²Now Ahazi'ah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samar'ia, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, “Go, inquire of Ba'al-ze'bub, the god of Ek'ron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.” ³But the angel of the LORD said to Eli'jah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samar'ia, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Ba'al-ze'bub, the god of Ek'ron?’ ⁴Now therefore thus says the LORD, ‘You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die.’” So Eli'jah went.

⁵The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, “Why have you returned?” ⁶And they said to him, “There came a man to meet us, and said to us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says the LORD, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Ba'al-ze'bub, the god of Ek'ron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone, but shall surely die.’” ⁷He said to them, “What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?” ⁸They answered him, “He wore a garment of haircloth, with a belt of leather about his loins.” And he said, “It is Eli'jah the Tishbite.”

⁹Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty. He went up to Eli'jah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’” ¹⁰But Eli'jah answered the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then fire came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

¹¹Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty men with his fifty. And he went up^a and said to him, “O man of God, this is the king’s order, ‘Come down quickly!’” ¹²But Eli'jah answered them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

¹³Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Eli'jah, and entreated him, “O man of God, I beg you, let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight. ¹⁴Behold, fire came down from heaven, and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their fifties; but now let my life be precious in your sight.” ¹⁵Then the angel of the LORD said to Eli'jah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So he arose and went down with him to the king, ¹⁶and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Ba'al-ze'bub, the god of Ek'ron—is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?—therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone, but you shall surely die.’”

¹⁷So he died according to the word of the LORD which Eli'jah had spoken. Jeho'ram, his brother,^b became king in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehosh'aphat, king of Judah, because Ahazi'ah had no son. ¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Ahazi'ah which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

⁴Eli'jah said to him, “Eli'sha, tarry here, I beg you; for the LORD has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho. ⁵The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Eli'sha, and said to him, “Do you know that today the LORD will take away your master from over you?” And he answered, “Yes, I know it; hold your peace.”

⁶Then Eli'jah said to him, “Tarry here, I beg you; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. ⁷Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. ⁸Then Eli'jah took his coat, and rolled it up, and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground.

⁹When they had crossed, Eli'jah said to Eli'sha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “I beg you, let me inherit a double share* of your spirit.” ¹⁰And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” ¹¹And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Eli'jah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. ¹²And Eli'sha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.

Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. ¹³And he took up the coat of Eli'jah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴Then he took the coat of Eli'jah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, “Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other; and Eli'sha went over.

¹⁵Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him over against them, they said, “The spirit of Eli'jah rests on Eli'sha.” And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before him. ¹⁶And they said to him, “Behold now, there are with your servants fifty strong men; please, let them go, and seek your master; it may be that the Spirit of the LORD has caught him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” And he said, “You shall not send.” ¹⁷But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, “Send.” They sent therefore fifty men; and for three days they sought him but did not find him. ¹⁸And they came back to him, while he tarried at Jericho, and he said to them, “Did I not say to you, Do not go?”

¹⁹Now the men of the city said to Eli'sha, “Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.” ²⁰He said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. ²¹Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it, and said, “Thus says the LORD, I have made this water wholesome; henceforth neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.” ²²So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the word which Eli'sha spoke.

²³He went up from there to Bethel; and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” ²⁴And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the LORD. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys. ²⁵From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and thence he returned to Samar'ia.

⁴*Now Me'sha king of Moab was a sheep breeder; and he had to deliver annually^c to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs, and the wool of a hundred thousand rams. ⁵But when A'hab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. ⁶So King Jeho'ram marched out of Samar'ia at that time and mustered all Israel. ⁷And he went and sent word to Jehosh'aphat king of Judah, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you go with me to battle against Moab?” And he said, “I will go; I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” ⁸Then he said, “By which way shall we march?” Jeho'ram answered, “By the way of the wilderness of E'dom.”

⁹So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of E'dom. And when they had made a circuitous march of seven days, there was no water for the army or for the beasts which followed them. ¹⁰Then the king of Israel said, “Alas! The LORD has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” ¹¹And Jehosh'aphat said, “Is there no prophet of the LORD here, through whom we may inquire of the LORD?” Then one of the king of Israel’s servants answered, “Eli'sha the son of Sha'phat is here, who poured water on the hands of Eli'jah.” ¹²And Jehosh'aphat said, “The word of the LORD is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of E'dom went down to him.

¹³And Eli'sha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.” But the king of Israel said to him, “No; it is the LORD who has called these three kings to give them into the hand of Moab.” ¹⁴And Eli'sha said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, whom I serve, were it not that I have regard for Jehosh'aphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you, nor see you. ¹⁵But now bring me a minstrel.” And when the minstrel played, the power of the LORD came upon him. ¹⁶And he said, “Thus says the LORD, ‘I will make this dry stream-bed full of pools.’ ¹⁷For thus says the LORD, ‘You shall not see wind or rain, but that stream-bed shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, you, your cattle, and your beasts.’ ¹⁸This is a light thing in the sight of the LORD; he will also give the Moabites into your hand, ¹⁹and you shall conquer every fortified city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop up all springs of water, and ruin every good piece of land with stones.” ²⁰The next morning, about the time of offering the sacrifice, behold, water came from the direction of E'dom, till the country was filled with water.

²¹When all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to put on armor, from the youngest to the oldest, were called out, and were drawn up at the frontier. ²²And when they rose early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood. ²³And they said, “This is blood; the kings have surely fought together, and slain one another. Now then, Moab, to the spoil!” ²⁴But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose and attacked the Moabites, till they fled before them; and they went forward, slaughtering the Moabites as they went.^{d 25}And they overthrew the cities, and on every good piece of land every man threw a stone, until it was covered; they stopped every spring of water, and felled all the good trees; till only its stones were left in Kir-har'-eseth, and the slingers surrounded and conquered it. ²⁶When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through, opposite the king of E'dom; but they could not. ²⁷Then he took his eldest son who was to reign in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there came great wrath upon Israel; and they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.

⁸One day Eli'sha went on to Shu'nem, where a wealthy woman lived, who urged him to eat some food. So whenever he passed that way, he would turn in there to eat food. ⁹And she said to her husband, “Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who is continually passing our way. ¹⁰Let us make a small roof chamber with walls, and put there for him a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp, so that whenever he comes to us, he can go in there.”

¹¹One day he came there, and he turned into the chamber and rested there. ¹²And he said to Geha'zi his servant, “Call this Shu'nammite.” When he had called her, she stood before him. ¹³And he said to him, “Say now to her, See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? Would you have a word spoken on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?” She answered, “I dwell among my own people.” ¹⁴And he said, “What then is to be done for her?” Geha'zi answered, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is old.” ¹⁵He said, “Call her.” And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶And he said, “At this season, when the time comes round, you shall embrace a son.” And she said, “No, my lord, O man of God; do not lie to your maidservant.” ¹⁷But the woman conceived, and she bore a son about that time the following spring, as Eli'sha had said to her.

¹⁸When the child had grown, he went out one day to his father among the reapers. ¹⁹And he said to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” The father said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰And when he had lifted him, and brought him to his mother, the child sat on her lap till noon, and then he died. ²¹And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. ²²Then she called to her husband, and said, “Send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, that I may quickly go to the man of God, and come back again.” ²³And he said, “Why will you go to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.” She said, “It will be well.” ²⁴Then she saddled the donkey, and she said to her servant, “Urge the beast on; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.” ²⁵So she set out, and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.

When the man of God saw her coming, he said to Geha'zi his servant, “Look, yonder is the Shu'nammite; ²⁶run at once to meet her, and say to her, Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?” And she answered, “It is well.” ²⁷And when she came to the mountain to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet. And Geha'zi came to thrust her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; and the LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me.” ²⁸Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, Do not deceive me?” ²⁹He said to Geha'zi, “Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet any one, do not salute him; and if any one salutes you, do not reply; and lay my staff upon the face of the child.” ³⁰Then the mother of the child said, “As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her. ³¹Geha'zi went on ahead and laid the staff upon the face of the child, but there was no sound or sign of life. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, “The child has not awaked.”

³²When Eli'sha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. ³³So he went in and shut the door upon the two of them, and prayed to the LORD. ³⁴Then he went up and lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth, his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and as he stretched himself upon him, the flesh of the child became warm. ³⁵Then he got up again, and walked once back and forth in the house, and went up, and stretched himself upon him; the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. ³⁶Then he summoned Geha'zi and said, “Call this Shu'nammite.” So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, “Take up your son.” ³⁷She came and fell at his feet, bowing to the ground; then she took up her son and went out.

³⁸And Eli'sha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Put on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.” ³⁹One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of pottage, not knowing what they were. ⁴⁰And they poured out for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the pottage, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. ⁴¹He said, “Then bring meal.” And he threw it into the pot, and said, “Pour out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot.

⁴²A man came from Ba'al-shal'ishah, bringing the man of God bread of the first fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Eli'sha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” ⁴³But his servant said, “How am I to set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the LORD, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” ⁴⁴So he set it before them. And they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the LORD.

So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten festal garments. ⁶And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Na'aman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” ⁷And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.”

⁸But when Eli'sha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” ⁹So Na'aman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the door of Eli'sha’s house. ¹⁰And Eli'sha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” ¹¹But Na'aman was angry, and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. ¹²Are not Aba'na^e and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. ¹³But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” ¹⁴So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

¹⁵Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him; and he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel;* so accept now a present from your servant.” ¹⁶But he said, “As the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused. ¹⁷Then Na'aman said, “If not, I beg you, let there be given to your servant two mules’ burden of earth; for henceforth your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the LORD. ¹⁸In this matter may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon your servant in this matter.” ¹⁹He said to him, “Go in peace.”

But when Na'aman had gone from him a short distance, ²⁰Geha'zi, the servant of Eli'sha the man of God, said, “See, my master has spared this Na'aman the Syrian, in not accepting from his hand what he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him, and get something from him.” ²¹So Geha'zi followed Na'aman. And when Naaman saw some one running after him, he alighted from the chariot to meet him, and said, “Is all well?” ²²And he said, “All is well. My master has sent me to say, ‘There have just now come to me from the hill country of E'phraim two young men of the sons of the prophets; please, give them a talent of silver and two festal garments.’” ²³And Na'aman said, “Be pleased to accept two talents.” And he urged him, and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two festal garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they carried them before Geha'zi. ²⁴And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and put them in the house; and he sent the men away, and they departed. ²⁵He went in, and stood before his master, and Eli'sha said to him, “Where have you been, Geha'zi?” And he said, “Your servant went nowhere.” ²⁶But he said to him, “Did I not go with you in spirit when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Was it a time to accept money and garments, olive orchards and vineyards, sheep and oxen, menservants and maidservants? ²⁷Therefore the leprosy of Na'aman shall cling to you, and to your descendants for ever.” So he went out from his presence a leper, as white as snow.

⁸Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying, “At such and such a place shall be my camp.” ⁹But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, “Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there.” ¹⁰And the king of Israel sent to the place of which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice.

¹¹And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this incident; and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?” ¹²And one of his servants said, “None, my lord, O king; but Eli'sha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber.” ¹³And he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him.” It was told him, “Behold, he is in Do'than.” ¹⁴So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army; and they came by night, and surrounded the city.

¹⁵When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was round about the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” ¹⁶He said, “Fear not, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” ¹⁷Then Eli'sha prayed, and said, “O LORD, I beg you, open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Eli'sha. ¹⁸And when the Syrians came down against him, Eli'sha prayed to the LORD, and said, “Strike this people, I pray you, with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. ¹⁹And Eli'sha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city; follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” And he led them to Samar'ia.

²⁰As soon as they entered Samar'ia, Eli'sha said, “O LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” So the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. ²¹When the king of Israel saw them he said to Eli'sha, “My father, shall I slay them? Shall I slay them?” ²²He answered, “You shall not slay them. Would you slay those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” ²³So he prepared for them a great feast; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians came no more on raids into the land of Israel.

²⁴Afterward Ben-ha'dad king of Syria mustered his entire army, and went up, and besieged Samar'ia. ²⁵And there was a great famine in Samar'ia, as they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. ²⁶Now as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” ²⁷And he said, “If the LORD will not help you, how shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?” ²⁸And the king asked her, “What is your trouble?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ ²⁹So we boiled my son, and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.” ³⁰When the king heard the words of the woman he tore his clothes—now he was passing by upon the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath upon his body—³¹and he said, “May God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Eli'sha the son of Sha'phat remains on his shoulders today.”

³²Eli'sha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. Now the king had dispatched a man from his presence; but before the messenger arrived Elisha said to the elders, “Do you see how this murderer has sent to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?” ³³And while he was still speaking with them, the king^f came down to him and said, “This trouble is from the LORD! Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?“

³Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate; and they said to one another, “Why do we sit here till we die? ⁴If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians; if they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” ⁵So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians; but when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. ⁶For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots, and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come upon us.” ⁷So they fled away in the twilight and forsook their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. ⁸And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent, and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them; then they came back, and entered another tent, and carried off things from it, and went and hid them.

⁹Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news; if we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us; now therefore come, let us go and tell the king’s household.” ¹⁰So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city, and told them, “We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied, and the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were.” ¹¹Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the king’s household. ¹²And the king rose in the night, and said to his servants, “I will tell you what the Syrians have prepared against us. They know that we are hungry; therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.’” ¹³And one of his servants said, “Let some men take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel that have already perished; let us send and see.” ¹⁴So they took two mounted men, and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, “Go and see.” ¹⁵So they went after them as far as the Jordan; and, behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment which the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.

¹⁶Then the people went out, and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a measure of fine meal was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD. ¹⁷Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate; and the people trod upon him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him. ¹⁸For when the man of God had said to the king, “Two measures of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a measure of fine meal for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samar'ia,” ¹⁹the captain had answered the man of God, “If the LORD himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” ²⁰And so it happened to him, for the people trod upon him in the gate and he died.

⁷Now Eli'sha came to Damascus. Ben-ha'dad the king of Syria was sick; and when it was told him, “The man of God has come here,” ⁸the king said to Haz'ael, “Take a present with you and go to meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD through him, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’” ⁹So Haz'ael went to meet him, and took a present with him, all kinds of goods of Damascus, forty camel loads. When he came and stood before him, he said, “Your son Ben-ha'dad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, ‘Shall I recover from this sickness?’” ¹⁰And Eli'sha said to him, “Go, say to him, ‘You shall certainly recover’; but the LORD has shown me that he shall certainly die.” ¹¹And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was ashamed. And the man of God wept. ¹²And Haz'ael said, “Why does my lord weep?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel; you will set on fire their fortresses, and you will slay their young men with the sword, and dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child.” ¹³And Haz'ael said, “What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Eli'sha answered, “The LORD has shown me that you are to be king over Syria.” ¹⁴Then he departed from Eli'sha, and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” ¹⁵But the next day he took the coverlet and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died. And Haz'ael became king in his stead.

¹⁶In the fifth year of Jo'ram the son of A'hab, king of Israel,^g Jeho'ram the son of Jehosh'aphat, king of Judah, began to reign. ¹⁷He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. ¹⁸And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of A'hab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. ¹⁹Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons for ever.

²⁰In his days E'dom revolted from the rule of Judah, and set up a king of their own. ²¹Then Jo'ram passed over to Za'ir with all his chariots, and rose by night, and he and his chariot commanders struck the E'domites who had surrounded him; but his army fled home. ²²So E'dom revolted from the rule of Judah to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time. ²³Now the rest of the acts of Jo'ram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁴So Jo'ram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Ahazi'ah his son reigned in his stead.

²⁵In the twelfth year of Jo'ram the son of A'hab, king of Israel, Ahazi'ah the son of Jeho'ram, king of Judah, began to reign. ²⁶Ahazi'ah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athali'ah; she was a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. ²⁷He also walked in the way of the house of A'hab, and did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was son-in-law to the house of Ahab.

²⁸He went with Jo'ram the son of A'hab to make war against Haz'ael king of Syria at Ra'moth-gil'ead, where the Syrians wounded Joram. ²⁹And King Jo'ram returned to be healed in Jezre'el of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ra'mah, when he fought against Haz'ael king of Syria. And Ahazi'ah the son of Jeho'ram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of A'hab in Jezre'el, because he was sick.

⁴So the young man, the prophet,^h went to Ra'moth-gil'ead. ⁵And when he came, behold, the commanders of the army were in council; and he said, “I have an errand to you, O commander.” And Je'hu said, “To which of us all?” And he said, “To you, O commander.” ⁶So he arose, and went into the house; and the young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, “Thus says the LORD the God of Israel, I anoint you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel. ⁷And you shall strike down the house of A'hab your master, that I may avenge on Jez'ebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD. ⁸For the whole house of A'hab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. ⁹And I will make the house of A'hab like the house of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, and like the house of Ba'asha the son of Ahi'jah. ¹⁰And the dogs shall eat Jez'ebel in the territory of Jezre'el, and none shall bury her.” Then he opened the door, and fled.

¹¹When Je'hu came out to the servants of his master, they said to him, “Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?” And he said to them, “You know the fellow and his talk.” ¹²And they said, “That is not true; tell us now.” And he said, “Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, I anoint you king over Israel.’” ¹³Then in haste every man of them took his garment, and put it under him on the bareⁱ steps, and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, “Je'hu is king.”

¹⁴Thus Je'hu the son of Jehosh'aphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Jo'ram. (Now Joram with all Israel had been on guard at Ra'moth-gil'ead against Haz'ael king of Syria; ¹⁵but King Jo'ram had returned to be healed in Jezre'el of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Haz'ael king of Syria.) So Je'hu said, “If this is your mind, then let no one slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.” ¹⁶Then Je'hu mounted his chariot, and went to Jezre'el, for Jo'ram lay there. And Ahazi'ah king of Judah had come down to visit Joram.

¹⁷Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezre'el, and he spied the company of Je'hu as he came, and said, “I see a company.” And Jo'ram said, “Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, ‘Is it peace?’” ¹⁸So a man on horseback went to meet him, and said, “Thus says the king, ‘Is it peace?’” And Je'hu said, “What have you to do with peace? Turn round and ride behind me.” And the watchman reported, saying, “The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back.” ¹⁹Then he sent out a second horseman, who came to them, and said, “Thus the king has said, ‘Is it peace?’” And Je'hu answered, “What have you to do with peace? Turn round and ride behind me.” ²⁰Again the watchman reported, “He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Je'hu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously.”

²¹Jo'ram said, “Make ready.” And they made ready his chariot. Then Joram king of Israel and Ahazi'ah king of Judah set out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Je'hu, and met him at the property of Naboth the Jezre'elite. ²²And when Jo'ram saw Je'hu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so long as the harlotries and the sorceries of your mother Jez'ebel are so many?” ²³Then Jo'ram reined about and fled, saying to Ahazi'ah, “Treachery, O Ahaziah!” ²⁴And Je'hu drew his bow with his full strength, and shot Jo'ram between the shoulders, so that the arrow pierced his heart, and he sank in his chariot.* ²⁵Je'hu said to Bidkar his aide, “Take him up, and cast him on the plot of ground belonging to Naboth the Jezre'elite; for remember, when you and I rode side by side behind A'hab his father, how the LORD uttered this oracle against him: ²⁶‘As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons—says the LORD—I will repay you on this plot of ground.’ Now therefore take him up and cast him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the LORD.”

²⁷When Ahazi'ah the king of Judah saw this, he fled in the direction of Beth-hag'gan. And Je'hu pursued him, and said, “Shoot him also”; and they shot him^j in the chariot at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ib'leam. And he fled to Megid'do, and died there. ²⁸His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.

²⁹In the eleventh year of Jo'ram the son of A'hab, Ahazi'ah began to reign over Judah.

³⁰When Je'hu came to Jezre'el, Jez'ebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out of the window. ³¹And as Je'hu entered the gate, she said, “Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?” ³²And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. ³³He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down; and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her. ³⁴Then he went in and ate and drank; and he said, “See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king’s daughter.” ³⁵But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. ³⁶When they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant Eli'jah the Tishbite, ‘In the territory of Jezre'el the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jez'ebel; ³⁷and the corpse of Jez'ebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the territory of Jezre'el, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.’”

¹²Then he set out and went to Samar'ia. On the way, when he was at Beth-ek'ed of the Shepherds, ¹³Je'hu met the kinsmen of Ahazi'ah king of Judah, and he said, “Who are you?” And they answered, “We are the kinsmen of Ahazi'ah, and we came down to visit the royal princes and the sons of the queen mother.” ¹⁴He said, “Take them alive.” And they took them alive, and slew them at the pit of Beth-ek'ed, forty-two persons, and he spared none of them.

¹⁵And when he departed from there, he met Jehon'adab the son of Re'chab coming to meet him; and he greeted him, and said to him, “Is your heart true to my heart as mine is to yours?”^l And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” Je'hu said,^m “If it is, give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand. And Jehu took him up with him into the chariot. ¹⁶And he said, “Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD.” So heⁿ had him ride in his chariot. ¹⁷And when he came to Samar'ia, he slew all that remained to A'hab in Samaria, till he had wiped them out, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke to Eli'jah.

¹⁸Then Je'hu assembled all the people, and said to them, “A'hab served Ba'al a little; but Jehu will serve him much. ¹⁹Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Ba'al, all his worshipers and all his priests; let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal; whoever is missing shall not live.” But Je'hu did it with cunning in order to destroy the worshipers of Ba'al. ²⁰And Je'hu ordered, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Ba'al.” So they proclaimed it. ²¹And Je'hu sent throughout all Israel; and all the worshipers of Ba'al came, so that there was not a man left who did not come. And they entered the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other. ²²He said to him who was in charge of the wardrobe, “Bring out the vestments for all the worshipers of Ba'al.” So he brought out the vestments for them. ²³Then Je'hu went into the house of Ba'al with Jehon'adab the son of Re'chab; and he said to the worshipers of Baal, “Search, and see that there is no servant of the LORD here among you, but only the worshipers of Baal.” ²⁴Then he^o went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings.

Now Je'hu had stationed eighty men outside, and said, “The man who allows any of those whom I give into your hands to escape shall forfeit his life.” ²⁵So as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, Je'hu said to the guard and to the officers, “Go in and slay them; let not a man escape.” So when they put them to the sword, the guard and the officers cast them out and went into the inner room^p of the house of Ba'al ²⁶and they brought out the pillar that was in the house of Ba'al, and burned it. ²⁷And they demolished the pillar of Ba'al, and demolished the house of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day.

²⁸Thus Je'hu wiped out Ba'al from Israel. ²⁹But Je'hu did not turn aside from the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, which he made Israel to sin, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and in Dan. ³⁰And the LORD said to Je'hu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of A'hab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” ³¹But Je'hu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD the God of Israel with all his heart; he did not turn from the sins of Jerobo'am, which he made Israel to sin.

³²In those days the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel. Haz'ael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel: ³³from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manas'sites, from Aro'er, which is by the valley of the Arnon, that is, Gilead and Bashan. ³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Je'hu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ³⁵So Je'hu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samar'ia. And Jeho'ahaz his son reigned in his stead. ³⁶The time that Je'hu reigned over Israel in Samar'ia was twenty-eight years.

⁴But in the seventh year Jehoi'ada sent and brought the captains of the Cari'tes and of the guards, and had them come to him in the house of the LORD; and he made a covenant with them and put them under oath in the house of the LORD, and he showed them the king’s son. ⁵And he commanded them, “This is the thing that you shall do: one third of you, those who come off duty on the sabbath and guard the king’s house ⁶(another third being at the gate Sur and a third at the gate behind the guards), shall guard the palace; ⁷and the two divisions of you, which come on duty in force on the sabbath and guard the house of the LORD,^{s 8}shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; and whoever approaches the ranks is to be slain. Be with the king when he goes out and when he comes in.”

⁹The captains did according to all that Jehoi'ada the priest commanded, and each brought his men who were to go off duty on the sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. ¹⁰And the priest delivered to the captains the spears and shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of the LORD; ¹¹and the guards stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house.^{t 12}Then he brought out the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the covenant; and they proclaimed him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, “Long live the king!”

¹³When Athali'ah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went into the house of the LORD to the people; ¹⁴and when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to the custom, and the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. And Athali'ah tore her clothes, and cried, “Treason! Treason!” ¹⁵Then Jehoi'ada the priest commanded the captains who were set over the army, “Bring her out between the ranks; and slay with the sword any one who follows her.” For the priest said, “Let her not be slain in the house of the LORD.” ¹⁶So they laid hands on her; and she went through the horses’ entrance to the king’s house, and there she was slain.

¹⁷And Jehoi'ada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people, that they should be the LORD’s people; and also between the king and the people. ¹⁸Then all the people of the land went to the house of Ba'al, and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest posted watchmen over the house of the LORD. ¹⁹And he took the captains, the Cari'tes, the guards, and all the people of the land; and they brought the king down from the house of the LORD, marching through the gate of the guards to the king's house. And he took his seat on the throne of the kings. ²⁰So all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet after Athali'ah had been slain with the sword at the king’s house.

⁴Jeho'ash said to the priests, “All the money of the holy things which is brought into the house of the LORD, the money for which each man is assessed—the money from the assessment of persons—and the money which a man’s heart prompts him to bring into the house of the LORD, ⁵let the priests take, each from his acquaintance; and let them repair the house wherever any need of repairs is discovered.” ⁶But by the twenty-third year of King Jeho'ash the priests had made no repairs on the house. ⁷Therefore King Jeho'ash summoned Jehoi'ada the priest and the other priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but hand it over for the repair of the house.” ⁸So the priests agreed that they should take no more money from the people, and that they should not repair the house.

⁹Then Jehoi'ada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one entered the house of the LORD; and the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD. ¹⁰And whenever they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king’s secretary and the high priest came up and they counted and tied up in bags the money that was found in the house of the LORD. ¹¹Then they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD; and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked upon the house of the LORD, ¹²and to the masons and the stonecutters, as well as to buy timber and quarried stone for making repairs on the house of the LORD, and for any outlay upon the repairs of the house. ¹³But there were not made for the house of the LORD basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold, or of silver, from the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, ¹⁴for that was given to the workmen who were repairing the house of the LORD with it. ¹⁵And they did not ask an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to pay out to the workmen, for they dealt honestly. ¹⁶The money from the guilt offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD; it belonged to the priests.

¹⁷At that time Haz'ael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath, and took it. But when Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem, ¹⁸Jeho'ash king of Judah took all the votive gifts that Jehosh'aphat and Jeho'ram and Ahazi'ah, his fathers, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own votive gifts, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and sent these to Haz'ael king of Syria. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem.

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Jo'ash, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰His servants arose and made a conspiracy, and slew Jo'ash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla. ²¹It was Jo'zacar the son of Shim'eath and Jeho'zabad the son of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down, so that he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amazi'ah his son reigned in his stead.

¹⁰In the thirty-seventh year of Jo'ash king of Judah Jeho'ash the son of Jeho'ahaz began to reign over Israel in Samar'ia, and he reigned sixteen years. ¹¹He also did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, which he made Israel to sin, but he walked in them. ¹²Now the rest of the acts of Jo'ash, and all that he did, and the might with which he fought against Amazi'ah king of Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ¹³So Jo'ash slept with his fathers, and Jerobo'am sat upon his throne; and Joash was buried in Samar'ia with the kings of Israel.

¹⁴Now when Eli'sha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Jo'ash king of Israel went down to him, and wept before him, crying, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” ¹⁵And Eli'sha said to him, “Take a bow and arrows”; so he took a bow and arrows. ¹⁶Then he said to the king of Israel, “Draw the bow”; and he drew it. And Eli'sha laid his hands upon the king’s hands. ¹⁷And he said, “Open the window eastward”; and he opened it. Then Eli'sha said, “Shoot”; and he shot. And he said, “The LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Syria! For you shall fight the Syrians in A'phek until you have made an end of them.” ¹⁸And he said, “Take the arrows”; and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground with them”; and he struck three times, and stopped. ¹⁹Then the man of God was angry with him, and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times.”

²⁰So Eli'sha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land in the spring of the year. ²¹And as a man was being buried, behold, a marauding band was seen and the man was cast into the grave of Eli'sha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood on his feet.

²²Now Haz'ael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jeho'ahaz. ²³But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them; nor has he cast them from his presence until now.

²⁴When Haz'ael king of Syria died, Ben-ha'dad his son became king in his stead. ²⁵Then Jeho'ash the son of Jeho'ahaz took again from Ben-ha'dad the son of Haz'ael the cities which he had taken from Jehoahaz his father in war. Three times Jo'ash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel.

⁷He killed ten thousand E'domites in the Valley of Salt and took Se'la by storm, and called it Jok'the-el, which is its name to this day.

⁸Then Amazi'ah sent messengers to Jeho'ash the son of Jeho'ahaz, son of Je'hu, king of Israel, saying, “Come, let us look one another in the face.” ⁹And Jeho'ash king of Israel sent word to Amazi'ah king of Judah, “A thistle in Lebanon sent to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife’; and a wild beast of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle. ¹⁰You have indeed struck down E'dom, and your heart has lifted you up. Be content with your glory, and stay at home; for why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?”

¹¹But Amazi'ah would not listen. So Jeho'ash king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah king of Judah faced one another in battle at Beth-she'mesh, which belongs to Judah. ¹²And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his home. ¹³And Jeho'ash king of Israel captured Amazi'ah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash, son of Ahazi'ah, at Beth-she'mesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem for four hundred cubits, from the E'phraim Gate to the Corner Gate. ¹⁴And he seized all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s house, also hostages, and he returned to Samar'ia.

¹⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jeho'ash which he did, and his might, and how he fought with Amazi'ah king of Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ¹⁶And Jeho'ash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samar'ia with the kings of Israel; and Jerobo'am his son reigned in his stead.

¹⁷Amazi'ah the son of Jo'ash, king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Jeho'ash son of Jeho'ahaz, king of Israel. ¹⁸Now the rest of the deeds of Amazi'ah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ¹⁹And they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to La'chish. But they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. ²⁰And they brought him upon horses; and he was buried in Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David. ²¹And all the people of Judah took Azari'ah,* who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amazi'ah. ²²He built E'lath and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers.

²³In the fifteenth year of Amazi'ah the son of Jo'ash, king of Judah, Jerobo'am the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samar'ia, and he reigned forty-one years. ²⁴And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, which he made Israel to sin. ²⁵He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Ha'math as far as the Sea of the Ar'abah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amit'tai, the prophet, who was from Gath-he'pher. ²⁶For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. ²⁷But the LORD had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jerobo'am the son of Jo'ash.

²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jerobo'am, and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he recovered for Israel Damascus and Ha'math, which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ²⁹And Jerobo'am slept with his fathers, the kings of Israel, and Zechari'ah his son reigned in his stead.

⁸In the thirty-eighth year of Azari'ah king of Judah Zechari'ah the son of Jerobo'am reigned over Israel in Samar'ia six months. ⁹And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He did not depart from the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, which he made Israel to sin. ¹⁰Shallum the son of Ja'besh conspired against him, and struck him down at Ib'leam,^w and killed him, and reigned in his stead. ¹¹Now the rest of the deeds of Zechari'ah, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ¹²(This was the promise of the LORD which he gave to Je'hu, “Your sons shall sit upon the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” And so it came to pass.)

¹³Shallum the son of Ja'besh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzzi'ah king of Judah, and he reigned one month in Samar'ia. ¹⁴Then Men'ahem the son of Gadi came up from Tirzah and came to Samar'ia, and he struck down Shallum the son of Ja'besh in Samaria and slew him, and reigned in his stead. ¹⁵Now the rest of the deeds of Shallum, and the conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁶At that time Men'ahem sacked Tap'pu-ah^x and all who were in it and its territory from Tirzah on; because they did not open it to him, therefore he sacked it, and he ripped up all the women in it who were with child.

¹⁷In the thirty-ninth year of Azari'ah king of Judah Men'ahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel, and he reigned ten years in Samar'ia. ¹⁸And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart all his days from all the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, which he made Israel to sin. ¹⁹Pul the king of Assyria came against the land; and Men'ahem gave Pul* a thousand talents of silver, that he might help him to confirm his hold of the royal power. ²⁰Men'ahem exacted the money from Israel, that is, from all the wealthy men, fifty shekels of silver from every man, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and did not stay there in the land. ²¹Now the rest of the deeds of Men'ahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ²²And Men'ahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahi'ah his son reigned in his stead.

²³In the fiftieth year of Azari'ah king of Judah Pekahi'ah the son of Men'ahem began to reign over Israel in Samar'ia, and he reigned two years. ²⁴And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not turn away from the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, which he made Israel to sin. ²⁵And Pe'kah the son of Remali'ah, his captain, conspired against him with fifty men of the Gileadites, and slew him in Samar'ia, in the citadel of the king’s house;^y he slew him, and reigned in his stead. ²⁶Now the rest of the deeds of Pekahi'ah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

²⁷In the fifty-second year of Azari'ah king of Judah Pe'kah the son of Remali'ah began to reign over Israel in Samar'ia, and he reigned twenty years. ²⁸And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from the sins of Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, which he made Israel to sin.

²⁹In the days of Pe'kah king of Israel Tig'lath-pile'ser king of Assyria came and captured I'jon, A'bel-beth-ma'acah, Jano'ah, Ke'desh, Ha'zor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naph'tali; and he carried the people captive to Assyria. ³⁰Then Hoshe'a the son of E'lah made a conspiracy against Pe'kah the son of Remali'ah, and struck him down, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jo'tham the son of Uzzi'ah. ³¹Now the rest of the acts of Pe'kah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

³²In the second year of Pe'kah the son of Remali'ah, king of Israel, Jo'tham the son of Uzzi'ah, king of Judah, began to reign. ³³He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jeru'sha the daughter of Za'dok. ³⁴And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzzi'ah had done. ³⁵Nevertheless the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD. ³⁶Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ³⁷In those days the LORD began to send Re'zin the king of Syria and Pe'kah the son of Remali'ah against Judah. ³⁸Jo'tham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and A'haz his son reigned in his stead.

⁵Then Re'zin king of Syria and Pe'kah the son of Remali'ah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged A'haz but could not conquer him. ⁶At that time^a the king of E'dom^b recovered E'lath for Edom,^b and drove the men of Judah from Elath; and the E'domites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. ⁷So A'haz sent messengers to Tig'lath-pile'ser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up, and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” ⁸A'haz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria. ⁹And the king of Assyria listened to him; the king of Assyria marched up against Damascus, and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Re'zin.

¹⁰When King A'haz went to Damascus to meet Tig'lath-pile'ser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uri'ah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. ¹¹And Uri'ah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King A'haz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. ¹²And when the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar, and went up on it, ¹³and burned his burnt offering and his cereal offering, and poured his drink offering, and threw the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar. ¹⁴And the bronze altar which was before the LORD he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of his altar. ¹⁵And King A'haz commanded Uri'ah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening cereal offering, and the king’s burnt offering, and his cereal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their cereal offering, and their drink offering; and throw upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice; but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” ¹⁶Uri'ah the priest did all this, as King A'haz commanded.

¹⁷And King A'haz cut off the frames of the stands, and removed the laver from them, and he took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pediment of stone. ¹⁸And the covered way for the sabbath which had been built inside the palace, and the outer entrance for the king he removed from^c the house of the LORD, because of the king of Assyria. ¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of A'haz which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰And A'haz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezeki'ah his son reigned in his stead.

⁷And this was so, because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods ⁸and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs which the kings of Israel had introduced.^{d 9}And the sons of Israel did secretly against the LORD their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places at all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city; ¹⁰they set up for themselves pillars and Ashe'rim on every high hill and under every green tree; ¹¹and there they burned incense on all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger, ¹²and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this.” ¹³Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” ¹⁴But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. ¹⁵They despised his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and the warnings which he gave them. They went after false idols, and became false, and they followed the nations that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them. ¹⁶And they forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves molten images of two calves; and they made an Ashe'rah, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Ba'al. ¹⁷And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings,^e and used divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. ¹⁸Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah only.*

¹⁹Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. ²⁰And the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel, and afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

²¹When he had torn Israel from the house of David they made Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit great sin. ²²The sons of Israel walked in all the sins which Jerobo'am did; they did not depart from them, ²³until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.

²⁴*And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cu'thah, Avva, Ha'math, and Sepharva'im, and placed them in the cities of Samar'ia instead of the sons of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria, and dwelt in its cities. ²⁵And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the LORD; therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them. ²⁶So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations which you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samar'ia do not know the law of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” ²⁷Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there; and let him^f go and dwell there, and teach them the law of the god of the land.” ²⁸So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samar'ia came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

²⁹But every nation still made gods of its own, and put them in the shrines of the high places which the Samar'itans had made, every nation in the cities in which they dwelt; ³⁰the men of Babylon made Suc'coth-be'noth, the men of Cuth made Ner'gal, the men of Ha'math made Ashi'ma, ³¹and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sephar'vites burned their children in the fire to Adram'melech and Anam'melech, the gods of Sepharva'im. ³²They also feared the LORD, and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. ³³So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. ³⁴To this day they do according to the former manner.

They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes or the ordinances or the law or the commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. ³⁵The LORD made a covenant with them, and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them; ³⁶but you shall fear the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. ³⁷And the statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, ³⁸and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, ³⁹but you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” ⁴⁰However they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.

⁴¹So these nations feared the LORD, and also served their graven images; their children likewise, and their children’s children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.

⁹In the fourth year of King Hezeki'ah, which was the seventh year of Hoshe'a son of E'lah, king of Israel, Shalmane'ser king of Assyria came up against Samar'ia and besieged it ¹⁰and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezeki'ah, which was the ninth year of Hoshe'a king of Israel, Samar'ia was taken. ¹¹The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria, and put them in Ha'lah, and on the Ha'bor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹²because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded; they neither listened nor obeyed.

¹³In the fourteenth year of King Hezeki'ah Sennach'erib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. ¹⁴And Hezeki'ah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at La'chish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will bear.” And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵And Hezeki'ah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasuries of the king’s house. ¹⁶At that time Hezeki'ah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. ¹⁷And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab'saris, and the Rab'shakeh with a great army from La'chish to King Hezeki'ah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Fuller’s Field. ¹⁸And when they called for the king, there came out to them Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the secretary, and Jo'ah the son of A'saph, the recorder.

¹⁹And the Rab'shakeh said to them, “Say to Hezeki'ah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this confidence of yours? ²⁰Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you now rely, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹Behold, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him. ²²But if you say to me, “We rely on the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezeki'ah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”? ²³Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. ²⁴How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ²⁵Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.’”

²⁶Then Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, and Shebnah, and Jo'ah, said to the Rab'shakeh, “Please, speak to your servants in the Arama'ic language, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ²⁷But the Rab'shakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”

²⁸Then the Rab'shakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! ²⁹Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezeki'ah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. ³⁰Do not let Hezeki'ah make you to rely on the LORD by saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ ³¹Do not listen to Hezeki'ah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me; then every one of you will eat of his own vine, and every one of his own fig tree, and every one of you will drink the water of his own cistern; ³²until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezeki'ah when he misleads you by saying, The LORD will deliver us. ³³Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴Where are the gods of Ha'math and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharva'im, He'na, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samar'ia out of my hand? ³⁵Who among all the gods of the countries have delivered their countries out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

³⁶But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” ³⁷Then Eli'akim the son of Hilki'ah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Jo'ah the son of A'saph, the recorder, came to Hezeki'ah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rab'shakeh.

⁸The Rab'shakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for he heard that the king had left La'chish. ⁹And when the king heard concerning Tirha'kah king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he has set out to fight against you,” he sent messengers again to Hezeki'ah, saying, ¹⁰“Thus shall you speak to Hezeki'ah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God on whom you rely deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. And shall you be delivered? ¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations which my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel-as'sar? ¹³Where is the king of Ha'math, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharva'im, the king of He'na, or the king of Ivvah?’”

¹⁴Hezeki'ah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. ¹⁵And Hezeki'ah prayed before the LORD, and said: “O LORD the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. ¹⁶Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennach'erib, which he has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁷Of a truth, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, ¹⁸and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they were destroyed. ¹⁹So now, O LORD our God, save us, I beg you, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.”

²⁰Then Isai'ah the son of A'moz sent to Hezeki'ah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Your prayer to me about Sennach'erib king of Assyria I have heard. ²¹This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:

²⁹“And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs of the same; then in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ³⁰And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward; ³¹for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD will do this.

³²“Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. ³³By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, says the LORD. ³⁴For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

³⁵And that night the angel of the LORD went forth, and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians;* and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁶Then Sennach'erib king of Assyria departed, and went home, and dwelt at Nin'eveh. ³⁷And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adram'melech and Share'zer, his sons, slew him with the sword, and escaped into the land of Ar'arat. And Esarhad'don his son reigned in his stead.

⁸And Hezeki'ah said to Isai'ah, “What shall be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?” ⁹And Isai'ah said, “This is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he has promised: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?” ¹⁰And Hezeki'ah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to lengthen ten steps; rather let the shadow go back ten steps.” ¹¹And Isai'ah the prophet cried to the LORD; and he brought the shadow back ten steps, by which the sun^g had declined on the dial of A'haz.

¹²At that time Mer'odach-bal'adan the son of Bal'adan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezeki'ah; for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. ¹³And Hezeki'ah welcomed them, and he showed them all his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his armory, all that was found in his storehouses; there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. ¹⁴Then Isai'ah the prophet came to King Hezeki'ah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, from Babylon.” ¹⁵He said, “What have they seen in your house?” And Hezeki'ah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

¹⁶Then Isai'ah said to Hezeki'ah, “Hear the word of the LORD: ¹⁷Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the LORD. ¹⁸And some of your own sons, who are born to you, shall be taken away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁹Then said Hezeki'ah to Isai'ah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

²⁰The rest of the deeds of Hezeki'ah, and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²¹And Hezeki'ah slept with his fathers; and Manas'seh his son reigned in his stead.

¹⁰And the LORD said by his servants the prophets, ¹¹“Because Manas'seh king of Judah has committed these abominations, and has done things more wicked than all that the Am'orites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols; ¹²therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of every one who hears of it will tingle. ¹³And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samar'ia, and the plummet of the house of A'hab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴And I will cast off the remnant of my heritage, and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, ¹⁵because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.”

¹⁶Moreover Manas'seh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin which he made Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁷Now the rest of the acts of Manas'seh, and all that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ¹⁸And Manas'seh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza; and A'mon his son reigned in his stead.

¹⁹A'mon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshul'lemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manas'seh his father had done. ²¹He walked in all the way in which his father walked, and served the idols that his father served, and worshiped them; ²²he forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD. ²³And the servants of A'mon conspired against him, and killed the king in his house. ²⁴But the people of the land slew all those who had conspired against King A'mon, and the people of the land made Josi'ah his son king in his stead. ²⁵Now the rest of the acts of A'mon which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁶And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza; and Josi'ah his son reigned in his stead.

³In the eighteenth year of King Josi'ah, the king sent Sha'phan the son of Azali'ah, son of Meshul'lam, the secretary, to the house of the LORD, saying, ⁴“Go up to Hilki'ah the high priest, that he may reckon the amount of the money which has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people; ⁵and let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD; and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the LORD, repairing the house, ⁶that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, as well as for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house. ⁷But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money which is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.”

⁸And Hilki'ah the high priest said to Sha'phan the secretary, “I have found the book of the law* in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. ⁹And Sha'phan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD.” ¹⁰Then Sha'phan the secretary told the king, “Hilki'ah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹And when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. ¹²And the king commanded Hilki'ah the priest, and Ahi'kam the son of Sha'phan, and Achbor the son of Micai'ah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asai'ah the king’s servant, saying, ¹³“Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

¹⁴So Hilki'ah the priest, and Ahi'kam, and Achbor, and Sha'phan, and Asai'ah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter); and they talked with her. ¹⁵And she said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, ¹⁶Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. ¹⁷Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. ¹⁸But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Regarding the words which you have heard, ¹⁹because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the LORD. ²⁰Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.’” And they brought back word to the king.

⁴And the king commanded Hilki'ah, the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Ba'al, for Ashe'rah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵And he deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places at the cities of Judah and round about Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Ba'al, to the sun, and the moon, and the constellations, and all the host of the heavens. ⁶And he brought out the Ashe'rah from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. ⁷And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the Ashe'rah. ⁸And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Ge'ba to Be'er-she'ba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the gate of the city. ⁹However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren. ¹⁰And he defiled To'pheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hin'nom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Mo'lech. ¹¹And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Na'than-me'lech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts;^h and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. ¹²And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of A'haz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manas'seh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, he pulled down and broke in pieces,ⁱ and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. ¹³And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ash'toreth the abomination of the Sido'nians, and for Che'mosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Am'monites. ¹⁴And he broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Ashe'rim, and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵Moreover the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jerobo'am the son of Ne'bat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and he broke in pieces its stones,^j crushing them to dust; also he burned the Ashe'rah. ¹⁶And as Josi'ah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount; and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them upon the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. ¹⁷Then he said, “What is yonder monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things which you have done against the altar at Bethel.” ¹⁸And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samar'ia. ¹⁹And all the shrines also of the high places that were in the cities of Samar'ia, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the LORD to anger, Josi'ah removed; he did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. ²⁰And he slew all the priests of the high places who were there, upon the altars, and burned the bones of men upon them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.” ²²For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah; ²³but in the eighteenth year of King Josi'ah this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.

²⁴Moreover Josi'ah put away the mediums and the wizards and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilki'ah the priest found in the house of the LORD. ²⁵Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.

²⁶Still the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manas'seh had provoked him. ²⁷And the LORD said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”

²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Josi'ah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁹In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphra'tes. King Josi'ah went to meet him; and Pharaoh Neco slew him at Megid'do, when he saw him. ¹And his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megid'do, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jeho'ahaz the son of Josi'ah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.

³¹Jeho'ahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamu'tal the daughter of Jeremi'ah of Libnah. ³²And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. ³³And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Ha'math, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid upon the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴And Pharaoh Ne'co made Eli'akim the son of Josi'ah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoi'akim. But he took Jeho'ahaz away; and he came to Egypt, and died there. ³⁵And Jehoi'akim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed 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, from every one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

³⁶Jehoi'akim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebi'dah the daughter of Pedai'ah of Ru'mah. ³⁷And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

⁸Jehoi'achin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehush'ta the daughter of Elna'than of Jerusalem. ⁹And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done.

¹⁰At that time the servants of Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. ¹¹And Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it; ¹²and Jehoi'achin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his reign, ¹³and carried off all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the LORD, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the LORD had foretold. ¹⁴He carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained, except the poorest people of the land. ¹⁵And he carried away Jehoi'achin to Babylon; the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the chief men of the land, he took into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths, one thousand, all of them strong and fit for war. ¹⁷And the king of Babylon made Mattani'ah, Jehoi'achin’s uncle, king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedeki'ah.

¹⁸Zedeki'ah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamu'tal the daughter of Jeremi'ah of Libnah. ¹⁹And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoi'akim had done. ²⁰For because of the anger of the LORD it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence.

And Zedeki'ah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁸In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnez'zar, king of Babylon—Nebu''zarad'an, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. ¹⁰And all the army of the Chalde'ans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. ¹¹And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebu''zarad'an the captain of the guard carried into exile. ¹²But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.

¹³And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chalde'ans broke in pieces, and carried the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴And they took away the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service, ¹⁵the firepans also, and the bowls. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. ¹⁶As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the stands, which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight. ¹⁷The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and upon it was a capital of bronze; the height of the capital was three cubits; a network and pomegranates, all of bronze, were upon the capital round about. And the second pillar had the like, with the network.

¹⁸And the captain of the guard took Serai'ah the chief priest, and Zephani'ah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold; ¹⁹and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and five men of the king’s council who were found in the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city. ²⁰And Nebu''zarad'an the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹And the king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Ha'math. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

²²And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam, son of Sha'phan, governor. ²³Now when all the captains of the forces in the open country^l and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedali'ah governor, they came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah, namely, Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah, and Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah, and Serai'ah the son of Tan'humeth the Netoph'athite, and Ja-azani'ah the son of the Ma-ac'athite. ²⁴And Gedali'ah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid because of the Chalde'an officials; dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” ²⁵But in the seventh month, Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah, son of Elish'ama, of the royal family, came with ten men, and attacked and killed Gedali'ah and the Jews and the Chalde'ans who were with him at Mizpah. ²⁶Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose, and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chalde'ans.

²⁷And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoi'achin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, E'vil-mer'odach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed Jehoi'achin king of Judah from prison; ²⁸and he spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹So Jehoi'achin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table; ³⁰and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, every day a portion, as long as he lived.