Chapter 23

1; And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

2; And the king went up to the house of YAHWEH, and every man of Judah, and all the ones living in Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, from small to great; and he read in their ears all the Words of the Book of the covenant that was found in the house of YAHWEH.

3; And the king stood by the pillar, and made the covenant before YAHWEH, to walk after YAHWEH, and to keep His instructions, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to lift up the Words of this covenant that were written in this Book. And all the people stood to the covenant.

4; And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring out from the temple of YAHWEH all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for Asherah, and for all the host of the heavens. And he burned them at the outside of Jerusalem, in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

5; And he caused to cease the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had given place to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem, and those burning incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to constellations, and to all the host of the heavens.

6; And he brought out the sacred pole from the house of YAHWEH to the outside of Jerusalem, to the torrent Kidron, and burned it at the torrent Kidron, and ground it to powder, and threw the powder of it on the graves of the sons of the people.

7; And he broke down the houses of the male prostitutes that were in the house of YAHWEH, where the women were weaving shelters for Asherah.

8; And he made all the priests come in out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense, from Geba to Beer-Sheba, and broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.

9; However the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of YAHWEH in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

10; And he defiled Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no man could cause his son and his daughter to pass through the fire of Molech.

11; And he caused to cease the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of YAHWEH, by the room of Nathan-Melech the eunuch, that was in the suburbs. And he burned with fire the chariots of the sun.

12; And the altars that were on the top of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of YAHWEH, the king broke down, and ran from there and threw the dust of them into the torrent Kidron.

13; And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the idol of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the idol of the Moabites, and for Milcom the idol of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.

14; And he broke the images in pieces, and cut down the Asherahs, and filled their places with the bones of men.

15; And also the altar that was in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam the son of Nebat had made by which he made Israel to sin, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place; he ground it into powder, and burned the Asherah.

16; And Josiah turned and saw the graves that were there in the mount, and sent and took the bones out of the graves and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the Word of YAHWEH that the man of Elohim had proclaimed, who had proclaimed these things.

17; And he said, What is this monument that I see? And the men of the city said to him, The grave of the man of the true Elohim who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done concerning the altar of Bethel.

18; And he said, Let him alone, let no one touch his bones. And they let his bones escape with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.

19; And also all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria, that the kings of Israel had made to provoke to anger, Josiah took away, and he did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.

20; And he slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were there by the altars, and burned the bones of man upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

21; And the king commanded all the people, saying, Perform a Passover to YAHWEH your Elohim, as it is written in this Book of the covenant.

22; Surely none has been performed like this Passover from the days of the Judges who judged Israel even to all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah;

23; but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was prepared to YAHWEH in Jerusalem.

24; And also the mediums, and the spirit-knowers, and the family gods, and the idols, and all the detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah put away in order to fulfill the Words of the Torah that were written in the Book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of YAHWEH.

25; And there was no king before him like him, who turned to YAHWEH with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Torah of Moses; and after him none rose up like him.

26; However, YAHWEH did not turn away from the fury of His great anger with which His anger glowed against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.

27; And YAHWEH said, I will also turn away Judah from My face, as I turned Israel away, and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I have said, My name shall be there.

28; And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Matters of the Days of the Kings of Judah?

29; In his days Pharaoh-Necho the king of Egypt came up against the king of Assyria by the river Euphrates; and King Josiah went out to meet him, and he killed him in Megiddo, when he saw him.

30; And his servants made him ride dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his own grave. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.

31; Jehoahaz was a son of twenty three years when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

32; And he did evil in the eyes of YAHWEH according to all that his fathers did.

33; And Pharaoh-Necho bound him in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, from reigning in Jerusalem, and he put a fine on the land, a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

34; And Pharaoh-Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah to reign instead of Josiah his father, and turned his name into Jehoiakim; and he took away Jehoahaz, and he came to Egypt and died there.

35; And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the silver by the mouth of Pharaoh. From each, according to his valuation, he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, to give to Pharaoh-Necho.

36; Jehoiakim was a son of twenty five years when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years; and the name of his mother was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

37; And he did evil in the eyes of YAHWEH according to all that his fathers did.

 

Chapter 24

1; In his days Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim was a servant to him three years; and he turned and rebelled against him.

2; And YAHWEH sent against him the troops of the Chaldeans, and the troops of Syria, and the troops of Moab, and the troops of the Ammonites; and He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the Word of YAHWEH that He spoke by the hand of His servants the prophets.

3; Only at the mouth of YAHWEH this came upon Judah, to remove them from His presence for the sins of Manasseh, according to all he did,

4; and also the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and YAHWEH was not willing to forgive.

5; And the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Matters of the Days of the Kings of Judah?

6; And Jehoiakim lay with his fathers. And his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place.

7; And the king of Egypt did not come again out of his land; for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates River, all owned by the king of Egypt.

8; Jehoiachin was a son of eighteen years when he began to reign and he reigned in Jerusalem three months; and the name of his mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

9; And he did evil in the eyes of YAHWEH according to all that his fathers did.

10; At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.

11; And Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came against the city, and his servants lay siege to it.

12; And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother, and his servants, and his leaders, and his eunuchs. And the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.

13; And he brought out from there all the treasures of the house of YAHWEH, and the treasures of the house of the king, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold that Solomon the king of Israel had made in the temple of YAHWEH, as YAHWEH had spoken.

14; And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the leaders, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained except the poorest sort of the people of the land.

15; And he exiled Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his eunuchs, and the mighty ones of the land; he caused a captivity to go from Jerusalem to Babylon.

16; And all the men of valor were seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths a thousand; all were mighty men, warriors; and the king of Babylon brought them in a captivity to Babylon.

17; And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, the brother of his father, to reign in his place, and turned his name into Zedekiah.

18; Zedekiah was a son of twenty one years when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years; and the name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

19; And he did evil in the eyes of YAHWEH according to all that Jehoiakim did.

20; For through the anger of YAHWEH it happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He had cast them out from His face, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

 

Chapter 25

1; And it happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and camped against it, and built a siege mound all around it.

2; And the city entered into siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah,

3; on the ninth of the month, when the famine was severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land,

4; then the city was broken into, and by night all the men of war went by way of the gate, between the two walls by the king's garden; and the Chaldeans were against the city all around; and the king went the way toward the Arabah.

5; And the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the Arabah of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

6; And they seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon, to Riblah; and they gave judgment on him.

7; And they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and blinded Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him with bronze fetters and caused him to go to Babylon.

8; And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month (it was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchad-nezzar, the king of Babylon) Nebuzaradan the chief of the executioners, the servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

9; And he burned the house of YAHWEH, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; yea, he burned every great house with fire.

10; And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the chief of the executioners broke down the wall of Jerusalem all around.

11; And the rest of the people, those left in the city, and those that had fallen away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the chief of the executioners exiled.

12; But the chief of the executioners left of the poorest of the land for vinedressers and farmers.

13; And the bronze pillars in the house of YAHWEH, and the bases, and the bronze sea in the house of YAHWEH, the Chaldeans broke in pieces and lifted up their bronze to Babylon.

14; And they took the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of bronze with which they ministered.

15; And the chief of the executioners took the firepans, and the sprinkling basins, all of gold and silver.

16; There was no weighing of the bronze of all these vessels, the two pillars, the one sea, and the bases that Solomon had made for the house of YAHWEH.

17; Eighteen cubits was the height of the one pillar, and the capital on it was of bronze, and the height of the capital was three cubits, and the grating and the pomegranates were on the capital all around; all was of bronze. And the second pillar was like these with the grating.

18; And the chief of the executioners took Seraiah the head priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the gate;

19; and he took out of the city a certain eunuch who was appointed over the men of war, and five men of those who saw the king's face, found in the city, and the chief scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land found in the city.

20; And Nebuzaradan chief of the executioners took them and made them go to the king of Babylon, to Riblah.

21; And the king of Babylon struck them, and killed them in Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he exiled Judah from its land.

22; And the people that were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchad-nezzar the king of Babylon had left, he appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan.

23; And all the commanders of the army, they and the men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah. And they came to Gedaliah, to Mizpeh, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.

24; And Gedaliah swore to them, and to their men, and said to them, Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.

25; And it happened in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama of the seed of the kingdom, and ten men with him came, and they struck Gedaliah, and he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him in Mizpah.

26; And all the people rose up, from the small even to the great, and the commanders of the armies, and came into Egypt, for they were afraid of the face of the Chaldeans.

27; And it happened in the thirty seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty seventh of the month, Evil-Merodach the king of Babylon, in the year he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin the king of Judah out of the prison,

28; and spoke good things with him, and put his throne above the throne of the kings with him in Babylon.

29; And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread continually before him all the days of his life.

30; And his allowance, a continual allowance, was given to him from the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.