231 And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 2 And the king went up into the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of Jehovah. 3 And the king stood on the dais, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all [his] heart, and with all [his] soul, to establish the words of this covenant that are written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
4 And the king commanded Hilkijah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring forth out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that had been made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of the heavens; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel. 5 And he abolished the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah, and the environs of Jerusalem; and them that burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of Jehovah, outside Jerusalem, to the torrent of Kidron, and burned it at the torrent of Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder upon the graves of the children of the people. 7 And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, which were in the house of Jehovah, where the women wove tents for the Asherah. 8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba even to Beer-sheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates, those at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, [and] those on the left hand of any [going in] at the gate of the city. 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of Jehovah in Jerusalem, but they ate of the unleavened bread among their brethren. 10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might cause his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. 11 And he abolished the horses that the kings of Judah had appointed to the sun at the entrance of the house of Jehovah, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun, with fire. 12 And the king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Jehovah, and he shattered them, [removing them] from thence, and cast the powder of them into the torrent of Kidron. 13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. 14 And he broke in pieces the columns, and cut down the Asherahs, and filled their place with the bones of men. 15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and burned the high place, stamped it small to powder, and burned the Asherah. 16 And Josiah turned himself, and saw the sepulchres that were there on the mount; and he sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned [them] upon the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Jehovah, that the man of God had proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. 17 Then he said, What tombstone is that which I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. 18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. And they saved his bones, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. 19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [Jehovah] to anger, Josiah removed, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. 20 And he sacrificed upon the altars all the priests of the high places that were there, and burned men's bones upon them. And he returned to Jerusalem.
21 And the king commanded all the people saying, Hold the passover to Jehovah your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant. 22 For there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; 23 but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this passover holden to Jehovah in Jerusalem.
24 Moreover the necromancers and the soothsayers, and the teraphim and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah took away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkijah the priest had found in the house of Jehovah.
25 And before him there had been no king like him that turned to Jehovah with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there his like. 26 But Jehovah turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. 27 And Jehovah said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will reject this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
28 And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 29 In his days Pharaoh-Nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and king Josiah went against him; but [Nechoh] slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. 30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh-Nechoh had him bound at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and laid a tribute upon the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh-Nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king instead of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And he took Jehoahaz; and he came to Egypt, and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he laid a proportional tax on the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his estimation, to give it to Pharaoh-Nechoh.
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Zebuddah, daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done.
241 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim was his servant three years; then he turned and rebelled against him. 2 And Jehovah sent against him the bands of the Chaldeans, and the bands of the Syrians, and the bands of the Moabites, and the bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spoke through his servants the prophets. 3 Verily, at the commandment of Jehovah it came to pass against Judah, that they should be removed out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done; 4 and also [because of] the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Jehovah would not pardon. 5 And the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 6 And Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. 7 And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt, from the torrent of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. 9 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father had done. 10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. 11 And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, while his servants were besieging it. 12 And Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his chamberlains; and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. 13 And he brought out thence all the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of Jehovah, as Jehovah had said. 14 And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained but the poorest sort of the people of the land. 15 And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his chamberlains, and the mighty of the land, he led into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon; 16 and all the men of valour, seven thousand, and the craftsmen and smiths a thousand, all strong men apt for war, and the king of Babylon brought them captive to Babylon. 17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his uncle king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 19 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 20 For, because the anger of Jehovah was against Jerusalem and against Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
251 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, [that] Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built turrets against it round about. 2 And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3 On the ninth of the [fourth] month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 4 And the city was broken into; and all the men of war [fled] by night, by the way of the gate between the two walls, which [leads] to the king's garden (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about); and they went the way toward the plain. 5 And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. 6 And they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon unto Riblah; and they pronounced judgment upon him, 7 and slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with chains of brass, and carried him to Babylon.
8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month, which was in the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzar-adan, captain of the body-guard, servant of the king of Babylon, came unto Jerusalem; 9 and he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; and every great [man's] house he burned with fire. 10 And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of the body-guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about. 11 And Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard carried away captive the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters that had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. 12 But the captain of the body-guard left of the poor of the land for vinedressers and husbandmen. 13 And the brazen pillars that were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of Jehovah, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried the brass thereof to Babylon. 14 The cauldrons also and the shovels and the knives and the cups, and all the vessels of copper wherewith they ministered, they took away. 15 And the censers and the bowls, that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the body-guard took away. 16 The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of Jehovah: for the brass of all these vessels there was no weight. 17 The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the capital upon it was brass, and the height of the capital three cubits; and the network and the pomegranates, upon the capital round about, all of brass: and similarly for the second pillar with the network. 18 And the captain of the body-guard took Seraiah the high priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 19 And out of the city he took a chamberlain that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were in the king's presence, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the captain of the host, who enrolled the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land that were found in the city. 20 And Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah; 21 and the king of Babylon smote them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his land.
22 And [as for] the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left behind, over them he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan. 23 And all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, and they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, namely, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. 24 And Gedaliah swore unto them and to their men, and said to them, Fear not to be servants of the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. 25 And it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpah. 26 And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
27 And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh of the month, [that] Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison; 28 and he spoke kindly to him, and set his seat above the seat of the kings that were with him in Babylon. 29 And he changed his prison garments; and he ate bread before him continually all the days of his life; 30 and his allowance was a continual allowance given him by the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.
