1:1 After the death of Ahab, Moab made itself free from the
 authority of Israel.
1:2 Now Ahaziah had a fall from the window of his room in
 Samaria, and was ill. And he sent men, and said to them, Put a
 question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, about the outcome of
 my disease, to see if I will get well or not.
1:3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Go
 now, and, meeting the men sent by the king of Samaria, say to
 them, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you are
 going to get directions from Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?
1:4 Give ear then to the words of the Lord: You will never again
 get down from the bed on to which you have gone up, but death
 will certainly come to you. Then Elijah went away.
1:5 And the men he had sent came back to the king; and he said
 to them, Why have you come back?
1:6 And they said to him, On our way we had a meeting with a man
 who said, Go back to the king who sent you and say to him, The
 Lord says, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you
 send to put a question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? For
 this reason, you will not come down from the bed on to which
 you have gone up, but death will certainly come to you.
1:7 And he said to them, What sort of a man was it who came and
 said these words to you?
1:8 And they said in answer, He was a man clothed in a coat of
 hair, with a leather band about his body. Then he said, It is
 Elijah the Tishbite.
1:9 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty
 men; and he went up to him where he was seated on the top of a
 hill, and said to him, O man of God, the king has said, Come
 down.
1:10 And Elijah in answer said to the captain of fifty, If I am
 a man of God, may fire come down from heaven on you and on your
 fifty men, and put an end to you. Then fire came down from
 heaven and put an end to him and his fifty men.
1:11 Then the king sent another captain of fifty with his fifty
 men; and he said to Elijah, O man of God, the king says, Come
 down quickly.
1:12 And Elijah in answer said, If I am a man of God, may fire
 come down from heaven on you and on your fifty men, and put an
 end to you. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and put
 an end to him and his fifty men.
1:13 Then he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men;
 and the third captain of fifty went up, and falling on his
 knees before Elijah, requesting mercy of him, said, O man of
 God, let my life and the life of these your fifty servants be
 of value to you.
1:14 For fire came down from heaven and put an end to the first
 two captains of fifty and their fifties; but now let my life be
 of value in your eyes.
1:15 Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, Go down with
 him; have no fear of him. So he got up and went down with him
 to the king.
1:16 And he said to him, This is the word of the Lord: Because
 you sent men to put a question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron,
 for this reason you will never again get down from the bed on
 to which you have gone up, but death will certainly come to
 you.
1:17 So death came to him, as the Lord had said by the mouth of
 Elijah. And Jehoram became king in his place in the second year
 of the rule of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah;
 because he had no son.
1:18 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah, are they not recorded
 in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?
2:1 Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a
 great wind, Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
2:2 And Elijah said to Elisha, Come no farther for the Lord has
 sent me to Beth-el. But Elisha said, As the Lord is living and
 as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they
 went down to Beth-el.
2:3 And at Beth-el the sons of the prophets came out to Elisha
 and said, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is going
 to take away your master from over you today? And he said, Yes,
 I have knowledge of it: say no more.
2:4 Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord has
 sent me to Jericho. But he said, As the Lord is living and as
 your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they
 went on to Jericho.
2:5 And at Jericho the sons of the prophets came up to Elisha
 and said to him, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is
 going to take away your master from over you today? And he said
 in answer, Yes, I have knowledge of it: say no more.
2:6 Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord has
 sent me to Jordan. But he said, As the Lord is living and as
 your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they
 went on together.
2:7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went out and took
 their places facing them a long way off, while the two of them
 were by the edge of Jordan.
2:8 Then Elijah took off his robe, and, rolling it up, gave the
 water a blow with it, and the waters were parted, flowing back
 this way and that, so that they went over on dry land.
2:9 And when they had come to the other side, Elijah said to
 Elisha, Say what you would have me do for you before I am taken
 from you. And Elisha said, Be pleased to let a special measure
 of your spirit be on me.
2:10 And he said, You have made a hard request: still, if you
 see me when I am taken from you, you will get your desire; but
 if not, it will not be so.
2:11 And while they went on their way, going on talking
 together, suddenly there were carriages and horses of fire
 separating them from one another and Elijah went up to heaven
 in a great wind.
2:12 And when Elisha saw it he gave a cry, My father, my father,
 the carriages of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw him no
 longer; and he was full of grief.
2:13 Then he took up Elijah's robe, which had been dropped from
 him, and went back till he came to the edge of Jordan.
2:14 And he took Elijah's robe, which had been dropped from him,
 and giving the water a blow with it, said, Where is the Lord,
 the God of Elijah? and at his blow the waters were parted this
 way and that; and Elisha went over.
2:15 And when the sons of the prophets who were facing him at
 Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah is resting on
 Elisha. And they came out to him, and went down on the earth
 before him.
2:16 And they said, Your servants have with us here fifty strong
 men; be pleased to let them go in search of Elijah; for it may
 be that the spirit of the Lord has taken him up and put him
 down on some mountain or in some valley. But he said, Do not
 send them.
2:17 But when they kept on requesting him, he was shamed and
 said, Send, then. So they sent fifty men; but after searching
 for three days, they came back without having seen him.
2:18 And they came back to him, while he was still at Jericho;
 and he said to them, Did I not say to you, Go not?
2:19 Now the men of the town said to Elisha, You see that the
 position of this town is good; but the water is bad, causing
 the young of the cattle to come to birth dead.
2:20 So he said, Get me a new vessel, and put salt in it; and
 they took it to him.
2:21 Then he went out to the spring from which the water came,
 and put salt in it, and said, The Lord says, Now I have made
 this water sweet; no longer will it be death-giving or
 unfertile.
2:22 And the water was made sweet again to this day, as Elisha
 said.
2:23 Then from there he went up to Beth-el; and on his way, some
 little boys came out from the town and made sport of him,
 crying, Go up, old no-hair! go up, old no-hair!
2:24 And turning back, he saw them, and put a curse on them in
 the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the wood
 and put forty-two of the children to death.
2:25 From there he went to Mount Carmel, and came back from
 there to Samaria.
3:1 And Jehoram, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in
 Samaria in the eighteenth year of the rule of Jehoshaphat, king
 of Judah; and he was king for twelve years.
3:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord; but not like his father
 and his mother, for he put away the stone pillar of Baal which
 his father had made.
3:3 But still he did the same sins which Jeroboam, the son of
 Nebat, did and made Israel do; he went on in them.
3:4 Now Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep-farmer; and he gave
 regularly to the king of Israel the wool from a hundred
 thousand lambs and a hundred thousand sheep.
3:5 But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab got free from the
 authority of the king of Israel.
3:6 At that time, King Jehoram went out from Samaria and got all
 Israel together in fighting order.
3:7 And he sent to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, saying, The king
 of Moab has got free from my authority: will you go with me to
 make war on Moab? And he said, I will go with you: I am as you
 are, my people as your people, and my horses as your horses.
3:8 And he said, Which way are we to go? And he said in answer,
 By the waste land of Edom.
3:9 So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the
 king of Edom by a roundabout way for seven days: and there was
 no water for the army or for the beasts they had with them.
3:10 And the king of Israel said, Here is trouble: for the Lord
 has got these three kings together to give them into the hands
 of Moab.
3:11 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no prophet of the Lord here,
 through whom we may get directions from the Lord? And one of
 the king of Israel's men said in answer, Elisha, the son of
 Shaphat, is here, who was servant to Elijah.
3:12 And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. So
 the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went
 down to him.
3:13 But Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do
 with you? go to the prophets of your father and your mother.
 And the king of Israel said, No; for the Lord has got these
 three kings together to give them up into the hands of Moab.
3:14 Then Elisha said, By the life of the Lord of armies whose
 servant I am, if it was not for the respect I have for
 Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not give a look at you, or
 see you.
3:15 But now, get me a player of music, and it will come about
 that while the man is playing, the hand of the Lord will come
 on me and I will give you the word of the Lord: and they got a
 player of music, and while the man was playing, the hand of the
 Lord was on him.
3:16 And he said, The Lord says, I will make this valley full of
 water-holes.
3:17 For the Lord says, Though you see no wind or rain, the
 valley will be full of water, and you and your armies and your
 beasts will have drink.
3:18 And this will be only a small thing to the Lord: in
 addition he will give the Moabites into your hands.
3:19 And you are to put every walled town to destruction,
 cutting down every good tree, and stopping up every
 water-spring, and making all the good land rough with stones.
3:20 Now in the morning, about the time when the offering was
 made, they saw water flowing from the direction of Edom till
 the country was full of water.
3:21 Now all Moab, hearing that the kings had come to make war
 against them, got together all who were able to take up arms
 and went forward to the edge of the country.
3:22 And early in the morning they got up, when the sun was
 shining on the water, and they saw the water facing them as red
 as blood.
3:23 Then they said, This is blood: it is clear that destruction
 has come on the kings; they have been fighting one another: now
 come, Moab, let us take their goods.
3:24 But when they came to the tents of Israel, the Israelites
 came out and made a violent attack on the Moabites, so that
 they went in flight before them; and they went forward still
 attacking them;
3:25 Pulling down the towns, covering every good field with
 stones, stopping up all the water-springs, and cutting down all
 the good trees; they went on driving Moab before them till only
 in Kir-hareseth were there any Moabites; and the fighting-men
 went round the town raining stones on it.
3:26 And when the king of Moab saw that the fight was going
 against him, he took with him seven hundred men armed with
 swords, with the idea of forcing a way through to the king of
 Aram, but they were not able to do so.
3:27 Then he took his oldest son, who would have been king after
 him, offering him as a burned offering on the wall. So there
 was great wrath against Israel; and they went away from him,
 back to their country.
4:1 Now a certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the
 prophets, came crying to Elisha and said, Your servant my
 husband is dead; and to your knowledge he was a worshipper of
 the Lord; but now, the creditor has come to take my two
 children as servants in payment of his debt.
4:2 Then Elisha said to her, What am I to do for you? say now,
 what have you in the house? And she said, Your servant has
 nothing in the house but a pot of oil.
4:3 Then he said, Go out to all your neighbours and get vessels,
 a very great number of them.
4:4 Then go in, and, shutting the door on yourself and your
 sons, put oil into all these vessels, putting on one side the
 full ones.
4:5 So she went away, and when the door was shut on her and her
 sons, they took the vessels to her and she put oil into them.
4:6 And when all the vessels were full, she said to her son, Get
 me another vessel. And he said, There are no more. And the flow
 of oil was stopped.
4:7 So she came to the man of God and gave him word of what she
 had done. And he said, Go and get money for the oil and make
 payment of your debt, and let the rest be for the needs of
 yourself and your sons.
4:8 Now there came a day when Elisha went to Shunem, and there
 was a woman of high position living there, who made him come in
 and have a meal with her. And after that, every time he went
 by, he went into her house for a meal.
4:9 And she said to her husband, Now I see that this is a holy
 man of God, who comes by day after day.
4:10 So let us make a little room on the wall; and put a bed
 there for him, and a table and a seat and a light; so that when
 he comes to us, he will be able to go in there.
4:11 Now one day, when he had gone there, he went into the
 little room and took his rest there.
4:12 And he said to Gehazi, his servant, Send for this
 Shunammite. So in answer to his voice she came before him.
4:13 And he said to him, Now say to her, See, you have taken all
 this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? will you have
 any request made for you to the king or the captain of the
 army? But she said, I am living among my people.
4:14 So he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi
 made answer, Still there is this, she has no son and her
 husband is old.
4:15 Then he said, Send for her. And in answer to his voice she
 took her place at the door.
4:16 And Elisha said, At this time in the coming year you will
 have a son in your arms. And she said, No, my lord, O man of
 God, do not say what is false to your servant.
4:17 Then the woman became with child and gave birth to a son at
 the time named, in the year after, as Elisha had said to her.
4:18 Now one day, when the child was older, he went out to his
 father to where the grain was being cut.
4:19 And he said to his father, My head, my head! And the father
 said to a servant, Take him in to his mother.
4:20 And he took him in to his mother, and she took him on her
 knees and kept him there till the middle of the day, when his
 life went from him.
4:21 Then she went up and put him on the bed of the man of God,
 shutting the door on him, and went out.
4:22 And she said to her husband, Send me one of the servants
 and one of the asses so that I may go quickly to the man of God
 and come back again.
4:23 And he said, Why are you going to him today? it is not a
 new moon or a Sabbath. But she said, It is well.
4:24 Then she made the ass ready and said to her servant, Keep
 driving on; do not make a stop without orders from me.
4:25 So she went, and came to Mount Carmel, to the man of God.
 And when the man of God saw her coming in his direction, he
 said to Gehazi, his servant, See, there is the Shunammite;
4:26 Go quickly to her, and on meeting her say to her, Are you
 well? and your husband and the child, are they well? And she
 said in answer, All is well.
4:27 And when she came to where the man of God was on the hill,
 she put her hands round his feet; and Gehazi came near with the
 purpose of pushing her away; but the man of God said, Let her
 be, for her soul is bitter in her; and the Lord has kept it
 secret from me, and has not given me word of it.
4:28 Then she said, Did I make a request to my lord for a son?
 did I not say, Do not give me false words?
4:29 Then he said to Gehazi, Make yourself ready, and take my
 stick in your hand, and go: if you come across anyone on the
 way, give him no blessing, and if anyone gives you a blessing,
 give him no answer. And put my stick on the child's face.
4:30 But the mother of the child said, As the Lord is living and
 as your soul is living, I will not go back without you. So he
 got up and went with her.
4:31 And Gehazi went on before them and put the stick on the
 child's face; but there was no voice, and no one gave
 attention. So he went back, and meeting him gave him the news,
 saying, The child is not awake.
4:32 And when Elisha came into the house he saw the child dead,
 stretched on his bed.
4:33 So he went in, and shutting the door on the two of them,
 made prayer to the Lord.
4:34 Then he got up on the bed, stretching himself out on the
 child, and put his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on his
 eyes and his hands on his hands; and the child's body became
 warm.
4:35 Then he came back, and after walking once through the house
 and back, he went up, stretching himself out on the child seven
 times; and the child's eyes became open.
4:36 And he gave orders to Gehazi, and said, Send for the
 Shunammite. And she came in answer to his voice. And he said,
 Take up your son.
4:37 And she came in, and went down on her face to the earth at
 his feet; then she took her son in her arms and went out.
4:38 And Elisha went back to Gilgal, now there was very little
 food in the land; and the sons of the prophets were seated
 before him. And he said to his servant, Put the great pot on
 the fire, and make soup for the sons of the prophets.
4:39 And one went out into the field to get green plants and saw
 a vine of the field, and pulling off the fruit of it till the
 fold of his robe was full, he came back and put the fruit, cut
 up small, into the pot of soup, having no idea what it was.
4:40 Then they gave the men soup from the pot. And while they
 were drinking the soup, they gave a cry, and said, O man of
 God, there is death in the pot; and they were not able to take
 any more food.
4:41 But he said, Get some meal. And he put it into the pot, and
 said, Now give it to the people so that they may have food. And
 there was nothing bad in the pot.
4:42 Now a man came from Baal-shalishah with an offering of
 first-fruits for the man of God, twenty barley cakes and garden
 fruit in his bag. And he said, Give these to the people for
 food.
4:43 But his servant said, How am I to put this before a hundred
 men? But he said, Give it to the people for food; for the Lord
 says, There will be food for them and some over.
4:44 So he put it before them, and they had a meal and there was
 more than enough, as the Lord had said.
5:1 Now Naaman, chief of the army of the king of Aram, was a man
 of high position with his master, and greatly respected,
 because by him the Lord had given salvation to Aram; but he was
 a leper.
5:2 Now the Aramaeans had gone out in bands, and taken prisoner
 from Israel a little girl, who became servant to Naaman's wife.
5:3 And she said to her master's wife, If only my lord would go
 to the prophet in Samaria, he would make him well.
5:4 And someone went and said to his lord, This is what the girl
 from the land of Israel says.
5:5 So the king of Aram said, Go then; and I will send a letter
 to the king of Israel. And he went, taking with him ten talents
 of silver and six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of
 clothing.
5:6 And he took the letter to the king of Israel, in which the
 king of Aram had said, See, I have sent my servant Naaman to
 you to be made well, for he is a leper.
5:7 But the king of Israel, after reading the letter, was
 greatly troubled and said, Am I God, to give death and life?
 why does this man send a leper to me to be made well? is it not
 clear that he is looking for a cause of war?
5:8 Now Elisha, the man of God, hearing that the king of Israel
 had done this, sent to the king, saying, Why are you troubled?
 send the man to me, so that he may see that there is a prophet
 in Israel.
5:9 So Naaman, with all his horses and his carriages, came to
 the door of Elisha's house.
5:10 And Elisha sent a servant to him, saying, Go to Jordan, and
 after washing seven times in its waters your flesh will be well
 again and you will be clean.
5:11 But Naaman was angry and went away and said, I had the idea
 that he would come out to see such an important person as I am,
 and make prayer to the Lord his God, and with a wave of his
 hand over the place make the leper well.
5:12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than
 all the waters of Israel? may I not be washed in them and
 become clean? So turning, he went away in wrath.
5:13 Then his servants came to him and said, If the prophet had
 given you orders to do some great thing, would you not have
 done it? how much more then, when he says to you, Be washed and
 become clean?
5:14 Then he went down seven times into the waters of Jordan, as
 the man of God had said; and his flesh became like the flesh of
 a little child again, and he was clean.
5:15 Then he went back to the man of God, with all his train,
 and, taking his place before him, said, Now I am certain that
 there is no God in all the earth, but only in Israel: now then,
 take an offering from me.
5:16 But he said, By the life of the Lord whose servant I am, I
 will take nothing from you. And he did his best to make him
 take it but he would not.
5:17 Then Naaman said, If you will not, then let there be given
 to your servant as much earth as two beasts are able to take on
 their backs; because from now on, your servant will make no
 offering or burned offering to other gods, but only to the
 Lord.
5:18 But may your servant have the Lord's forgiveness for this
 one thing: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon for
 worship there, supported on my arm, and my head is bent in the
 house of Rimmon; when his head is bent in the house of Rimmon,
 may your servant have the Lord's forgiveness for this thing.
5:19 And he said to him, Go in peace. And he went from him some
 distance.
5:20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said,
 Now my master has taken nothing from Naaman, this Aramaean, of
 what he would have given him: by the living Lord, I will go
 after him and get something from him.
5:21 So Gehazi went after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him
 running after him, he got down from his carriage and went back
 to him and said, Is all well?
5:22 And he said, All is well: but my master has sent me,
 saying, Even now, two young men of the sons of the prophets
 have come to me from the hill-country of Ephraim; will you give
 me a talent of silver and two changes of clothing for them?
5:23 And Naaman said, Be good enough to take two talents. And
 forcing him to take them, he put two talents of silver in two
 bags, with two changes of clothing, and gave them to his two
 servants to take before him.
5:24 When he came to the hill, he took them from their hands,
 and put them away in the house; and he sent the men away, and
 they went.
5:25 Then he came in and took his place before his master. And
 Elisha said to him, Where have you come from, Gehazi? And he
 said, Your servant went nowhere.
5:26 And he said to him, Did not my heart go with you, when the
 man got down from his carriage and went back to you? Is this a
 time for getting money, and clothing, and olive-gardens and
 vine-gardens, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and
 women-servants?
5:27 Because of what you have done, the disease of Naaman the
 leper will take you in its grip, and your seed after you, for
 ever. And he went out from before him a leper as white as snow.
6:1 Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, There is not
 room enough for us in the place where we are living under your
 care;
6:2 So let us go to Jordan, and let everyone get to work cutting
 boards, and we will make a living-place for ourselves there.
 And he said to them, Go, then.
6:3 And one of them said, Be pleased to go with your servants.
 And he said, I will go.
6:4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they got
 to work cutting down trees.
6:5 But one of them, while cutting a board, let the head of his
 axe go into the water; and he gave a cry, and said, This is a
 bad business, my master, for it is another's.
6:6 And the man of God said, Where did it go in? and when he saw
 the place where it had gone into the water, cutting a stick, he
 put it into the water, and the iron came up to the top of the
 water.
6:7 Then he said, Take it up. So he put out his hand and took
 it.
6:8 At that time the king of Aram was making war against Israel;
 and he had a meeting with the chiefs of his army and said, I
 will be waiting in secret in some named place.
6:9 And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Take
 care to keep away from that place, for the Aramaeans are
 waiting there in secret.
6:10 So the king of Israel sent to the place where the man of
 God had said there was danger, and kept clear of it more than
 once.
6:11 And at this, the mind of the king of Aram was greatly
 troubled, and he sent for his servants and said to them, Will
 you not make clear to me which of us is helping the king of
 Israel?
6:12 And one of them said, Not one of us, my lord king; but
 Elisha, the prophet in Israel, gives the king of Israel news of
 the words you say even in your bedroom.
6:13 Then he said, Go and see where he is, so that I may send
 and get him. And news came to him that he was in Dothan.
6:14 So he sent there horses and carriages and a great army; and
 they came by night, circling the town.
6:15 Now the servant of the man of God, having got up early and
 gone out, saw an army with horses and carriages of war all
 round the town. And the servant said to him, O my master, what
 are we to do?
6:16 And he said in answer, Have no fear; those who are with us
 are more than those who are with them.
6:17 Then Elisha made a prayer to the Lord, saying, Lord, let
 his eyes be open so that he may see. And the Lord made the
 young man's eyes open; and he saw that all the mountain was
 full of horses and carriages of fire round Elisha.
6:18 Now when the Aramaeans came down to Elisha, he made a
 prayer to the Lord saying, Lord, make this people blind. And he
 made them blind at Elisha's request.
6:19 And Elisha said to them, This is not the way, and this is
 not the town: come after me so that I may take you to the man
 you are searching for. And he took them to Samaria.
6:20 And when they had come into Samaria, Elisha said, Lord, let
 the eyes of these men be open so that they may see. And the
 Lord made their eyes open, and they saw that they were in the
 middle of Samaria.
6:21 And the king of Israel, when he saw them, said to Elisha,
 My father, am I to put them to the sword?
6:22 But he said in answer, You are not to put them to death;
 have you any right to put to death those whom you have not
 taken prisoner with your sword and your bow? put bread and
 water before them, so that they may have food and drink and go
 to their master.
6:23 So he made ready a great feast for them, and when they had
 had food and drink, he sent them away and they went back to
 their master. And no more bands of Aramaeans came into the land
 of Israel.
6:24 Now after this, Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got together all
 his army and went up to make an attack on Samaria, shutting the
 town in on all sides with his forces.
6:25 And they became very short of food in Samaria; for they
 kept it shut in till the price of an ass's head was eighty
 shekels of silver, and a small measure of doves' droppings was
 five shekels of silver.
6:26 And when the king of Israel was going by on the wall, a
 woman came crying out to him, and said, Help! my lord king.
6:27 And he said, If the Lord does not give you help, where am I
 to get help for you? from the grain-floor or the grape-crusher?
6:28 And the king said to her, What is troubling you? And she
 said in answer, This woman said to me, Give your son to be our
 food today, and we will have my son tomorrow.
6:29 So, boiling my son, we had a meal of him; and on the day
 after I said to her, Now give your son for our food; but she
 has put her son in a secret place.
6:30 Then the king, hearing what the woman said, took his robes
 in his hands, violently parting them; and, while he was walking
 on the wall, the people, looking, saw that under his robe he
 had haircloth on his flesh.
6:31 Then he said, May God's punishment come on me if Elisha,
 the son of Shaphat, keeps his head on his body after this day.
6:32 But Elisha was in his house, and the responsible men were
 seated there with him; and before the king got there, Elisha
 said to those who were with him, Do you see how this cruel and
 violent man has sent to take away my life?
6:33 While he was still talking to them, the king came down and
 said, This evil is from the Lord; why am I to go on waiting any
 longer for the Lord?
7:1 Then Elisha said, Give ear to the word of the Lord: the Lord
 says, Tomorrow, about this time, a measure of good meal will be
 offered for the price of a shekel and two measures of barley
 for a shekel, in the market-place of Samaria.
7:2 Then the captain whose arm was supporting the king said to
 the man of God, Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, would
 such a thing be possible? And he said, Your eyes will see it,
 but you will not have a taste of the food.
7:3 Now there were four lepers seated at the doorway into the
 town: and they said to one another, Why are we waiting here for
 death?
7:4 If we say, We will go into the town, there is no food in the
 town, and we will come to our end there; and if we go on
 waiting here, death will come to us. Come then, let us give
 ourselves up to the army of Aram: if they let us go on living,
 then life will be ours; and if they put us to death, then death
 will be ours.
7:5 So in the half light they got up to go to the tents of Aram;
 but when they came to the outer line of tents, there was no one
 there.
7:6 For the Lord had made the sound of carriages and horses, and
 the noise of a great army, come to the ears of the Aramaeans,
 so that they said to one another, Truly, the king of Israel has
 got the kings of the Hittites and of the Egyptians for a price
 to make an attack on us.
7:7 So they got up and went in flight, in the half light,
 without their tents or their horses or their asses or any of
 their goods; they went in flight, fearing for their lives.
7:8 And when those lepers came to the outer line of tents, they
 went into one tent, and had food and drink, and took from it
 silver and gold and clothing, which they put in a secret place;
 then they came back and went into another tent from which they
 took more goods, which they put away in a secret place.
7:9 Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. Today
 is a day of good news, and we say nothing: if we go on waiting
 here till the morning, punishment will come to us. So let us go
 and give the news to those of the king's house.
7:10 So they came in, and, crying out to the door-keepers of the
 town, they gave them the news, saying, We came to the tents of
 the Aramaeans, and there was no one there and no voice of man,
 only the horses and the asses in their places, and the tents as
 they were.
7:11 Then the door-keepers, crying out, gave the news to those
 inside the king's house.
7:12 Then the king got up in the night and said to his servants,
 This is my idea of what the Aramaeans have done to us. They
 have knowledge that we are without food; and so they have gone
 out of their tents, and are waiting secretly in the open
 country, saying, When they come out of the town, we will take
 them living and get into the town.
7:13 And one of his servants said in answer, Send men and let
 them take five of the horses which we still have in the town;
 if they keep their lives they will be the same as those of
 Israel who are still living here; if they come to their death
 they will be the same as all those of Israel who have gone to
 destruction: let us send and see.
7:14 So they took two horsemen; and the king sent them after the
 army of the Aramaeans, saying, Go and see.
7:15 And they went after them as far as Jordan; and all the road
 was covered with clothing and vessels dropped by the Aramaeans
 in their flight. So those who were sent went back and gave the
 news to the king.
7:16 Then the people went out and took the goods from the tents
 of the Aramaeans. So a measure of good meal was to be had for
 the price of a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel,
 as the Lord had said.
7:17 And the king gave authority to that captain, on whose arm
 he was supported, to have control over the doorway into the
 town; but he was crushed to death there under the feet of the
 people, as the man of God had said when the king went down to
 him.
7:18 So the words of the man of God came true, which he said to
 the king: Two measures of barley will be offered for the price
 of a shekel and a measure of good meal for a shekel, tomorrow
 about this time in the market-place of Samaria.
7:19 And that captain said to the man of God, Even if the Lord
 made windows in heaven, would such a thing be possible? And he
 said to him, Your eyes will see it, but you will not have a
 taste of the food.
7:20 And such was his fate; for he was crushed to death under
 the feet of the people, in the doorway into the town.
8:1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had given back
 to life, Go now, with all the people of your house, and get a
 living-place for yourselves wherever you are able; for by the
 word of the Lord, there will be great need of food in the land;
 and this will go on for seven years.
8:2 So the woman got up and did as the man of God said; and she
 and the people of her house were living in the land of the
 Philistines for seven years.
8:3 And when the seven years were ended, the woman came back
 from the land of the Philistines and went to the king with a
 request for her house and her land.
8:4 Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man
 of God, saying, Now, give me an account of all the great things
 Elisha has done.
8:5 And while he was giving the king the story of how Elisha had
 given life to the dead, the woman whose son had come back to
 life came to the king with a request for her house and her
 land. And Gehazi said, My lord king, this is the woman and this
 is her son, whose life Elisha gave back to him.
8:6 And in answer to the king's questions, the woman gave him
 all the story. So the king gave orders to one of his unsexed
 servants, saying, Give her back all her property, and all the
 produce of her fields from the day when she went away from the
 land up till now.
8:7 And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram,
 was ill; and they said to him, The man of God has come.
8:8 Then the king said to Hazael, Take an offering with you, and
 go to see the man of God and get directions from the Lord by
 him, saying, Am I going to get better from my disease?
8:9 So Hazael went to see him, taking with him forty camels with
 offerings on their backs of every sort of good thing from
 Damascus; and when he came before him, he said, Your son
 Ben-hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to you, saying, Will I get
 better from this disease?
8:10 And Elisha said to him, Go, say to him, You will certainly
 get better; but the Lord has made it clear to me that only
 death is before him.
8:11 And he kept his eyes fixed on him till he was shamed, and
 the man of God was overcome with weeping.
8:12 And Hazael said, Why is my lord weeping? Then he said in
 answer, Because I see the evil which you will do to the
 children of Israel: burning down their strong towns, putting
 their young men to death with the sword, smashing their little
 ones against the stones, and cutting open the women who are
 with child.
8:13 And Hazael said, How is it possible that your servant, who
 is only a dog, will do this great thing? And Elisha said, The
 Lord has made it clear to me that you will be king over Aram.
8:14 Then he went away from Elisha and came in to his master,
 who said to him, What did Elisha say to you? And his answer
 was, He said that you would certainly get well.
8:15 Now on the day after, Hazael took the bed-cover, and making
 it wet with water, put it over Ben-hadad's face, causing his
 death: and Hazael became king in his place.
8:16 In the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of
 Israel, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, became
 king.
8:17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king; and he was
 ruling in Jerusalem for eight years.
8:18 He went in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the family
 of Ahab did: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife; and he did
 evil in the eyes of the Lord.
8:19 But it was not the Lord's purpose to send destruction on
 Judah, because of David his servant, to whom he had given his
 word that he would have a light for ever.
8:20 In his time, Edom made themselves free from the rule of
 Judah, and took a king for themselves.
8:21 Then Joram went over to Zair, with all his war-carriages;
 ... made an attack by night on the Edomites, whose forces were
 all round him, ... the captains of the war-carriages; and the
 people went in flight to their tents.
8:22 So Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah to this
 day. And at the same time, Libnah made itself free.
8:23 Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all he did, are they
 not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?
8:24 And Joram went to rest with his fathers and was put into
 the earth with his fathers in the town of David: and Ahaziah
 his son became king in his place.
8:25 In the twelfth year that Joram, the son of Ahab, was king
 of Israel, Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, became
 king;
8:26 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, king of Israel.
8:27 He went in the ways of the family of Ahab, and did evil in
 the eyes of the Lord as the family of Ahab did, for he was a
 son-in-law of the family of Ahab.
8:28 He went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to make war on Hazael,
 king of Aram, at Ramoth-gilead: and Joram was wounded by the
 Aramaeans.
8:29 So King Joram went back to Jezreel to get well from the
 wounds which the bowmen 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 see Joram, the son of
 Ahab, in Jezreel, because he was ill.
9:1 And Elisha the prophet sent for one of the sons of the
 prophets, and said to him, Make yourself ready for a journey,
 and take this bottle of oil in your hand, and go to
 Ramoth-gilead.
9:2 And when you get there, go in search of Jehu, the son of
 Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi; and go in and make him get up
 from among his brothers, and take him to an inner room.
9:3 Then take the bottle and put the oil on his head, and say,
 The Lord says, I have put the holy oil on you to make you king
 over Israel. Then, opening the door, go in flight, without
 waiting.
9:4 So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead.
9:5 And when he came, he saw the captains of the army seated
 together; and he said, I have something to say to you, O
 captain. And Jehu said, To which of us? And he said, To you, O
 captain.
9:6 And he got up and went into the house; then he put the holy
 oil on his head and said to him, The Lord, the God of Israel,
 says, I have made you king over the people of the Lord, over
 Israel.
9:7 You are to see that the family of Ahab your master is cut
 off, so that I may take from Jezebel payment for the blood of
 my servants the prophets, and for the blood of all the servants
 of the Lord.
9:8 For the family of Ahab will come to an end; every male of
 Ahab's family will be cut off, he who is shut up and he who
 goes free in Israel.
9:9 I will make the family of Ahab like that of Jeroboam, the
 son of Nebat, and Baasha, the son of Ahijah.
9:10 And Jezebel will become food for the dogs in the heritage
 of Jezreel, and there will be no one to put her body into the
 earth. Then, opening the door, he went in flight.
9:11 Then Jehu came out again to the servants of his lord, and
 one said to him, Is all well? why did this man, who is off his
 head, come to you? And he said to them, You have knowledge of
 the man and of his talk.
9:12 And they said, That is not true; now give us his story.
 Then he said, This is what he said to me: The Lord says, I have
 made you king over Israel.
9:13 Then straight away everyone took his robe and put it under
 him on the top of the steps, and, sounding the horn, they said,
 Jehu is king.
9:14 So Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, made
 designs against Joram. (Now Joram and all the army of Israel
 were keeping watch on Ramoth-gilead because of Hazael, king of
 Aram:
9:15 But King Joram had gone back to Jezreel to get well from
 the wounds which the Aramaeans had given him when he was
 fighting against Hazael, king of Aram.) And Jehu said, If this
 is your purpose, then let no one get away and go out of the
 town to give news of it in Jezreel.
9:16 So Jehu got into his carriage and went to Jezreel, for
 Joram was ill in bed there; and Ahaziah, king of Judah, had
 come down to see Joram.
9:17 And the watchman on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu and his
 band coming, and said, I see a band of people. And Joram said,
 Send out a horseman to them, and let him say, Is it peace?
9:18 So a horseman went out to them and said, The king says, Is
 it peace? And Jehu said, What have you to do with peace? come
 after me. And the watchman gave them word, saying, The horseman
 went up to them, but has not come back.
9:19 Then he sent out a second horseman, who came up to them and
 said, The king says, Is it peace? And Jehu said in answer, What
 have you to do with peace? come after me.
9:20 And the watchman gave them word, saying, He went up to them
 and has not come back again; and the driving is like the
 driving of Jehu, son of Nimshi, for he is driving violently.
9:21 Then Joram said, Make ready. So they made his carriage
 ready; and Joram, king of Israel, with Ahaziah, king of Judah,
 went out in their carriages for the purpose of meeting Jehu;
 and they came face to face with him at the field of Naboth the
 Jezreelite.
9:22 Now when Joram saw Jehu he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he
 said in answer, What peace is possible while all the land is
 full of the disgusting sins of your mother Jezebel, and her
 secret arts?
9:23 Then Joram, turning his horses in flight, said to Ahaziah,
 Broken faith, O Ahaziah!
9:24 Then Jehu took his bow in his hand, and with all his
 strength sent an arrow, wounding Joram between the arms; and
 the arrow came out at his heart, and he went down on his face
 in his carriage.
9:25 Then Jehu said to Bidkar, his captain, Take him up, and put
 him in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for is not that day
 in your memory when you and I together on our horses were going
 after Ahab, his father, and the Lord put this fate on him,
 saying:
9:26 I saw the blood of Naboth and of his sons yesterday; and I
 will give you full payment in this field, says the Lord? So
 now, take him and put him in this field, as the Lord said.
9:27 Now when Ahaziah, king of Judah, saw this, he went in
 flight by the way of the garden house. And Jehu came after him
 and said, Put him to death in the same way; and they gave him a
 death-wound in his carriage, on the slope up to Gur, by Ibleam;
 and he went in flight to Megiddo, where death came to him.
9:28 And his servants took him in a carriage to Jerusalem, and
 put him into the earth with his fathers in the town of David.
9:29 (In the eleventh year of the rule of Joram, the son of
 Ahab, Ahaziah became king over Judah.)
9:30 And when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel had news of it; and,
 painting her eyes and dressing her hair with ornaments, she put
 her head out of the window.
9:31 And when Jehu was coming into the town, she said, Is all
 well, O Zimri, taker of your master's life?
9:32 Then, looking up to the window, he said, Who is on my side,
 who? and two or three unsexed servants put out their heads.
9:33 And he said, Take her and put her out of the window. So
 they sent her down with force, and her blood went in a shower
 on the wall and on the horses; and she was crushed under their
 feet.
9:34 And he came in, and took food and drink; then he said, Now
 see to this cursed woman, and put her body into the earth, for
 she is a king's daughter.
9:35 And they went out to put her body into the earth, but
 nothing of her was to be seen, only the bones of her head, and
 her feet, and parts of her hands.
9:36 So they came back and gave him word of it. And he said,
 This is what the Lord said by his servant Elijah the Tishbite,
 saying, In the heritage of Jezreel the flesh of Jezebel will
 become food for dogs;
9:37 And the dead body of Jezebel will be like waste dropped on
 the face of the earth in the heritage of Jezreel; so that they
 will not be able to say, This is Jezebel.
10:1 Now there were in Samaria seventy of Ahab's sons. And Jehu
 sent letters to Samaria, to the rulers of the town, and to the
 responsible men, and to those who had the care of the sons of
 Ahab, saying,
10:2 Straight away, when you get this letter, seeing that your
 master's sons are with you, and that you have carriages and
 horses and a walled town and arms;
10:3 Take the best and most upright of your master's sons, and
 make him king in his father's place, and put up a fight for
 your master's family.
10:4 But they were full of fear, and said, The two kings have
 gone down before him: how may we keep our place?
10:5 So the controller of the king's house, with the ruler of
 the town, and the responsible men, and those who had the care
 of Ahab's sons, sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants and
 will do all your orders; we will not make any man king; do
 whatever seems best to you.
10:6 Then he sent them a second letter, saying, If you are on my
 side, and if you will do my orders, come to me at Jezreel by
 this time tomorrow, with the heads of your master's sons. Now
 the king's seventy sons were with the great men of the town,
 who had the care of them.
10:7 And when the letter came to them, they took the king's sons
 and put them to death, all the seventy, and put their heads in
 baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.
10:8 And a man came and said to him, They have come with the
 heads of the king's sons. And he said, Put them down in two
 masses at the doorway of the town till the morning.
10:9 And in the morning he went out and, stopping, said to all
 the people there, You are upright men: it is true that I made
 designs against my master, and put him to death; but who is
 responsible for the death of all these?
10:10 You may be certain that nothing which the Lord has said
 about the family of Ahab will be without effect; for the Lord
 has done what he said by his servant Elijah.
10:11 So Jehu put to death all the rest of the seed of Ahab in
 Jezreel, and all his relations and his near friends and his
 priests, till there were no more of them.
10:12 Then he got up and came to Samaria. And he was at the
 meeting-place of the keepers of sheep, by the way,
10:13 When he came across the brothers of Ahaziah, king of
 Judah, and said, Who are you? And they said, We are the
 brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah; we are going down to see
 the children of the king and of the queen.
10:14 And he said, Take them living. So they took them living,
 and put them to death in the water-hole of Beth-eked; of the
 forty-two men he put every one to death;
10:15 And when he had gone away from there, he came across
 Jehonadab, the son of Rechab: and he said good-day to him, and
 said to him, Is your heart true to mine, as mine is to yours?
 And Jehonadab in answer said, It is; and Jehu said, If it is,
 give me your hand. And he gave him his hand, and he made him
 come up into his carriage.
10:16 And he said, Come with me and see how I am on fire for the
 Lord's cause. So he made him go with him in his carriage.
10:17 And when he came to Samaria, he put to death all those of
 Ahab's family who were still in Samaria, till there were no
 more of them, as the Lord had said to Elijah.
10:18 Then Jehu got all the people together and said to them,
 Ahab was Baal's servant in a small way, but Jehu will be his
 servant on a great scale.
10:19 Now send for all the prophets of Baal and all his servants
 and all his priests, to come to me; let no one keep away: for I
 have a great offering to make to Baal; anyone who is not
 present, will be put to death. This Jehu did with deceit, his
 purpose being the destruction of the servants of Baal.
10:20 And Jehu said, Let there be a special holy meeting for the
 worship of Baal. So a public statement was made.
10:21 And Jehu sent out through all Israel; and all the servants
 of Baal came, not one kept away. And they came into the house
 of Baal, so that it was full from end to end.
10:22 And Jehu said to him who kept the robes, Get out robes for
 all the servants of Baal. So he got out robes for them.
10:23 And Jehu, with Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, went into the
 house of Baal; and he said to the servants of Baal, Make a
 search with care, to see that no servant of the Lord is with
 you, but only servants of Baal.
10:24 Then they went in to make offerings and burned offerings.
 Now Jehu had put eighty men outside, and said to them, If any
 man whom I give into your hands gets away, the life of him who
 lets him go will be the price of his life.
10:25 Then when the burned offering was ended, straight away
 Jehu said to the armed men and the captains, Go in and put them
 to death; let not one come out. So they put them to the sword;
 and, pulling the images to the earth, they went into the holy
 place of the house of Baal.
10:26 And they took out the image of Asherah from the house of
 Baal, and had it burned.
10:27 The altar of Baal was pulled down and the house of Baal
 was broken up and made an unclean place, as it is to this day.
10:28 So Jehu put an end to the worship of Baal in Israel.
10:29 But Jehu did not keep himself from all the sins of
 Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and the evil he made Israel do; the
 gold oxen were still in Beth-el and in Dan.
10:30 And the Lord said to Jehu, Because you have done well in
 doing what is right in my eyes and effecting all my purpose for
 the family of Ahab, your sons will be kings of Israel to the
 fourth generation.
10:31 But Jehu did not take care to keep the law of the Lord
 with all his heart: he did not keep himself from the sin which
 Jeroboam did and made Israel do.
10:32 In those days the Lord was angry first with Israel; and
 Hazael made attacks on all the land of Israel,
10:33 East of Jordan, in all the land of Gilead, the Gadites and
 the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer by the valley of
 the Arnon, all Gilead and Bashan.
10:34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all he did, and his
 great power, are they not recorded in the book of the history
 of the kings of Israel?
10:35 And Jehu went to rest with his fathers, and was put into
 the earth in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son became king in his
 place.
10:36 And the time of Jehu's rule over Israel in Samaria was
 twenty-eight years.
11:1 Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son
 was dead, she had all the rest of the seed of the kingdom put
 to death.
11:2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of
 Ahaziah, secretly took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, with the
 woman who took care of him, away from among the king's sons who
 were put to death, and put him in the bedroom; and they kept
 him safe from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death.
11:3 And for six years she kept him safe in the house of the
 Lord, while Athaliah was ruling over the land.
11:4 Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the captains of
 hundreds of the Carians, and the armed men, and taking them
 into the house of the Lord, made an agreement with them, and
 made them take an oath in the house of the Lord, and let them
 see the king's son.
11:5 And he gave them orders, saying, This is what you are to
 do: the third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath and keep
 the watch of the king's house,
11:6 ...
11:7 And the two divisions of you, who go out on the Sabbath and
 keep the watch of the house of the Lord,
11:8 Will make a circle round the king, every man being armed;
 and whoever comes inside your lines is to be put to death; keep
 with the king, when he goes out and when he comes in.
11:9 And the captains of hundreds did as Jehoiada the priest
 gave them orders; every one took with him his men, those who
 came in and those who went out on the Sabbath, and they came in
 to Jehoiada the priest.
11:10 And 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 the Lord.
11:11 Then the armed men took up their positions, every man with
 his instruments of war in his hand, from the right side of the
 house to the left, round about the altar and the house.
11:12 Then he made the king's son come out, and put the crown on
 him and the arm-bands, and made him king, and put the holy oil
 on him; and they all, making sounds of joy with their hands,
 said, Long life to the king.
11:13 Now Athaliah, hearing the noise made by the people, came
 to the people in the house of the Lord;
11:14 And looking, she saw the king in his regular place by the
 pillar, and the captains and the horns near him; and all the
 people of the land giving signs of joy and sounding the horns.
 Then Athaliah, violently parting her robes, gave a cry, saying,
 Broken faith, broken faith!
11:15 Then Jehoiada the priest gave orders to those who were
 placed in 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 he said, Let her not be put to death in the
 house of the Lord.
11:16 So they put their hands on her, and she went to the king's
 house by the doorway of the horses, and there she was put to
 death.
11:17 And Jehoiada made an agreement between the Lord and the
 king and the people, that they would be the Lord's people; and
 in the same way between the king and the people.
11:18 Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal
 and had it pulled down: its altars and images were all broken
 to bits, and Mattan, the priest of Baal, they put to death
 before the altars. And the priest put overseers over the Lord's
 house.
11:19 Then he took the captains of hundreds, and the Carians,
 and the armed men, and all the people of the land; and they
 came down with the king from the house of the Lord, through the
 doorway of the armed men, to the king's house. And he took his
 place on the seat of the kings.
11:20 So all the people of the land were glad, and the town was
 quiet; and they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at the
 king's house.
11:21 And Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.
12:1 In the seventh year of Jehu's rule, Jehoash became king;
 and he was ruling for forty years in Jerusalem; his mother's
 name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.
12:2 Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his
 days, because he was guided by the teaching of Jehoiada the
 priest.
12:3 But the high places were not taken away; the people went on
 making offerings and burning them in the high places.
12:4 And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the holy
 things, which comes into the house of the Lord, (the amount
 fixed for every man's payment,) and all the money given by any
 man freely from the impulse of his heart,
12:5 Let the priests take, every man from his friends and
 neighbours, to make good what is damaged in the house, wherever
 it is to be seen.
12:6 But in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests
 had not made good the damaged parts of the house.
12:7 Then King Jehoash sent for Jehoiada the priest, and the
 other priests, and said to them, Why have you not made good
 what is damaged in the house? now take no more money from your
 neighbours, but give it for the building up of the house.
12:8 So the priests made an agreement to take no more money from
 the people, and not to make good what was damaged in the house.
12:9 But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and making a hole in
 the cover of it, put it by the altar, on the right side when
 one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who kept
 the door put in it regularly all the money which was taken into
 the house of the Lord.
12:10 And when they saw that there was much money in the chest,
 the king's scribe and the high priest came and put it in bags,
 noting the amount of all the money there was in the house of
 the Lord.
12:11 And the money which was measured out they gave regularly
 to those who were responsible for overseeing the work, and
 these gave it in payment to the woodworkers and the builders
 who were working on the house of the Lord,
12:12 And to the wall-builders and the stone-cutters, and to get
 wood and cut stone for building up the broken parts of the
 house of the Lord, and for everything needed to put the house
 in good order.
12:13 But the money was not used for making silver cups or
 scissors or basins or wind-instruments or any vessels of gold
 or silver for the house of the Lord;
12:14 But it was all given to the workmen who were building up
 the house.
12:15 And they did not get any statement of accounts from the
 men to whom the money was given for the workmen, for they made
 use of it with good faith.
12:16 The money of the offerings for error and the sin-offerings
 was not taken into the house of the Lord; it was the priests'.
12:17 Then Hazael, king of Aram, went up against Gath and took
 it; and his purpose was to go up to Jerusalem.
12:18 Then Jehoash, king of Judah, took all the holy things
 which Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the
 kings of Judah, had given to the Lord, together with the things
 he himself had given, and all the gold in the Temple store and
 in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael, king of Aram; and
 he went away from Jerusalem.
12:19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all he did, are
 they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
 Israel?
12:20 And his servants made a secret design and put Joash to
 death at the house of Millo on the way down to Silla.
12:21 And Jozacar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son
 of Shomer, his servants, came to him and put him to death; and
 they put him into the earth with his fathers in the town of
 David; and Amaziah his son became king in his place.
13:1 In the twenty-third year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, king
 of Judah, Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, became king over Israel in
 Samaria, ruling for seventeen years.
13:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the sins of
 Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he did and made Israel do; he
 did not keep himself from them.
13:3 So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he
 gave them up into the power of Hazael, king of Aram, and into
 the power of Ben-hadad, the son of Hazael, again and again.
13:4 Then Jehoahaz made prayer to the Lord, and the Lord gave
 ear to him, for he saw how cruelly Israel was crushed by the
 king of Aram.
13:5 (And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they became
 free from the hands of the Aramaeans; and the children of
 Israel were living in their tents as in the past.
13:6 But still they did not give up the sin of Jeroboam, which
 he made Israel do, but went on with it; and there was an image
 of Asherah in Samaria.)
13:7 For out of all his army, Jehoahaz had only fifty horsemen
 and ten carriages and ten thousand footmen; the king of Aram
 had given them up to destruction, crushing them like dust.
13:8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all he did, and
 his great power, are they not recorded in the book of the
 history of the kings of Israel?
13:9 And Jehoahaz went to rest with his fathers, and was put
 into the earth in Samaria; and Joash his son became king in his
 place.
13:10 In the thirty-seventh year of the rule of Joash, king of
 Judah, Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, became king over Israel in
 Samaria, ruling for sixteen years.
13:11 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away from
 the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he did and made
 Israel do, but he went on with it.
13:12 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all he did, and the
 force with which he went to war against Amaziah, king of Judah,
 are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings
 of Israel?
13:13 And Joash went to rest with his fathers and Jeroboam took
 his place as king; and Joash was put into the earth in Samaria
 with the kings of Israel.
13:14 Now Elisha became ill with the disease which was the cause
 of his death: and Joash, king of Israel, came down to him, and
 weeping over him said, My father, my father, the war-carriages
 of Israel and its horsemen!
13:15 Then Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows: and he took
 bow and arrows.
13:16 And he said to the king of Israel, Put your hand on the
 bow: and he put his hand on it; and Elisha put his hands on the
 king's hands.
13:17 Then he said; Let the window be open to the east: and he
 got it open. Then Elisha said, Let the arrow go; and he let it
 go. And he said, The Lord's arrow of salvation, of salvation
 over Aram; for you will overcome the Aramaeans in Aphek and put
 an end to them.
13:18 And he said, Take the arrows: and he took them. And he
 said to the king of Israel, Send them down into the earth; and
 he did so three times and no more.
13:19 Then the man of God was angry with him and said, If you
 had done it five or six times, then you would have overcome
 Aram completely; but now you will only overcome them three
 times.
13:20 And death came to Elisha and they put his body into the
 earth. Now in the spring of the year, armed bands of Moabites
 frequently came, overrunning the land.
13:21 And while they were putting a dead man into the earth,
 they saw a band coming; and they put the man quickly into the
 place where Elisha's body was; and the dead man, on touching
 Elisha's bones, came to life again, and got up on his feet.
13:22 And Israel was crushed under the power of Hazael, king of
 Aram, all the days of Jehoahaz.
13:23 But the Lord was kind to them and had pity on them, caring
 for them, because of his agreement with Abraham, Isaac, and
 Jacob; he would not put them to destruction or send them away
 from before his face till now.
13:24 Then Hazael, king of Aram, came to his end; and Ben-hadad
 his son became king in his place.
13:25 And Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, took again from
 Ben-hadad, the son of Hazael, the towns which he had taken from
 Jehoahaz his father in war. Three times Jehoash overcame him
 and got back the towns of Israel.
14:1 In the second year of Joash, son of Joahaz, king of Israel,
 Amaziah, the son of Joash, became king of Judah.
14:2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he
 was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's
 name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem.
14:3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, though not
 like David his father; he did as Joash his father had done.
14:4 But still the high places were not taken away; the people
 went on making offerings and burning them in the high places.
14:5 Now when he became strong in the kingdom, straight away he
 put to death those servants who had taken the life of the king
 his father;
14:6 But he did not put their children to death; for the orders
 of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses say, The
 fathers are not to be put to death for the children, or the
 children for their fathers; but a man is to be put to death for
 the sin which he himself has done.
14:7 He put to the sword twelve thousand men of Edom in the
 Valley of Salt, and took Sela in war, naming it Joktheel, as it
 is to this day.
14:8 Then Amaziah sent representatives to Jehoash, the son of
 Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us
 have a meeting face to face.
14:9 And Jehoash, 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.
14:10 It is true that you have overcome Edom and your heart is
 uplifted; let that glory be enough for you, and keep in your
 country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself,
 and Judah with you, in danger of downfall?
14:11 But Amaziah gave no attention. So Jehoash, king of Israel,
 went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face
 at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah.
14:12 And Judah was overcome before Israel, so that they went in
 flight, every man to his tent.
14:13 And Jehoash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah,
 the son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, prisoner at Beth-shemesh,
 and came to Jerusalem, and had the wall of Jerusalem pulled
 down from the doorway of Ephraim to the door in the angle, four
 hundred cubits.
14:14 And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels
 which were in the house of the Lord and in the store-house of
 the king, together with those whose lives would be the price of
 broken faith, and went back to Samaria.
14:15 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, and his power, and
 how he went to war with Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not
 recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?
14:16 And Jehoash went to rest with his fathers, and was put
 into the earth in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and
 Jeroboam his son became king in his place.
14:17 Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, went on living
 for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz,
 king of Israel.
14:18 And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not recorded
 in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?
14:19 Now they made a secret design against him in Jerusalem;
 and he went in flight to Lachish, but they sent after him to
 Lachish and put him to death there.
14:20 And they took his body on horseback and put it into the
 earth with his fathers in Jerusalem, the town of David.
14:21 Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen
 years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
14:22 He was the builder of Elath, which he got back for Judah
 after the death of the king.
14:23 In the fifteenth year of the rule of Amaziah, son of
 Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of
 Israel, became king in Samaria, ruling for forty-one years.
14:24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away from
 the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel
 do.
14:25 He got back the old limits of Israel from the way into
 Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, as the Lord had said by his
 servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet of Gath-hepher.
14:26 For the Lord saw how bitter was the trouble of Israel, and
 that everyone was cut off, he who was shut up and he who went
 free, and that Israel had no helper.
14:27 And the Lord had not said that the name of Israel was to
 be taken away from the earth; but he gave them a saviour in
 Jeroboam, the son of Joash.
14:28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all he did, and
 his power, and how he went to war with Damascus, causing the
 wrath of the Lord to be turned away from Israel, are they not
 recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?
14:29 And Jeroboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put
 into the earth with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son
 became king in his place.
15:1 In the twenty-seventh year of the rule of Jeroboam, king of
 Israel, Azariah, son of Amaziah, became king of Judah.
15:2 He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he was
 ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name was
 Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
15:3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his
 father Amaziah had done.
15:4 But he did not take away the high places, and the people
 still went on making offerings and burning them in the high
 places.
15:5 And the Lord sent disease on the king and he became a
 leper, and to the day of his death he was living separately in
 his private house. And Jotham his son was over his house,
 judging the people of the land.
15:6 Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all he did, are
 they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
 Judah?
15:7 And Azariah went to rest with his fathers and was put into
 the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Jotham his
 son became king in his place.
15:8 In the thirty-eighth year of Azaliah, king of Judah,
 Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, was king over Israel for six
 months.
15:9 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had
 done, not turning away from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of
 Nebat, did and made Israel do.
15:10 And Shallum, the son of Jabesh, made a secret design
 against him, and, attacking him in Ibleam, put him to death and
 became king in his place.
15:11 Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah are recorded in the
 book of the history of the kings of Israel.
15:12 This was what the Lord had said to Jehu, Your sons to the
 fourth generation will be kings of Israel. And so it came
 about.
15:13 Shallum, the son of Jabesh, became king in the
 thirty-ninth year of Uzziah, king of Judah; and he was ruling
 in Samaria for the space of one month.
15:14 Then Menahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Tirzah and
 came to Samaria, and attacking Shallum, son of Jabesh, in
 Samaria, put him to death and made himself king in his place.
15:15 Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and the secret design
 which he made, are recorded in the book of the history of the
 kings of Israel.
15:16 Then Menahem sent destruction on Tappuah and all the
 people in it, and its limits, from Tirzah, because they would
 not let him come in; and he had all the women who were with
 child cut open.
15:17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah,
 Menahem, the son of Gadi, became king over Israel, and was
 ruling in Samaria for ten years.
15:18 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not keep
 himself from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and
 made Israel do.
15:19 In his day, Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against the
 land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that
 he might let him keep the kingdom.
15:20 And Menahem got the money from Israel, from all the men of
 wealth, fifty silver shekels from every man, to give to the
 king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria went back without
 stopping in the land.
15:21 Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all he did, are
 they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
 Israel?
15:22 And Menahem went to rest with his fathers; and Pekahiah
 his son became king in his place.
15:23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah,
 the son of Menahem, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling
 for two years.
15:24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the
 sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.
15:25 And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, his captain, made a secret
 design against him, attacking him in the king's great house in
 Samaria; and with him were fifty men of Gilead; and he put him
 to death and became king in his place.
15:26 Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all he did, are
 recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.
15:27 In the fifty-second year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah,
 the son of Remaliah, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling
 for twenty years.
15:28 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the
 sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.
15:29 In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser,
 king of Assyria, came and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and
 Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee and all the
 land of Naphtali; and he took the people away to Assyria.
15:30 And Hoshea, the son of Elah, made a secret design against
 Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and, attacking him, put him to
 death and became king in his place, in the twentieth year of
 Jotham, the son of Uzziah.
15:31 Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all he did, are
 recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.
15:32 In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of
 Israel, Jotham, the son of Uzziah, became king of Judah.
15:33 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he
 was ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother's
 name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.
15:34 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his
 father Uzziah had done.
15:35 But he did not take away the high places, and the people
 still went on making offerings and burning them in the high
 places. He was the builder of the higher doorway of the house
 of the Lord.
15:36 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all he did, are
 they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
 Judah?
15:37 In those days the Lord first sent against Judah, Rezin,
 the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah.
15:38 And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and was put into
 the earth in the town of David his father; and Ahaz his son
 became king in his place.
16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah,
 Ahaz, the son of Jotham, became king of Judah.
16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king; he was
 ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was
 right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as David his father did.
16:3 But he went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and even
 made his son go through the fire, copying the disgusting ways
 of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before
 the children of Israel.
16:4 And he made offerings, burning them in the high places and
 on the hills and under every green tree.
16:5 Then Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king
 of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they made an
 attack on Ahaz, shutting him in, but were not able to overcome
 him.
16:6 At that time the king of Edom got Elath back for Edom, and
 sent the Jews out of Elath; and the Edomites came back to Elath
 where they are living to this day.
16:7 So Ahaz sent representatives to Tiglath-pileser, king of
 Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son; come to my
 help against the kings of Aram and Israel who have taken up
 arms against me.
16:8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold which were in the house
 of the Lord and in the king's store-house, and sent them as an
 offering to the king of Assyria.
16:9 And the king of Assyria, in answer to his request, went up
 against Damascus and took it, and took its people away as
 prisoners to Kir, and put Rezin to death.
16:10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus for a meeting with
 Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria; and there he saw the altar
 which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest
 a copy of the altar, giving the design of it and all the
 details of its structure.
16:11 And from the copy King Ahaz sent from Damascus, Urijah
 made an altar and had it ready by the time King Ahaz came back
 from Damascus.
16:12 And when the king came from Damascus, he saw the altar;
 and he went up on it and made an offering on it.
16:13 He made his burned offering and his meal offering and his
 drink offering there, draining out the blood of his
 peace-offerings on the altar.
16:14 And the brass altar, which was before the Lord, he took
 from the front of the house, from between his altar and the
 house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar.
16:15 And King Ahaz gave orders to Urijah the priest, saying,
 Make the morning burned offering and the evening meal offering
 and the king's burned offering and meal offering, with the
 burned offerings of all the people and their meal offerings and
 drink offerings, on the great altar, and put on it all the
 blood of the burned offerings and of the beasts which are
 offered; but the brass altar will be for my use to get
 directions from the Lord.
16:16 So Urijah the priest did everything as the king said
16:17 And King Ahaz took off the sides of the wheeled bases, and
 took down the great water-vessel from off the brass oxen which
 were under it and put it on a floor of stone.
16:18 *** the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria.
16:19 Now the rest of the things which Ahaz did, are they not
 recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?
16:20 And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and was put into
 the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Hezekiah
 his son became king in his place.
17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hoshea, the son
 of Elah, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for nine
 years.
17:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, though not like the
 kings of Israel before him.
17:3 Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and
 Hoshea became his servant and sent him offerings.
17:4 But Hoshea's broken faith became clear to the king of
 Assyria because he had sent representatives to So, king of
 Egypt, and did not send his offering to the king of Assyria, as
 he had done year by year: so the king of Assyria had him shut
 up in prison and put in chains.
17:5 Then the king of Assyria went through all the land and came
 up to Samaria, shutting it in with his forces for three years.
17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took
 Samaria, and took Israel away to Assyria, placing them in Halah
 and in Habor on the river Gozan, and in the towns of the Medes.
17:7 And the wrath of the Lord came on Israel because they had
 done evil against the Lord their God, who took them out of the
 land of Egypt from under the yoke of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
 and had become worshippers of other gods,
17:8 Living by the rules of the nations whom the Lord had sent
 out from before the children of Israel.
17:9 And the children of Israel did secretly against the Lord
 their God things which were not right, building high places for
 themselves in all their towns, from the tower of the watchmen
 to the walled town.
17:10 They put up pillars of stone and wood on every high hill
 and under every green tree:
17:11 Burning their offerings in all the high places, as those
 nations did whom the Lord sent away from before them; they did
 evil things, moving the Lord to wrath;
17:12 And they made themselves servants of disgusting things,
 though the Lord had said, You are not to do this.
17:13 And he gave witness to Israel and Judah, by every prophet
 and seer, saying, Come back from your evil ways, and do my
 orders and keep my rules, and be guided by the law which I gave
 to your fathers and sent to you by my servants the prophets.
17:14 And they did not give ear, but became stiff-necked, like
 their fathers who had no faith in the Lord their God.
17:15 And they went against his rules, and the agreement which
 he made with their fathers, and his laws which he gave them;
 they gave themselves up to things without sense or value, and
 became foolish like the nations round them, of whom the Lord
 had said, Do not as they do.
17:16 And turning their backs on all the orders which the Lord
 had given them, they made for themselves images of metal, and
 the image of Asherah, worshipping all the stars of heaven and
 becoming servants to Baal.
17:17 And they made their sons and their daughters go through
 the fire, and they made use of secret arts and unnatural
 powers, and gave themselves up to doing evil in the eyes of the
 Lord, till he was moved to wrath.
17:18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and his face was
 turned away from them: only the tribe of Judah kept its place.
17:19 (But even Judah did not keep the orders of the Lord their
 God, but were guided by the rules which Israel had made.
17:20 So the Lord would have nothing to do with all the
 offspring of Israel, and sent trouble on them, and gave them up
 into the hands of their attackers, till he had sent them away
 from before his face.)
17:21 For Israel was broken off from the family of David, and
 they made Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, king, who, driving them
 away from the laws of the Lord, made them do a great sin.
17:22 And the children of Israel went on with all the sins which
 Jeroboam did; they did not keep themselves from them;
17:23 Till the Lord put Israel away from before his face, as he
 had said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was taken
 away from their land to Assyria, to this day.
17:24 Then the king of Assyria took men from Babylon and from
 Cuthah and Avva and Hamath and Sepharvaim, and put them in the
 towns of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; so they
 got Samaria for their heritage, living in its towns.
17:25 Now when first they were living there they did not give
 worship to the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them, causing
 the death of some of them.
17:26 So they said to the king of Assyria, The nations whom you
 have taken as prisoners and put in the towns of Samaria, have
 no knowledge of the way of the god of the land: so he has sent
 lions among them, causing their death, because they have no
 knowledge of his way.
17:27 Then the king of Assyria gave orders, saying, Send there
 one of the priests whom you took away, and let him be living
 there and teaching the people the way of the god of the land.
17:28 So one of the priests whom they had taken away as a
 prisoner from Samaria came back, and, living in Beth-el, became
 their teacher in the worship of the Lord.
17:29 And every nation made gods for themselves, and put them in
 the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made,
 every nation in the towns where they were living.
17:30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of
 Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
17:31 The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites
 gave their children to be burned in the fire to Adrammelech and
 Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
17:32 So they went on worshipping the Lord, and made for
 themselves, from among all the people, priests for the high
 places, to make offerings for them in the houses of the high
 places.
17:33 They gave worship to the Lord, but they gave honour to
 their gods like the nations did from whom they had been taken
 as prisoners.
17:34 So to this day they go on in their old ways, not
 worshipping the Lord or keeping his orders or his ways or the
 law and the rule which the Lord gave to the children of Jacob,
 to whom he gave the name Israel;
17:35 And the Lord made an agreement with them and gave them
 orders, saying, You are to have no other gods; you are not to
 give worship to them or be their servants or make them
 offerings:
17:36 But the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt with
 his great power and his outstretched arm, he is your God, to
 whom you are to give worship and make offerings:
17:37 And the rules and the orders and the law which he put in
 writing for you, you are to keep and do for ever; you are to
 have no other gods.
17:38 And you are to keep in memory the agreement which I have
 made with you; and you are to have no other gods.
17:39 And you are to give worship to the Lord your God; for it
 is he who will give you salvation from the hands of all who are
 against you.
17:40 But they gave no attention, but went on in their old way.
17:41 So these nations, worshipping the Lord, still were
 servants to the images they had made; their children and their
 children's children did the same; as their fathers did, so do
 they, to this day.
18:1 Now in the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of
 Israel, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, became king of Judah.
18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, ruling in
 Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Abi, the
 daughter of Zechariah.
18:3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as David his
 father had done.
18:4 He had the high places taken away, and the stone pillars
 broken to bits, and the Asherah cut down; and the brass snake
 which Moses had made was crushed to powder at his order,
 because in those days the children of Israel had offerings
 burned before it, and he gave it the name Nehushtan.
18:5 He had faith in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that there
 was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were
 before him.
18:6 For his heart was fixed on the Lord, not turning from his
 ways, and he did his orders which the Lord gave to Moses.
18:7 And the Lord was with him; he did well in all his
 undertakings: and he took up arms against the king of Assyria
 and was his servant no longer.
18:8 He overcame the Philistines as far as Gaza and its limits,
 from the tower of the watchman to the walled town.
18:9 Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the
 seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel,
 Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria, shutting
 it in with his armies.
18:10 And at the end of three years they took it; in the sixth
 year of Hezekiah's rule, which was the ninth year of Hoshea,
 king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
18:11 And the king of Assyria took Israel away as prisoners into
 Assyria, placing them in Halah and in Habor on the river Gozan,
 and in the towns of the Medes;
18:12 Because they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord
 their God, but went against his agreement, even against
 everything ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and they
 did not give ear to it or do it.
18:13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib,
 king of Assyria, came up against all the walled towns of Judah
 and took them.
18:14 And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to Lachish, to the king
 of Assyria, saying, I have done wrong; give up attacking me,
 and whatever you put on me I will undergo. And the payment he
 was to make was fixed by the king of Assyria at three hundred
 talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
18:15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the house of the
 Lord, and in the king's store-house.
18:16 And at that time Hezekiah had the gold from the doors of
 the Lord's house, and from the door-pillars plated by him, cut
 off and gave it to the king of Assyria.
18:17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rab-saris
 and the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah,
 with a strong force. And they went up and came to Jerusalem,
 and took up their position by the stream of the higher pool, by
 the highway of the washerman's field.
18:18 And they sent for the king, and Eliakim, the son of
 Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and
 Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.
18:19 And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah,
 These are the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: In
 what are you placing your hope?
18:20 You say you have a design, and strength for war, but these
 are only words. Now to whom are you looking for support, that
 you have gone against my authority?
18:21 See, now, you are basing your hope on that broken rod of
 Egypt, which will go through a man's hand if he makes use of it
 for a support; for so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who put
 their faith in him.
18:22 And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God: is
 it not he, whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken
 away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only be
 given before this altar in Jerusalem?
18:23 And now, take a chance with my master, the king of
 Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are
 able to put horsemen on them.
18:24 How then may you put to shame the least of my master's
 servants? and you have put your hope in Egypt for war-carriages
 and horsemen:
18:25 And have I now come up to send destruction on this place
 without the Lord's authority? It was the Lord himself who said
 to me, Go up against this land and make it waste.
18:26 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said
 to the Rab-shakeh, Will you kindly make use of the Aramaean
 language in talking to your servants, for we are used to it,
 and do not make use of the Jews' language in the hearing of the
 people on the wall.
18:27 But the Rab-shakeh said to them, Is it to your master or
 to you that my master has sent me to say these words? has he
 not sent me to the men seated on the wall? for they are the
 people who will be short of food with you when the town is shut
 in.
18:28 Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice in
 the Jews' language, Give ear to the words of the great king,
 the king of Assyria;
18:29 This is what the king says: Do not be tricked by Hezekiah,
 for there is no salvation for you in him.
18:30 And do not let Hezekiah make you put your faith in the
 Lord, saying, The Lord will certainly keep us safe, and this
 town will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.
18:31 Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of
 Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me; and
 everyone will be free to take the fruit of his vine and of his
 fig-tree, and the water of his spring;
18:32 Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a land
 of grain and wine, a land of bread and vine-gardens, a land of
 oil-giving olives and of honey, so that life and not death may
 be your fate. Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to
 you, The Lord will keep us safe.
18:33 Has any one of the gods of the nations kept his land from
 falling into the hands of the king of Assyria?
18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are the
 gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivvah? have they kept Samaria
 out of my hands?
18:35 Who among all the gods of these countries have kept their
 country from falling into my hands, to give cause for the
 thought that the Lord will keep Jerusalem from falling into my
 hands?
18:36 But the people kept quiet and gave him no answer: for the
 king's order was, Give him no answer.
18:37 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house,
 and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the
 recorder, came to Hezekiah, with their clothing parted as a
 sign of grief, and gave him an account of what the Rab-shakeh
 had said.
19:1 And on hearing it, King Hezekiah took off his robe, and put
 on haircloth, and went into the house of the Lord.
19:2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the
 scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah
 the prophet, the son of Amoz.
19:3 And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of
 trouble and punishment and shame; for the children are ready to
 come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them.
19:4 It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the words
 of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, sent
 to say evil things against the living God, and will make his
 words come to nothing: so then make your prayer for the rest of
 the people.
19:5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
19:6 And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to
 your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which
 the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in
 your hearing.
19:7 See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come
 to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will
 have him put to death by the sword.
19:8 So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king
 of Assyria was making war against Libnah, for it had come to
 his ears that he had gone away from Lachish.
19:9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia,
 had made an attack on him, he sent representatives to Hezekiah
 again, saying,
19:10 This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah:
 Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope,
 saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king
 of Assyria.
19:11 No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the kings
 of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the curse;
 and will you be kept safe?
19:12 Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my
 fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the
 children of Eden who were in Telassar?
19:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and
 the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena and of Ivvah?
19:14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who
 had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the
 house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord.
19:15 And Hezekiah made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord,
 the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are
 the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven
 and earth.
19:16 Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord, and let your eyes be
 open, O Lord, and see; take note of all the words of
 Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living
 God.
19:17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste the
 nations and their lands,
19:18 And have given their gods to the fire; for they were no
 gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have
 given them to destruction.
19:19 But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hands,
 so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that
 you and only you, O Lord, are God.
19:20 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying,
 The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer which you have
 made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my
 ears.
19:21 This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the
 eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed
 at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.
19:22 Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? against
 whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even
 against the Holy One of Israel.
19:23 You have sent your servants with evil words against the
 Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up
 to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon;
 its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its
 woods; I will come up into his highest places, into his thick
 woods.
19:24 I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with
 my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.
19:25 Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before,
 purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my
 design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses
 of broken walls.
19:26 This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken
 and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field and the
 green plant, like grass on the house-tops.
19:27 But I have knowledge of your getting up and your resting,
 of your going out and your coming in.
19:28 Because your wrath against me and your words of pride have
 come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord
 in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came.
19:29 And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food
 this year from what comes up of itself; and in the second year
 from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will
 put in your seed and get in the grain and make vine-gardens and
 take of their fruit.
19:30 And those of Judah who are still living will again take
 root in the earth and give fruit.
19:31 For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go
 out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion:
 by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done.
19:32 For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He
 will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he
 will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork
 against it;
19:33 By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get
 into this town, says the Lord.
19:34 For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the
 honour of my servant David.
19:35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and put to
 death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five
 thousand men; and when the people got up early in the morning,
 there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.
19:36 So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at
 Nineveh.
19:37 And it came about, when he was worshipping in the house of
 Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him
 to death with the sword; and they went in flight into the land
 of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son became king in his place.
20:1 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death. And Isaiah
 the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, The
 Lord says, Put your house in order, for your death is near.
20:2 Then, turning his face to the wall, he made his prayer to
 the Lord, saying,
20:3 O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all
 my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah
 gave way to bitter weeping.
20:4 Now before Isaiah had gone out of the middle of the town,
 the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
20:5 Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, The
 Lord, the God of David your father, says, Your prayer has come
 to my ears, and I have seen your weeping; see, I will make you
 well: on the third day you will go up to the house of the Lord.
20:6 I will give you fifteen more years of life; and I will keep
 you and this town safe from the hands of the king of Assyria; I
 will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of
 my servant David.
20:7 Then Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. So they took it and
 put it on his wound, and he got better.
20:8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is to be the sign that
 the Lord will make me well, and that I will go up to the house
 of the Lord on the third day?
20:9 And Isaiah said, This is the sign the Lord will give you,
 that he will do what he has said; will the shade go forward ten
 degrees or back?
20:10 And Hezekiah said in answer, It is a simple thing for the
 shade to go forward; but let it go back ten degrees.
20:11 Then Isaiah the prophet made prayer to the Lord, and he
 made the shade go back ten degrees from its position on the
 steps of Ahaz.
20:12 At that time, Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king
 of Babylon, sent letters with an offering to Hezekiah, because
 he had news that Hezekiah had been ill.
20:13 And Hezekiah was glad at their coming and let them see all
 his store of wealth, the silver and the gold and the spices and
 the oil of great price, and the house of his arms, and
 everything there was in his stores; there was nothing in all
 his house or his kingdom which Hezekiah did not let them see.
20:14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to
 him, What did these men say and where did they come from? And
 Hezekiah said, They came from a far country, even from Babylon.
20:15 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And
 Hezekiah said in answer, They saw everything in my house: there
 is nothing among my stores which I did not let them see.
20:16 And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Give ear to the word of the
 Lord.
20:17 Truly, days are coming when everything in your house, and
 whatever your fathers have put in store till this day, will be
 taken away to Babylon: all will be gone, says the Lord.
20:18 And your sons, the offspring of your body, they will take
 away to be unsexed servants in the house of the king of
 Babylon.
20:19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord
 which you have said. Then he said, ... if in my time there is
 peace and righteousness?
20:20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his power, and
 how he made the pool and the stream, to take water into the
 town, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the
 kings of Judah?
20:21 And Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers; and Manasseh
 his son became king in his place.
21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king; for
 fifty-five years he was ruling in Jerusalem; and his mother's
 name was Hephzi-bah.
21:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the disgusting
 ways of those nations whom the Lord had sent out before the
 children of Israel.
21:3 He put up again the high places which had been pulled down
 by Hezekiah his father; he made altars for Baal, and an
 Asherah, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done; he was a worshipper
 and servant of all the stars of heaven.
21:4 And he put up altars in the house of the Lord, of which the
 Lord had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.
21:5 And he put up altars for all the stars of heaven in the two
 outer squares of the house of the Lord.
21:6 And he made his son go through the fire, and made use of
 secret arts and signs for reading the future; he 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.
21:7 He put the image of Asherah which he had made in the house
 of which the Lord 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, I will put my name for ever.
21:8 And never again will I send the feet of Israel wandering
 from the land which I gave to their fathers; if only they will
 take care to do all my orders, and keep all the law which my
 servant Moses gave them.
21:9 But they did not give ear; and Manasseh made them do more
 evil than those nations did, whom the Lord gave up to
 destruction before the children of Israel.
21:10 And the Lord said, by his servants the prophets,
21:11 Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has done these disgusting
 things, doing more evil than all the Amorites before him, and
 making Judah do evil with his false gods,
21:12 For this cause, says the Lord, the God of Israel, I will
 send such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of all to
 whom the news comes will be burning.
21:13 And over Jerusalem will be stretched the line of Samaria
 and the weight of Ahab; Jerusalem will be washed clean as a
 plate is washed, and turned over on its face.
21:14 And I will put away from me the rest of my heritage, and
 give them up into the hands of their haters, who will take
 their property and their goods for themselves;
21:15 Because they have done evil in my eyes, moving me to
 wrath, from the day when their fathers came out of Egypt till
 this day.
21:16 More than this, Manasseh took the lives of upright men,
 till Jerusalem from one end to the other was full of blood; in
 addition to his sin in making Judah do evil in the eyes of the
 Lord.
21:17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all he did, and
 his sins, are they not recorded in the book of the history of
 the kings of Judah?
21:18 So Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and was put
 into the earth in the garden of his house, in the garden of
 Uzza; and Amon his son became king in his place.
21:19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, ruling
 in Jerusalem for two years; his mother's name was Meshullemeth,
 the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
21:20 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his
 father had done.
21:21 He went in all the ways of his father, being a servant and
 worshipper of the false gods to which his father had been a
 servant;
21:22 Turning away from the Lord, the God of his fathers, and
 not walking in his ways.
21:23 And the servants of Amon made a secret design against him,
 and put the king to death in his house.
21:24 But the people of the land put to death all those who had
 taken part in the design against the king, and made Josiah his
 son king in his place.
21:25 Now the rest of the acts which Amon did, are they not
 recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?
21:26 He was put in his last resting-place in the garden of
 Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place.
22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king; and he was
 ruling in Jerusalem for thirty-one years; his mother's name was
 Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.
22:2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, walking in
 the ways of David his father, without turning to the right hand
 or to the left.
22:3 Now in the eighteenth year after he became king, Josiah
 sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the
 scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying to him,
22:4 Go up to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and let him give out
 the money which is taken into the house of the Lord, which the
 keepers of the door have got together from the people;
22:5 And let it be given to the overseers of the work of the
 Lord's house, to give to the workmen who are making good what
 was damaged in the house of the Lord;
22:6 To the woodworkers and the builders and the stone-cutters;
 and for getting wood and cut stones for the building up of the
 house.
22:7 They did not have to give any account of the money which
 was handed to them, for they made use of it with good faith.
22:8 Then Hilkiah, the chief priest, said to Shaphan the scribe,
 I have made discovery of the book of the law in the house of
 the Lord. So Hilkiah gave it to Shaphan;
22:9 Then, after reading it, Shaphan the scribe went in to the
 king and gave him an account of what had been done, saying,
 Your servants have given out the money which was in the house,
 and have given it to the overseers of the work of the house of
 the Lord.
22:10 Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the
 priest has given me a book; and he was reading it before the
 king.
22:11 And the king, hearing the words of the book of the law,
 took his robe in his hands, violently parting it as a sign of
 his grief;
22:12 And he gave orders to Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, the
 son of Shaphan, and Achbor, the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the
 scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,
22:13 Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for the
 people and for all Judah, about the words of this book which
 has come to light; for great is the wrath of the Lord which is
 burning against us, because our fathers have not given ear to
 the words of this book, to do all the things which are recorded
 in it.
22:14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan
 and Asaiah, went to Huldah the woman prophet, the wife of
 Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the
 robes, (now she was living in Jerusalem, in the second part of
 the town;) and they had talk with her.
22:15 And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, says,
 Say to the man who sent you to me,
22:16 These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on
 this place and on its people, even everything which the king of
 Judah has been reading in the book;
22:17 Because they have given me up, burning offerings to other
 gods and moving me to wrath by all the work of their hands; so
 my wrath will be on fire against this place, and will not be
 put out.
22:18 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: As to the words which have come to your ears,
22:19 Because your heart was soft, and you made yourself low
 before me, when you had word of what I said against this place
 and its people, that they would become a waste and a curse, and
 you gave signs of grief, weeping before me: truly, I have given
 ear to you, says the Lord.
22:20 For this cause 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. So they took
 this news back to the king.
23:1 Then the king sent and got together all the responsible men
 of Judah and of Jerusalem.
23:2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the
 men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem, and the priests
 and the prophets 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.
23:3 And the king took his place by the pillar, and made an
 agreement before the Lord, to go in the way of the Lord, and
 keep his orders and his decisions and his rules with all his
 heart and all his soul, and to keep the words of the agreement
 recorded in the book; and all the people gave their word to
 keep the agreement.
23:4 Then the king gave orders to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and
 to the priests of the second order, and to the keepers of the
 door, to take out of the house of the Lord all the vessels made
 for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the stars of heaven;
 and he had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of
 Kidron, and took the dust of them to Beth-el.
23:5 And he put an end to the false priests, who had been put in
 their positions by the kings of Judah to see to the burning of
 offerings in the high places in the towns of Judah and the
 outskirts of Jerusalem, and all those who made offerings to
 Baal and to the sun and the moon and the twelve signs and all
 the stars of heaven.
23:6 And he took the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside
 Jerusalem to the stream Kidron, burning it by the stream and
 crushing it to dust, and he put the dust on the place where the
 bodies of the common people were put to rest.
23:7 And he had the houses pulled down of those who were used
 for sex purposes in the house of the Lord, where women were
 making robes for the Asherah.
23:8 And he made all the priests from the towns of Judah come
 into Jerusalem, and he made unclean the high places where the
 priests had been burning offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba;
 and he had the high places of the evil spirits pulled down
 which were by the doorway of Joshua, the ruler of the town, on
 the left side of the way into the town.
23:9 Still the priests of the high places never came up to the
 altar of the Lord in Jerusalem; but they took their food of
 unleavened bread among their brothers.
23:10 And Topheth, in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, he made
 unclean, so that no man might make his son or his daughter go
 through the fire to Molech.
23:11 And he took away the horses which the kings of Judah had
 given to the sun, at the way into the house of the Lord, by the
 room of Nathan-melech, the unsexed servant, which was in the
 outer part of the building, and the carriages of the sun he put
 on fire.
23:12 And the altars on the roof of the high room of Ahaz, which
 the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had
 made in the two outer squares of the house of the Lord, were
 pulled down and crushed to bits, and the dust of them was put
 into the stream Kidron.
23:13 And the high places before Jerusalem, on the south side of
 the mountain of destruction, which Solomon, king of Israel, had
 made for Ashtoreth, the disgusting god of the Zidonians, and
 for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and for Milcom, the
 disgusting god of the children of Ammon, the king made unclean.
23:14 The stone pillars were broken to bits and the wood pillars
 cut down, and the places where they had been were made full of
 the bones of the dead.
23:15 And the altar at Beth-el, and the high place put up by
 Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel do evil, that altar
 and that high place were pulled down; and the high place was
 burned and crushed to dust and the Asherah was burned.
23:16 Then Josiah, turning round, saw on the mountain the places
 of the dead, and he sent and had the bones taken out of their
 places and burned on the altar, so making it unclean, as the
 Lord had said by the man of God when Jeroboam was in his place
 by the altar on that feast-day. And he, turning his eyes to the
 resting-place of the man of God who had given word of these
 things, said:
23:17 What is that headstone I see over there? And the men of
 the town said to him, It is the resting-place of the man of God
 who came from Judah and gave word of all these things which you
 have done to the altar of Beth-el.
23:18 So he said, Let him be; let not his bones be moved. So
 they let his bones be with the bones of the prophet who came
 from Samaria.
23:19 Then Josiah took away all the houses of the high places in
 the towns of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had put up,
 moving the Lord to wrath, and he did with them as he had done
 in Beth-el.
23:20 And all the priests of the high places there he put to
 death on the altars, burning the bones of the dead on them; and
 then he went back to Jerusalem.
23:21 And the king gave orders to all the people, saying, Keep
 the Passover to the Lord your God, as it says in this book of
 the law.
23:22 Truly, such a Passover had not been kept in all the days
 of the judges of Israel or of the kings of Israel or the kings
 of Judah;
23:23 In the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this
 Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.
23:24 And all those who had control of spirits, and the
 wonder-workers, and the images, and the false gods, and all the
 disgusting things which were seen in the land of Judah and in
 Jerusalem, Josiah put away, so that he might give effect to the
 words of the agreement recorded in the book which Hilkiah the
 priest made discovery of in the house of the Lord.
23:25 Never before had there been a king like him, turning to
 the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all
 his power, as the law of Moses says; and after him there was no
 king like him.
23:26 But still the heat of the Lord's wrath was not turned back
 from Judah, because of all Manasseh had done in moving him to
 wrath.
23:27 And the Lord said, I will send Judah away from before my
 face, as I have sent Israel; I will have nothing more to do
 with this town, which I had made mine, even Jerusalem, and the
 holy house of which I said, My name will be there.
23:28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all he did, are
 they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
 Judah?
23:29 In his days, Pharaoh-necoh, king of Egypt, sent his armies
 against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and King
 Josiah went out against him; and he put him to death at
 Megiddo, when he had seen him.
23:30 And his servants took his body in a carriage from Megiddo
 to Jerusalem, and put him into the earth there. And the people
 of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and put the holy
 oil on him and made him king in place of his father.
23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king,
 ruling in Jerusalem for three months; his mother's name was
 Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
23:32 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his fathers had
 done.
23:33 And Pharaoh-necoh put him in chains at Riblah in the land
 of Hamath, so that he might not be king in Jerusalem; and took
 from the land a tax of a hundred talents of silver and a talent
 of gold.
23:34 Then Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king
 in place of Josiah his father, changing his name to Jehoiakim;
 but Jehoahaz he took away to Egypt, where he was till his
 death.
23:35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, taxing
 the land by his orders to get the money; the people of the land
 had to give silver and gold, everyone as he was taxed, to make
 the payment to Pharaoh-necoh.
23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king;
 he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years; his mother's name
 was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
23:37 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord as his fathers had
 done.
24:1 In his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up and
 Jehoiakim was his servant for three years; then he took up arms
 against him.
24:2 And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldaeans and
 of the Edomites and of the Moabites and of the children of
 Ammon; sending them against Judah for its destruction, as he
 had said by his servants the prophets.
24:3 Only by the word of the Lord did this fate come on Judah,
 to take them away from before his face; because of the sins of
 Manasseh and all the evil he did;
24:4 And because of the death of those who had done no wrong,
 for he made Jerusalem full of the blood of the upright; and the
 Lord had no forgiveness for it.
24:5 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all he did, are
 they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of
 Judah?
24:6 So Jehoiakim went to rest with his fathers; and Jehoiachin
 his son became king in his place.
24:7 And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land again,
 for the king of Babylon had taken all his country, from the
 stream of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, he
 was ruling in Jerusalem for three months, and his mother's name
 was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
24:9 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had
 done.
24:10 At that time the armies of Nebuchadnezzar came up to
 Jerusalem and the town was shut in on every side.
24:11 And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came there, while his
 servants were shutting in the town;
24:12 Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, went out to the king of
 Babylon, with his mother and his servants and his chiefs and
 his unsexed servants; and in the eighth year of his rule the
 king of Babylon took him.
24:13 And he took away all the stored wealth of the Lord's
 house, and the goods from the king's store-house, cutting up
 all the gold vessels which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in
 the house of the Lord, as the Lord had said.
24:14 And he took away all the people of Jerusalem and all the
 chiefs and all the men of war, ten thousand prisoners; and all
 the expert workmen and the metal-workers; only the poorest sort
 of the people of the land were not taken away.
24:15 He took Jehoiachin a prisoner to Babylon, with his mother
 and his wives and his unsexed servants and the great men of the
 land; he took them all as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon.
24:16 And all the men of war, seven thousand of them, and a
 thousand expert workmen and metal-workers, all of them strong
 and able to take up arms, the king of Babylon took away as
 prisoners into Babylon.
24:17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father's
 brother, king in place of Jehoiachin, changing his name to
 Zedekiah.
24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and
 he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years; his mother's name
 was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
24:19 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Jehoiakim had
 done.
24:20 And because of the wrath of the Lord, this came about in
 Jerusalem and Judah, till he had sent them all away from before
 him: and Zedekiah took up arms against the king of Babylon.
25:1 Now in the ninth year of his rule, on the tenth day of the
 tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came against
 Jerusalem with all his army and took up his position before it,
 building earthworks all round the town.
25:2 And the town was shut in by their forces till the eleventh
 year of King Zedekiah.
25:3 Now on the ninth day of the fourth month, the store of food
 in the town was almost gone, so that there was no food for the
 people of the land.
25:4 So an opening was made in the wall of the town, and all the
 men of war went in flight by night through the doorway between
 the two walls which was by the king's garden; (now the
 Chaldaeans were stationed round the town:) and the king went by
 the way of the Arabah.
25:5 But the Chaldaean army went after the king, and overtook
 him in the lowlands of Jericho, and all his army went in flight
 from him in every direction.
25:6 And they made the king a prisoner and took him up to the
 king of Babylon at Riblah to be judged.
25:7 And they put the sons of Zedekiah to death before his eyes,
 and then they put out his eyes, and chaining him with iron
 bands, took him to Babylon.
25:8 Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in
 the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, a servant of the
 king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem;
25:9 And he had the house of the Lord and the king's house and
 all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned
 with fire;
25:10 And the walls round Jerusalem were broken down by the
 Chaldaean army which was with the captain.
25:11 And the rest of the people who were still in the town, and
 all those who had given themselves up to the king of Babylon,
 and all the rest of the workmen, Nebuzaradan, the captain of
 the armed men, took away as prisoners;
25:12 But he let the poorest of the land go on living there, to
 take care of the vines and the fields.
25:13 And the brass pillars in the house of the Lord, and the
 wheeled bases, and the great brass water-vessel in the house of
 the Lord, were broken up by the Chaldaeans, who took the brass
 to Babylon.
25:14 And the pots and the spades and the scissors for the
 lights and the spoons, and all the brass vessels used in the
 Lord's house, they took away.
25:15 And the fire-trays and the basins; the gold of the gold
 vessels and the silver of the silver vessels, were all taken
 away by the captain of the armed men.
25:16 The two pillars, the great water-vessel and the wheeled
 bases, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord: the
 brass of all these vessels was without weight.
25:17 One of the pillars was eighteen cubits high, with a crown
 of brass on it; the crown was three cubits high, circled with a
 network and apples all of brass; and the second pillar had the
 same.
25:18 And the captain of the armed men took Seraiah, the chief
 priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three
 door-keepers;
25:19 And from the town he took the unsexed servant who was over
 the men of war, and five of the king's near friends who were in
 the town, and the scribe of the captain of the army, who was
 responsible for getting the people of the land together in
 military order, and sixty men of the people of the land who
 were in the town.
25:20 These Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took with
 him to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
25:21 And the king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the
 land of Hamath. So Judah was taken away prisoner from his land.
25:22 As for the people who were still living in the land of
 Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take away,
 he made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler
 over them.
25:23 Now the captains of the armed forces, hearing that the
 king of Babylon had made Gedaliah ruler, came with their men to
 Gedaliah at Mizpah; Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan,
 the son of Kareah, and Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth the
 Netophathite, and Jaazaniah, the son of the Maacathite, came
 with all their men.
25:24 Then Gedaliah gave his oath to them and their men, saying,
 Have no fear because of the servants of the Chaldaeans; go on
 living in the land under the rule of the king of Babylon, and
 all will be well.
25:25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah,
 the son of Elishama, of the king's seed, came with ten men and
 made an attack on Gedaliah, causing his death and the death of
 the Jews and the Chaldaeans who were with him at Mizpah.
25:26 Then all the people, small and great, and the captains of
 the forces, got up and went away to Egypt, for fear of the
 Chaldaeans.
25:27 And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of
 Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the
 twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of
 Babylon, in the first year of his rule, took Jehoiachin, king
 of Judah, out of prison;
25:28 And said kind words to him, and put his seat higher than
 the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
25:29 And his prison clothing was changed, and he was a guest at
 the king's table every day for the rest of his life.
25:30 And for his food, the king gave him a regular amount every
 day for the rest of his life.
