him, and succeeded him as king. ³¹ Everything else that Pekah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

King Jotham of Judah^(A)

³² In the second year of the reign of Pekah son of Remaliah as king of Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah became king of Judah ³³ at the age of twenty-five, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years. His mother was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. ³⁴ Following the example of his father Uzziah, Jotham did what was pleasing to the Lord. ³⁵ But the pagan places of worship were not destroyed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. It was Jotham who built the North Gate of the Temple.

³⁶ Everything else that Jotham did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ³⁷ It was while he was king that the Lord first sent King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel to attack Judah. ³⁸ Jotham died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Ahaz succeeded him as king.

King Ahaz of Judah^(B)

16 In the seventeenth year of the reign of Pekah son of Remaliah as king of Israel, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah ² at the age of twenty, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years. He did not follow the good example of his ancestor King David; instead, he did what was not pleasing to the Lord his God ^3 (C)and followed the example of the kings of Israel. He even sacrificed his own son as a burnt offering to idols, imitating the disgusting practice of the people whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the Israelites advanced. ⁴ At the pagan places of worship, on the hills, and under every shady tree, Ahaz offered sacrifices and burned incense.

^5 (D)King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel attacked Jerusalem and besieged it, but could not defeat Ahaz. (⁶ At the same time the king of Edom^[a] regained control of the city of Elath and drove out the Judeans who lived there. The Edomites settled in Elath and still live there.) ⁷ Ahaz sent men to Tiglath Pileser, the emperor of Assyria, with this message: “I am your devoted servant. Come and rescue me from the kings of Syria and of Israel, who are attacking me.” ⁸ Ahaz took the silver and gold from the Temple and the palace treasury, and sent it as a present to the emperor. ⁹ Tiglath Pileser, in answer to Ahaz' plea, marched out with his army against Damascus, captured it, killed King Rezin, and took the people to Kir as prisoners.

¹⁰ When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Emperor Tiglath Pileser, he saw the altar there and sent back to Uriah the priest an exact model of it, down to the smallest details. ¹¹ So Uriah built an altar just like it and finished it before Ahaz returned. ¹² On his return from Damascus, Ahaz saw that the altar was finished, ¹³ so he burned animal sacrifices and grain offerings on it and poured a wine offering and the blood of a fellowship offering on it. ^14 (E)The bronze altar dedicated to the Lord was between the new altar and the Temple, so Ahaz moved it to the north side of his new altar. ¹⁵ Then he ordered Uriah: “Use this large altar of mine for the morning burnt offerings and the evening grain offerings, for the burnt offerings and grain offerings of the king and the people, and for the people's wine offerings. Pour on it the blood of all the animals that are sacrificed. But keep the bronze altar for me to use for divination.” ¹⁶ Uriah did as the king commanded.

^17 (F)King Ahaz took apart the bronze carts used in the Temple and removed the basins that were on them. He also took the bronze tank from the backs of the twelve bronze bulls and placed it on a stone foundation. ¹⁸ And in order to please the Assyrian emperor, Ahaz also removed from the Temple the platform for the royal throne and closed up the king's private entrance to the Temple.^[b]

¹⁹ Everything else that King Ahaz did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

^20 (G)Ahaz died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City, and his son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.

King Hoshea of Israel

17 In the twelfth year of the reign of King Ahaz of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for nine years. ² He sinned against the Lord, but not as much as the kings who had ruled Israel before him. ³ Emperor Shalmaneser of Assyria made war against him; Hoshea surrendered to Shalmaneser and paid him tribute every year. ⁴ But one year Hoshea sent messengers to So, king of Egypt,^[c] asking for his help, and stopped paying the annual tribute to Assyria. When Shalmaneser learned of this, he had Hoshea arrested and put in prison.

The Fall of Samaria

⁵ Then Shalmaneser invaded Israel and besieged Samaria. In the third year of the siege, ⁶ which was the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the Assyrian emperor^[d] captured Samaria, took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners, and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the Habor River in the district of Gozan and some in the cities of Media.

⁷ Samaria fell because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the king of Egypt and had led them out of Egypt. They worshiped other gods, ⁸ followed the customs of the people whom the Lord had driven out as his people advanced, and adopted customs introduced by the kings of Israel.^{[e] 9} The Israelites did^[f] things that the Lord their God disapproved of. They built pagan places of worship in all their towns, from the smallest village to the largest city. ^10 (H)On all the hills and under every shady tree they put up stone pillars and images of the goddess Asherah, ¹¹ and they burned incense on all the pagan altars, following the practice of the people whom the Lord had driven out of the land. They aroused the Lord's anger with all their wicked deeds ¹² and disobeyed the Lord's command not to worship idols.

¹³ The Lord had sent his messengers and prophets to warn Israel and Judah: “Abandon your evil ways and obey my commands, which are contained in the Law I gave to your ancestors and which I handed on to you through my servants the prophets.” ¹⁴ But they would not obey; they were stubborn like their ancestors, who had not trusted in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They refused to obey his instructions, they did not keep the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and they disregarded his warnings. They worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves, and they followed the customs of the surrounding nations, disobeying the Lord's command not to imitate them. ^16 (I)They broke all the laws of the Lord their God and made two metal bull-calves to worship; they also made an image of the goddess Asherah, worshiped the stars, and served the god Baal. ^17 (J)They sacrificed their sons and daughters as burnt offerings to pagan gods; they consulted mediums and fortunetellers, and they devoted themselves completely to doing what is wrong in the Lord's sight, and so aroused his anger. ¹⁸ The Lord was angry with the Israelites and banished them from his sight, leaving only the kingdom of Judah.

¹⁹ But even the people of Judah did not obey the laws of the Lord their God; they imitated the customs adopted by the people of Israel. ²⁰ The Lord rejected all the Israelites, punishing them and handing them over to cruel enemies until at last he had banished them from his sight.

²¹ After the Lord had separated Israel from Judah, the Israelites made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam caused them to abandon the Lord and led them into terrible sins. ²² They followed Jeroboam and continued to practice all the sins he had committed, ²³ until at last the Lord banished them from his sight, as he had warned through his servants the prophets that he would do. So the people of Israel were taken into exile to Assyria, where they still live.

The Assyrians Settle in Israel

²⁴ The emperor of Assyria took people from the cities of Babylon, Cuth, Ivvah, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria^[g] in place of the exiled Israelites. They took possession of these cities and lived there. ²⁵ When they first settled there, they did not worship the Lord, and so he sent lions, which killed some of them. ²⁶ The emperor of Assyria was told that the people he had settled in the cities of Samaria did not know the law of the god of that land, and so the god had sent lions, which were killing them. ²⁷ So the emperor commanded: “Send back one of the priests we brought as prisoners; have him^[h] go back and live there, in order to teach the people the law of the god of that land.” ²⁸ So an Israelite priest who had been deported from Samaria went and lived in Bethel, where he taught the people how to worship the Lord.

²⁹ But the people who settled in Samaria continued to make their own idols, and they placed them in the shrines that the Israelites had built. Each different group made idols in the cities they were living in: ³⁰ the people of Babylon made idols of the god Succoth Benoth; the people of Cuth, idols of Nergal; the people of Hamath, idols of Ashima; ³¹ the people of Ivvah, idols of Nibhaz and Tartak; and the people of Sepharvaim sacrificed their children as burnt offerings to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech. ³² These people also worshiped the Lord and chose from among their own number all sorts of people to serve as priests at the pagan places of worship and to offer sacrifices for them there. ³³ So they worshiped the Lord, but they also worshiped their own gods according to the customs of the countries from which they had come.

^34 (K)They still carry on their old customs to this day. They do not worship the Lord nor do they obey the laws and commands which he gave to the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel. ^35 (L)The Lord had made a covenant with them and had ordered them: “Do not worship other gods; do not bow down to them or serve them or offer sacrifices to them. ^36 (M)You shall obey me, the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt with great power and strength; you are to bow down to me and offer sacrifices to me. ³⁷ You shall always obey the laws and commands that I wrote for you. You shall not obey other gods, ³⁸ and you shall not forget the covenant I made with you. ³⁹ You shall obey me, the Lord your God, and I will rescue you from your enemies.” ⁴⁰ But those people would not listen, and they continued to follow their old customs.

⁴¹ So those people worshiped the Lord, but they also worshiped their idols; and to this day their descendants continue to do the same.

King Hezekiah of Judah^(N)

18 In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah as king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah ² at the age of twenty-five, and he ruled in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ³ Following the example of his ancestor King David, he did what was pleasing to the Lord. ^4 (O)He destroyed the pagan places of worship, broke the stone pillars, and cut down the images of the goddess Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze snake that Moses had made, which was called Nehushtan. Up to that time the people of Israel had burned incense in its honor. ⁵ Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; Judah never had another king like him, either before or after his time. ⁶ He was faithful to the Lord and never disobeyed him, but carefully kept all the commands that the Lord had given Moses. ⁷ So the Lord was with him, and he was successful in everything he did. He rebelled against the emperor of Assyria and refused to submit to him. ⁸ He defeated the Philistines and raided their settlements, from the smallest village to the largest city, including Gaza and its surrounding territory.

⁹ In the fourth year of Hezekiah's reign—which was the seventh year of King Hoshea's reign over Israel—Emperor Shalmaneser of Assyria invaded Israel and besieged Samaria. ¹⁰ In the third year of the siege Samaria fell; this was the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign and the ninth year of Hoshea's reign. ¹¹ The Assyrian emperor^[i] took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the Habor River in the district of Gozan, and some in the cities of Media.

¹² Samaria fell because the Israelites did not obey the Lord their God, but broke the covenant he had made with them and disobeyed all the laws given by Moses, the servant of the Lord. They would not listen and they would not obey.

The Assyrians Threaten Jerusalem^(P)

¹³ In the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, attacked the fortified cities of Judah and conquered them. ¹⁴ Hezekiah sent a message to Sennacherib, who was in Lachish: “I have done wrong; please stop your attack, and I will pay whatever you demand.” The emperor's answer was that Hezekiah should send him ten tons of silver and one ton of gold. ¹⁵ Hezekiah sent him all the silver in the Temple and in the palace treasury; ¹⁶ he also stripped the gold from the temple doors and the gold with which he himself had covered the doorposts, and he sent it all to Sennacherib. ¹⁷ The Assyrian emperor sent a large army from Lachish to attack Hezekiah at Jerusalem; it was commanded by his three highest officials. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they occupied the road where the cloth makers work by the ditch that brings water from the upper pool. ¹⁸ Then they sent for King Hezekiah, and three of his officials went out to meet them: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace; Shebna, the court secretary; and Joah son of Asaph, who was in charge of the records. ¹⁹ One of the Assyrian officials told them that the emperor wanted to know what made King Hezekiah so confident. ²⁰ He demanded, “Do you think that words can take the place of military skill and might? Who do you think will help you rebel against Assyria? ²¹ You are expecting Egypt to help you, but that would be like using a reed as a walking stick—it would break and jab your hand. That is what the king of Egypt is like when anyone relies on him.”

²² The Assyrian official went on, “Or will you tell me that you are relying on the Lord your God? It was the Lord's shrines and altars that Hezekiah destroyed, when he told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship only at the altar in Jerusalem. ²³ I will make a bargain with you in the name of the emperor. I will give you two thousand horses if you can find that many men to ride them! ²⁴ You are no match for even the lowest ranking Assyrian official, and yet you expect the Egyptians to send you chariots and cavalry! ²⁵ Do you think I have attacked your country and destroyed it without the Lord's help? The Lord himself told me to attack it and destroy it.”

²⁶ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah told the official, “Speak Aramaic to us, sir. We understand it. Don't speak Hebrew; all the people on the wall are listening.”

²⁷ He replied, “Do you think you and the king are the only ones the emperor sent me to say all these things to? No, I am also talking to the people who are sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their excrement and drink their urine, just as you will.”

²⁸ Then the official stood up and shouted in Hebrew, “Listen to what the emperor of Assyria is telling you! ²⁹ He warns you not to let Hezekiah deceive you. Hezekiah can't save you. ³⁰ And don't let him persuade you to rely on the Lord. Don't think that the Lord will save you and that he will stop our Assyrian army from capturing your city. ³¹ Don't listen to Hezekiah. The emperor of Assyria commands you to come out of the city and surrender. You will all be allowed to eat grapes from your own vines and figs from your own trees, and to drink water from your own wells— ³² until the emperor resettles you in a country much like your own, where there are vineyards to give wine and there is grain for making bread; it is a land of olives, olive oil, and honey. If you do what he commands, you will not die, but live. Don't let Hezekiah fool you into thinking that the Lord will rescue you. ³³ Did the gods of any other nations save their countries from the emperor of Assyria? ³⁴ Where are they now, the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Did anyone save Samaria? ³⁵ When did any of the gods of all these countries ever save their country from our emperor? Then what makes you think the Lord can save Jerusalem?”

³⁶ The people kept quiet, just as King Hezekiah had told them to; they did not say a word. ³⁷ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah tore their clothes in grief, and went and reported to the king what the Assyrian official had said.

The King Asks Isaiah's Advice^(Q)

19 As soon as King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes in grief, put on sackcloth, and went to the Temple of the Lord. ² He sent Eliakim, the official in charge of the palace, Shebna, the court secretary, and the senior priests to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They also were wearing sackcloth. ³ This is the message which he told them to give Isaiah: “Today is a day of suffering; we are being punished and are in disgrace. We are like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is too weak to do it. ⁴ The Assyrian emperor has sent his chief official to insult the living God. May the Lord your God hear these insults and punish those who spoke them. So pray to God for those of our people who survive.”

⁵ When Isaiah received King Hezekiah's message, ⁶ he sent back this answer: “The Lord tells you not to let the Assyrians frighten you with their claims that he cannot save you. ⁷ The Lord will cause the emperor to hear a rumor that will make him go back to his own country, and the Lord will have him killed there.”

The Assyrians Send Another Threat^(R)

⁸ The Assyrian official learned that the emperor had left Lachish and was fighting against the nearby city of Libnah; so he went there to consult him. ⁹ Word reached the Assyrians that the Egyptian army, led by King Tirhakah of Ethiopia,^[j] was coming to attack them. When the emperor heard this, he sent a letter to King Hezekiah of Judah ¹⁰ to tell him, “The god you are trusting in has told you that you will not fall into my hands, but don't let that deceive you. ¹¹ You have heard what an Assyrian emperor does to any country he decides to destroy. Do you think that you can escape? ¹² My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and killed the people of Betheden who lived in Telassar, and none of their gods could save them. ¹³ Where are the kings of the cities of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?”

¹⁴ King Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went to the Temple, placed the letter there in the presence of the Lord, ^15 (S)and prayed, “O Lord, the God of Israel, seated on your throne above the winged creatures, you alone are God, ruling all the kingdoms of the world. You created the earth and the sky. ¹⁶ Now, Lord, look at what is happening to us. Listen to all the things that Sennacherib is saying to insult you, the living God. ¹⁷ We all know, Lord, that the emperors of Assyria have destroyed many nations, made their lands desolate, ¹⁸ and burned up their gods—which were no gods at all, only images of wood and stone made by human hands. ¹⁹ Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that only you, O Lord, are God.”

Isaiah's Message to the King^(T)

²⁰ Then Isaiah sent a message telling King Hezekiah that in answer to the king's prayer ²¹ the Lord had said, “The city of Jerusalem laughs at you, Sennacherib, and makes fun of you. ²² Whom do you think you have been insulting and ridiculing? You have been disrespectful to me, the holy God of Israel. ²³ You sent your messengers to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests. ²⁴ You boasted that you dug wells and drank water in foreign lands and that the feet of your soldiers tramped the Nile River dry.

²⁵ “Have you never heard that I planned all this long ago? And now I have carried it out. I gave you the power to turn fortified cities into piles of rubble. ²⁶ The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.^[k]

²⁷ “But I know everything about you, what you do and where you go. I know how you rage against me. ²⁸ I have received the report of that rage and that pride of yours, and now I will put a hook through your nose and a bit in your mouth, and take you back by the same road you came.”

²⁹ Then Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, “Here is a sign of what will happen. This year and next you will have only wild grain to eat, but the following year you will be able to plant your grain and harvest it, and plant vines and eat grapes. ³⁰ Those in Judah who survive will flourish like plants that send roots deep into the ground and produce fruit. ³¹ There will be people in Jerusalem and on Mount Zion who will survive, because the Lord is determined to make this happen.

³² “And this is what the Lord has said about the Assyrian emperor: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot a single arrow against it. No soldiers with shields will come near the city, and no siege mounds will be built around it. ³³ He will go back by the same road he came, without entering this city. I, the Lord, have spoken. ³⁴ I will defend this city and protect it, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.’”

³⁵ That night an angel of the Lord went to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 soldiers. At dawn the next day there they lay, all dead! ³⁶ Then the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib withdrew and returned to Nineveh. ³⁷ One day, when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, two of his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, killed him with their swords and then escaped to the land of Ararat. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon, succeeded him as emperor.

King Hezekiah's Illness and Recovery^(U)

20 About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to see him and said to him, “The Lord tells you that you are to put everything in order, because you will not recover. Get ready to die.”

² Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed: ³ “Remember, Lord, that I have served you faithfully and loyally and that I have always tried to do what you wanted me to.” And he began to cry bitterly.

⁴ Isaiah left the king, but before he had passed through the central courtyard of the palace the Lord told him ⁵ to go back to Hezekiah, ruler of the Lord's people, and say to him, “I, the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and in three days you will go to the Temple. ⁶ I will let you live fifteen years longer. I will rescue you and this city Jerusalem from the emperor of Assyria. I will defend this city, for the sake of my own honor and because of the promise I made to my servant David.”

⁷ Then Isaiah told the king's attendants to put on his boil a paste made of figs, and he would get well.^{[l] 8} King Hezekiah asked, “What is the sign to prove that the Lord will heal me and that three days later I will be able to go to the Temple?”

⁹ Isaiah replied, “The Lord will give you a sign to prove that he will keep his promise. Now, would you prefer to have the shadow on the stairway go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”^[m]

¹⁰ Hezekiah answered, “It's easy to have the shadow go forward ten steps!^[n] Have it go back ten steps.”^[o]

¹¹ Isaiah prayed to the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back ten steps^[p] on the stairway^[q] set up by King Ahaz.

Messengers from Babylonia^(V)

¹² About that same time the king of Babylonia, Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, heard that King Hezekiah had been sick, so he sent him a letter and a present. ¹³ Hezekiah welcomed the messengers and showed them his wealth—his silver and gold, his spices and perfumes, and all his military equipment. There was nothing in his storerooms or anywhere in his kingdom that he did not show them. ¹⁴ Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did these men come from and what did they say to you?”

Hezekiah answered, “They came from a very distant country, from Babylonia.”

¹⁵ “What did they see in the palace?”

“They saw everything. There is nothing in the storerooms that I didn't show them.”

¹⁶ Isaiah then told the king, “The Lord Almighty says that ^17 (W)a time is coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have stored up to this day, will be carried off to Babylonia. Nothing will be left. ^18 (X)Some of your own direct descendants will be taken away and made eunuchs to serve in the palace of the king of Babylonia.”

¹⁹ King Hezekiah understood this to mean that there would be peace and security during his lifetime, so he replied, “The message you have given me from the Lord is good.”

The End of Hezekiah's Reign^(Y)

²⁰ Everything else that King Hezekiah did, his brave deeds, and an account of how he built a reservoir and dug a tunnel to bring water into the city, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

²¹ Hezekiah died, and his son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

King Manasseh of Judah^(Z)

21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. His mother was Hephzibah. ^2 (AA)Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against the Lord. ³ He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he built altars for the worship of Baal and made an image of the goddess Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done. Manasseh also worshiped the stars. ^4 (AB)He built pagan altars in the Temple, the place that the Lord had said was where he should be worshiped. ⁵ In the two courtyards of the Temple he built altars for the worship of the stars. ⁶ He sacrificed his son as a burnt offering. He practiced divination and magic and consulted^[r] fortunetellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the Lord and stirred up his anger. ^7 (AC)He placed the symbol of the goddess Asherah in the Temple, the place about which the Lord had said to David and his son Solomon: “Here in Jerusalem, in this Temple, is the place that I have chosen out of all the territory of the twelve tribes of Israel as the place where I am to be worshiped. ⁸ And if the people of Israel will obey all my commands and keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them, then I will not allow them to be driven out of the land that I gave to their ancestors.” ⁹ But the people of Judah did not obey the Lord, and Manasseh led them to commit even greater sins than those committed by the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the land as his people advanced.

¹⁰ Through his servants the prophets the Lord said, ¹¹ “King Manasseh has done these disgusting things, things far worse than what the Canaanites did; and with his idols he has led the people of Judah into sin. ¹² So I, the Lord God of Israel, will bring such a disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will be stunned. ¹³ I will punish Jerusalem as I did Samaria, as I did King Ahab of Israel and his descendants. I will wipe Jerusalem clean of its people, as clean as a plate that has been wiped and turned upside down. ¹⁴ I will abandon the people who survive, and will hand them over to their enemies, who will conquer them and plunder their land. ¹⁵ I will do this to my people because they have sinned against me and have stirred up my anger from the time their ancestors came out of Egypt to this day.”

¹⁶ Manasseh killed so many innocent people that the streets of Jerusalem were flowing with blood; he did this in addition to leading the people of Judah into idolatry, causing them to sin against the Lord.

¹⁷ Everything else that Manasseh did, including the sins he committed, is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ¹⁸ Manasseh died and was buried in the palace garden, the garden of Uzza, and his son Amon succeeded him as king.

King Amon of Judah^(AD)

¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years. His mother was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz from the town of Jotbah. ²⁰ Like his father Manasseh, he sinned against the Lord; ²¹ he imitated his father's actions, and he worshiped the idols that his father had worshiped. ²² He rejected the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and disobeyed the Lord's commands.

²³ Amon's officials plotted against him and assassinated him in the palace. ²⁴ The people of Judah killed Amon's assassins and made his son Josiah king.

²⁵ Everything else that Amon did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ²⁶ Amon was buried in the tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah succeeded him as king.

King Josiah of Judah^(AE)

22 ^(AF)Josiah was eight years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. His mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from the town of Bozkath. ² Josiah did what was pleasing to the Lord; he followed the example of his ancestor King David, strictly obeying all the laws of God.

The Book of the Law Is Discovered^(AG)

³ In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the court secretary Shaphan, the son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshullam, to the Temple with the order: ⁴ “Go to the High Priest Hilkiah and get a report on the amount of money that the priests on duty at the entrance to the Temple have collected from the people. ⁵ Tell him to give the money to the men who are in charge of the repairs in the Temple. They are to pay ⁶ the carpenters, the builders, and the masons, and buy the timber and the stones used in the repairs. ^7 (AH)The men in charge of the work are thoroughly honest, so there is no need to require them to account for the funds.”

⁸ Shaphan delivered the king's order to Hilkiah, and Hilkiah told him that he had found the book of the Law in the Temple. Hilkiah gave him the book, and Shaphan read it. ⁹ Then he went back to the king and reported: “Your servants have taken the money that was in the Temple and have handed it over to the men in charge of the repairs.” ¹⁰ And then he said, “I have here a book that Hilkiah gave me.” And he read it aloud to the king.

¹¹ When the king heard the book being read, he tore his clothes in dismay, ¹² and gave the following order to Hilkiah the priest, to Ahikam son of Shaphan, to Achbor son of Micaiah, to Shaphan, the court secretary, and to Asaiah, the king's attendant: ¹³ “Go and consult the Lord for me and for all the people of Judah about the teachings of this book. The Lord is angry with us because our ancestors have not done what this book says must be done.”

¹⁴ Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to consult a woman named Huldah, a prophet who lived in the newer part of Jerusalem. (Her husband Shallum, the son of Tikvah and grandson of Harhas, was in charge of the Temple robes.) They described to her what had happened, ¹⁵ and she told them to go back to the king and give him ¹⁶ the following message from the Lord: “I am going to punish Jerusalem and all its people, as written in the book that the king has read. ¹⁷ They have rejected me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and so have stirred up my anger by all they have done. My anger is aroused against Jerusalem, and it will not die down. ¹⁸ As for the king himself, this is what I, the Lord God of Israel, say: You listened to what is written in the book, ¹⁹ and you repented and humbled yourself before me, tearing your clothes and weeping, when you heard how I threatened to punish Jerusalem and its people. I will make it a terrifying sight, a place whose name people will use as a curse. But I have heard your prayer, ²⁰ and the punishment which I am going to bring on Jerusalem will not come until after your death. I will let you die in peace.”

The men returned to King Josiah with this message.

Josiah Does Away with Pagan Worship^(AI)

23 King Josiah summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, ² and together they went to the Temple, accompanied by the priests and the prophets and all the rest of the people, rich and poor alike. Before them all the king read aloud the whole book of the covenant which had been found in the Temple. ³ He stood by the royal column and made a covenant with the Lord to obey him, to keep his laws and commands with all his heart and soul, and to put into practice the demands attached to the covenant, as written in the book. And all the people promised to keep the covenant.

^4 (AJ)Then Josiah ordered the High Priest Hilkiah, his assistant priests, and the guards on duty at the entrance to the Temple to bring out of the Temple all the objects used in the worship of Baal, of the goddess Asherah, and of the stars. The king burned all these objects outside the city near Kidron Valley and then had the ashes taken to Bethel. ⁵ He removed from office the priests that the kings of Judah had ordained to offer sacrifices^[s] on the pagan altars in the cities of Judah and in places near Jerusalem—all the priests who offered sacrifices to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars. ⁶ He removed from the Temple the symbol of the goddess Asherah, took it out of the city to Kidron Valley, burned it, pounded its ashes to dust, and scattered it over the public burying ground. ⁷ He destroyed the living quarters in the Temple occupied by the temple prostitutes.^[t] (It was there that women wove robes used in the worship of Asherah.) ⁸ He brought to Jerusalem the priests who were in the cities of Judah, and throughout the whole country he desecrated the altars where they had offered sacrifices. He also tore down the altars dedicated to the goat demons near the gate built by Joshua, the city governor, which was to the left of the main gate as one enters the city. ⁹ Those priests were not allowed to serve in the Temple, but they could eat the unleavened bread provided for their fellow priests.

^10 (AK)King Josiah also desecrated Topheth, the pagan place of worship in Hinnom Valley, so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter as a burnt offering to the god Molech. ¹¹ He also removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the worship of the sun, and he burned the chariots used in this worship. (These were kept in the temple courtyard, near the gate and not far from the living quarters of Nathan Melech, a high official.) ^12 (AL)The altars which the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above King Ahaz' quarters, King Josiah tore down, along with the altars put up by King Manasseh in the two courtyards of the Temple; he smashed the altars to bits^[u] and threw them into Kidron Valley. ^13 (AM)Josiah desecrated the altars that King Solomon had built east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Olives,^[v] for the worship of disgusting idols—Astarte the goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Molech the god of Ammon. ¹⁴ King Josiah broke the stone pillars to pieces, cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah, and the ground where they had stood he covered with human bones.

^15 (AN)Josiah also tore down the place of worship in Bethel, which had been built by King Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin. Josiah pulled down the altar, broke its stones into pieces,^[w] and pounded them to dust; he also burned the image of Asherah. ^16 (AO)Then Josiah looked around and saw some tombs there on the hill; he had the bones taken out of them and burned on the altar. In this way he desecrated the altar, doing what the prophet had predicted long before during the festival as King Jeroboam was standing by the altar. King Josiah looked around and saw the tomb of the prophet^[x] who had made this prediction. ^17 (AP)“Whose tomb is that?” he asked.

The people of Bethel answered, “It is the tomb of the prophet who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done to this altar.”

¹⁸ “Leave it as it is,” Josiah ordered. “His bones are not to be moved.”

So his bones were not moved, neither were those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

¹⁹ In every city of Israel King Josiah tore down all the pagan places of worship which had been built by the kings of Israel, who thereby aroused the Lord's anger. He did to all those altars what he had done in Bethel. ²⁰ He killed all the pagan priests on the altars where they served, and he burned human bones on every altar. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah Celebrates the Passover^(AQ)

²¹ King Josiah ordered the people to celebrate the Passover in honor of the Lord their God, as written in the book of the covenant. ²² No Passover like this one had ever been celebrated by any of the kings of Israel or of Judah, since the time when judges ruled the nation. ²³ Now at last, in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, the Passover was celebrated in Jerusalem.

Other Changes Made by Josiah

²⁴ In order to enforce the laws written in the book that the High Priest Hilkiah had found in the Temple, King Josiah removed from Jerusalem and the rest of Judah all the mediums and fortunetellers, and all the household gods, idols, and all other pagan objects of worship. ²⁵ There had never been a king like him before, who served the Lord with all his heart, mind, and strength, obeying all the Law of Moses; nor has there been a king like him since.

²⁶ But the Lord's fierce anger had been aroused against Judah by what King Manasseh had done, and even now it did not die down. ²⁷ The Lord said, “I will do to Judah what I have done to Israel: I will banish the people of Judah from my sight, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and the Temple, the place I said was where I should be worshiped.”

The End of Josiah's Reign^(AR)

²⁸ Everything else that King Josiah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ²⁹ While Josiah was king, King Neco of Egypt led an army to the Euphrates River to help the emperor of Assyria. King Josiah tried to stop the Egyptian army at Megiddo and was killed in battle. ³⁰ His officials placed his body in a chariot and took it back to Jerusalem, where he was buried in the royal tombs.

The people of Judah chose Josiah's son Joahaz and anointed him king.

King Joahaz of Judah^(AS)

³¹ Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from the city of Libnah. ³² Following the example of his ancestors, he sinned against the Lord. ³³ His reign ended when King Neco of Egypt took him prisoner in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, and made Judah pay 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold as tribute. ^34 (AT)King Neco made Josiah's son Eliakim king of Judah as successor to Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Joahaz was taken to Egypt by King Neco, and there he died.

King Jehoiakim of Judah^(AU)

³⁵ King Jehoiakim collected a tax from the people in proportion to their wealth, in order to raise the amount needed to pay the tribute demanded by the king of Egypt.

^36 (AV)Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah from the town of Rumah. ³⁷ Following the example of his ancestors, Jehoiakim sinned against the Lord.

24 ^(AW)While Jehoiakim was king, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded Judah, and for three years Jehoiakim was forced to submit to his rule; then he rebelled. ² The Lord sent armed bands of Babylonians, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites against Jehoiakim to destroy Judah, as the Lord had said through his servants the prophets that he would do. ³ This happened at the Lord's command, in order to banish the people of Judah from his sight because of all the sins that King Manasseh had committed, ⁴ and especially because of all the innocent people he had killed. The Lord could not forgive Manasseh for that.

⁵ Everything that Jehoiakim did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah. ⁶ Jehoiakim died, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

⁷ The king of Egypt and his army never marched out of Egypt again, because the king of Babylonia now controlled all the territory that had belonged to Egypt, from the Euphrates River to the northern border of Egypt.

King Jehoiachin of Judah^(AX)

⁸ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months. His mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem. ⁹ Following the example of his father, Jehoiachin sinned against the Lord.

¹⁰ It was during his reign that the Babylonian army, commanded by King Nebuchadnezzar's officers, marched against Jerusalem and besieged it. ¹¹ During the siege Nebuchadnezzar himself came to Jerusalem, ^12 (AY)and King Jehoiachin, along with his mother, his sons, his officers, and the palace officials, surrendered to the Babylonians. In the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign he took Jehoiachin prisoner ¹³ and carried off to Babylon all the treasures in the Temple and the palace. As the Lord had foretold, Nebuchadnezzar broke up all the gold utensils which King Solomon had made for use in the Temple. ¹⁴ Nebuchadnezzar carried away as prisoners the people of Jerusalem, all the royal princes, and all the leading men, ten thousand in all. He also deported all the skilled workers, including the blacksmiths, leaving only the poorest of the people behind in Judah.

^15 (AZ)Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin to Babylon as a prisoner, together with Jehoiachin's mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of Judah. ¹⁶ Nebuchadnezzar deported all the important men to Babylonia, seven thousand in all, and one thousand skilled workers, including the blacksmiths, all of them able-bodied men fit for military duty.

^17 (BA)Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah king of Judah and changed his name to Zedekiah.

King Zedekiah of Judah^(BB)

^18 (BC)Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from the city of Libnah. ¹⁹ King Zedekiah sinned against the Lord, just as King Jehoiakim had done. ^20 (BD)The Lord became so angry with the people of Jerusalem and Judah that he banished them from his sight.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(BE)

25 ^(BF)Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, and so Nebuchadnezzar came with all his army and attacked Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign. They set up camp outside the city, built siege walls around it, ² and kept it under siege until Zedekiah's eleventh year. ³ On the ninth day of the fourth month^[y] of that same year, when the famine was so bad that the people had nothing left to eat, ^4 (BG)the city walls were broken through. Although the Babylonians were surrounding the city, all the soldiers escaped during the night. They left by way of the royal garden, went through the gateway connecting the two walls, and fled in the direction of the Jordan Valley. ⁵ But the Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah, captured him in the plains near Jericho, and all his soldiers deserted him. ⁶ Zedekiah was taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, who was in the city of Riblah, and there Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him. ^7 (BH)While Zedekiah was looking on, his sons were put to death; then Nebuchadnezzar had Zedekiah's eyes put out, placed him in chains, and took him to Babylon.

The Destruction of the Temple^(BI)

⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, Nebuzaradan, adviser to the king and commander of his army, entered Jerusalem. ^9 (BJ)He burned down the Temple, the palace, and the houses of all the important people in Jerusalem, ¹⁰ and his soldiers tore down the city walls. ¹¹ Then Nebuzaradan took away to Babylonia the people who were left in the city, the remaining skilled workers,^[z] and those who had deserted to the Babylonians. ¹² But he left in Judah some of the poorest people, who owned no property, and put them to work in the vineyards and fields.

^13 (BK)The Babylonians broke in pieces the bronze columns and the carts that were in the Temple, together with the large bronze tank, and they took all the bronze to Babylon. ^14 (BL)They also took away the shovels and the ash containers used in cleaning the altar, the tools used in tending the lamps, the bowls used for catching the blood from the sacrifices, the bowls used for burning incense, and all the other bronze articles used in the Temple service. ¹⁵ They took away everything that was made of gold or silver, including the small bowls and the pans used for carrying live coals. ¹⁶ The bronze objects that King Solomon had made for the Temple—the two columns, the carts, and the large tank—were too heavy to weigh. ¹⁷ The two columns were identical: each one was 27 feet high, with a bronze capital on top, 4½ feet high. All around each capital was a bronze grillwork decorated with pomegranates made of bronze.

The People of Judah Are Taken to Babylonia^(BM)

¹⁸ In addition, Nebuzaradan, the commanding officer, took away as prisoners Seraiah the High Priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three other important Temple officials. ¹⁹ From the city he took the officer who had been in command of the troops, five of the king's personal advisers who were still in the city, the commander's assistant, who was in charge of military records, and sixty other important men. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan took them to the king of Babylonia, who was in the city of Riblah ²¹ in the territory of Hamath. There the king had them beaten and put to death.

So the people of Judah were carried away from their land into exile.

Gedaliah, Governor of Judah^(BN)

^22 (BO)King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, governor of Judah, and placed him in charge of all those who had not been taken away to Babylonia. ²³ When the Judean officers and soldiers who had not surrendered heard about this, they joined Gedaliah at Mizpah. These officers were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth from the town of Netophah, and Jezaniah from Maacah. ²⁴ Gedaliah said to them, “I give you my word that there is no need for you to be afraid of the Babylonian officials. Settle in this land, serve the king of Babylonia, and all will go well with you.”

^25 (BP)But in the seventh month of that year, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, a member of the royal family, went to Mizpah with ten men, attacked Gedaliah, and killed him. He also killed the Israelites and Babylonians who were there with him. ^26 (BQ)Then all the Israelites, rich and poor alike, together with the army officers, left and went to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Babylonians.

Jehoiachin Is Released from Prison^(BR)

²⁷ In the year that Evilmerodach became king of Babylonia, he showed kindness to King Jehoiachin of Judah by releasing him from prison. This happened on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin had been taken away as prisoner. ²⁸ Evilmerodach treated him kindly and gave him a position of greater honor than he gave the other kings who were exiles with him in Babylonia. ²⁹ So Jehoiachin was permitted to change from his prison clothes and to dine at the king's table for the rest of his life. ³⁰ Each day, for as long as he lived, he was given a regular allowance for his needs.