2 Kings 23; 2 Kings 24; 2 Kings 25

2 Kings 23

1 And they brought the king word again what she had said. And he sent: and all the ancients of Juda and Jerusalem were assembled to him.

2 And the king went up to the temple of the Lord, and all the men of Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both little and great: and in the hearing of them all he read all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord.

3 And the king stood upon the step: and he made a covenant with the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his ceremonies, with all their heart, and with all their soul, and to perform the words of this covenant, which were written in that book: and the people agreed to the covenant.

4 And the king commanded Helcias, the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to cast out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that had been made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burnt them without Jerusalem, in the valley of Cedron, and he carried the ashes of them to Bethel

5 And he destroyed the soothsayers, whom the kings of Juda had appointed to sacrifice in the high places in the cities of Juda, and round about Jerusalem: them also that burnt incense to Baal, and to the sun, and to the moon, and to the twelve signs, and to all the host of heaven.

6 And he caused the grove to be carried out from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, to the valley of Cedron, and he burnt it there, and reduced it to dust, and cast the dust upon the graves of the common people.

7 He destroyed also the pavilions of the effeminate, which were in the house of the Lord, for which the women wove as it were little dwellings for the grove.

8 And he gathered together all the priests out of the cities of Juda: and he defiled the high places, where the priests offered sacrifice, from Gabaa to Bersabee: and he broke down the altars of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Josue, governor of the city, which was on the left hand of the gate of the city.

9 However, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord, in Jerusalem: but only eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom: that no man should consecrate there his son, or his daughter, through fire, to Moloch.

11 And he took away the horses which the kings of Juda had given to the sun, at the entering in of the temple of the Lord, near the chamber of Nathanmelech the eunuch, who was in Pharurim: and he burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.

12 And the altars that were upon the top of the upper chamber of Achaz, which the kings of Juda had made, and the altars which Manasses had made in the two courts of the temple of the Lord, the king broke down: and he ran from thence, and cast the ashes of them into the torrent Cedron.

13 The high places also that were at Jerusalem, on the right side of the Mount of Offence, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built to Astaroth, the idol of the Sidonians, and to Chamos, the scandal of Moab, and to Melchom, the abomination of the children of Ammon, the king defiled.

14 And he broke in pieces the statues, and cut down the groves: and he filled their places with the bones of dead men

15 Moreover, the altar also that was at Bethel, and the high place, which Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, had made: both the altar, and the high place, he broke down and burnt, and reduced to powder, and burnt the grove.

16 And as Josias turned himself, he saw there the sepulchres that were in the mount: and he sent and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burnt them upon the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God spoke, who had foretold these things.

17 And he said: What is that monument which I see? And the men of that city answered: It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came from Juda, and foretold these things which thou hast done upon the altar of Bethel.

18 And he said: Let him alone, let no man move his bones. So his bones were left untouched with the bones of the prophet, that came out of Samaria.

19 Moreover all the temples of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord, Josias took away: and he did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel

20 And he slew all the priests of the high places, that were there, upon the altars; and he burnt men’s bones upon them: and returned to Jerusalem.

21 And he commanded all the people, saying: Keep the Phase to the Lord your God, according as it is written in the book of this covenant

22 Now there was no such a Phase kept from the days of the judges, who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Juda,

23 As was this Phase, that was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem, in the eighteenth year of king Josias.

24 Moreover the diviners by spirits, and soothsayers, and the figures of idols, and the uncleannesses, and the abominations, that had been in the land of Juda and Jerusalem, Josias took away: that he might perform the words of the law, that were written in the book, which Helcias the priest had found in the temple of the Lord.

25 There was no king before him like unto him, that returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses: neither after him did there arise any like unto him.

26 But yet the Lord turned not away from the wrath of his great indignation, wherewith his anger was kindled against Juda: because of the provocations, wherewith Manasses had provoked him.

27 And the Lord said: I will remove Juda also from before my face, as I have removed Israel: and I will cast off this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house, of which I said: My name shall be there.

28 Now the rest of the acts of Josias, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda?

29 In his days Pharao Nechao, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josias went to meet him: and was slain at Mageddo, when he had seen him.

30 And his servants carried him dead from Mageddo: and they brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Joachaz, the son of Josias: and they anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.

31 Joachaz was three and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias, of Lobna.

32 And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.

33 And Pharao Nechao bound him at Rebla, which is in the land of Emath, that he should not reign in Jerusalem: and he set a fine upon the land, of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

34 And Pharao Nechao made Eliacim, the son of Josias, king in the room of Josias his father: and turned his name to Joakim. And he took Joachaz away and carried him into Egypt, and he died there.

35 And Joakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharao, after he had taxed the land for every man, to contribute according to the commandment of Pharao: and he exacted both the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every man according to his ability: to give to Pharao Nechao.

36 Joakim was five and twenty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Zebida, the daughter of Phadaia, of Ruma

37 And he did evil before the Lord according to all that his fathers had done.

2 Kings 24

1 In his days Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon came up, and Joakim became his servant three years: then again he rebelled against him.

2 And the Lord sent against him the rovers of the Chaldees, and the rovers of Syria, and the rovers of Moab, and the rovers of the children of Ammon: and he sent them against Juda, to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by his servants, the prophets.

3 And this came by the word of the Lord against Juda, to remove them from before him for all the sins of Manasses which he did;

4 And for the innocent blood that he shed, filling Jerusalem with innocent blood: and therefore the Lord would not be appeased.

5 But the rest of the acts of Joakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? And Joakim slept with his fathers:

6 And Joachin, his son, reigned in his stead.

7 And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his own country: for the king of Babylon had taken all that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt, unto the river Euphrates.

8 Joachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Nohesta, the daughter of Elnathan, of Jerusalem.

9 And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that his father had done.

10 At that time the servants of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came up against Jerusalem, and the city was surrounded with their forts.

11 And Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came to the city, with his servants, to assault it.

12 And Joachin, king of Juda, went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his nobles, and his eunuchs: and the king of Babylon received him in the eighth year of his reign.

13 And he brought out from thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house: and he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of the Lord, according to the word of the Lord.

14 And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the valiant men of the army, to the number of ten thousand, into captivity: and every artificer and smith: and none were left, but the poor sort of the people of the land.

15 And he carried away Joachin into Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his eunuchs: and the judges of the land he carried into captivity, from Jerusalem, into Babylon.

16 And all the strong men, seven thousand, and the artificers, and the smiths, a thousand, all that were valiant men, and fit for war: and the king of Babylon led them captives into Babylon.

17 And he appointed Matthanias, his uncle, in his stead: and called his name Sedecias.

18 Sedecias was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias, of Lobna.

19 And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that Joakim had done.

20 For the Lord was angry against Jerusalem and against Juda, till he cast them out from his face: and Sedecias revolted from the king of Babylon.

2 Kings 25

1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem: and they surrounded it: and raised works round about it.

2 And the city was shut up and besieged till the eleventh year of king Sedecias,

3 The ninth day of the month: and a famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

4 And a breach was made into the city: and all the men of war fled in the night between the two walls by the king’s garden (now the Chaldees besieged the city round about), and Sedecias fled by the way that leadeth to the plains of the wilderness.

5 And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all the warriors that were with him were scattered, and left him:

6 So they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon, to Reblatha, and he gave judgment upon him.

7 And he slew the sons of Sedecias before his face, and he put out his eyes, and bound him with chains, and brought him to Babylon.

8 In the fifth month, the seventh day of the month, the same is the nineteenth year of the king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan, commander of the army, a servant of the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem.

9 And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burnt with fire.

10 And all the army of the Chaldees, which was with the commander of the troops, broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

11 And Nabuzardan, the commander of the army, carried away the rest of the people, that remained in the city, and the fugitives, that had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the remnant of the common people.

12 But of the poor of the land he left some dressers of vines and husbandmen.

13 And the pillars of brass that were in the temple of the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass, which was in the house of the Lord, the Chaldees broke in pieces, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.

14 They took away also the pots of brass, and the mazers, and the forks, and the cups, and the mortars, and all the vessels of brass, with which they ministered.

15 Moreover also the censers, and the bowls, such as were of gold in gold: and such as were of silver in silver, the general of the army took away.

16 That is, two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made in the temple of the Lord: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

17 One pillar was eighteen cubits high: and the chapiter of brass, which was upon it, was three cubits high: and the network, and the pomegranates that were upon the chapiter of the pillar, were all of brass: and the second pillar had the like adorning.

18 And the general of the army took Seraias, the chief priest, and Sophonias, the second priest, and three doorkeepers:

19 And out of the city one eunuch, who was captain over the men of war: and five men of them who had stood before the king, whom he found in the city, and Sopher, the captain of the army, who exercised the young soldiers of the people of the land: and threescore men of the common people, who were found in the city:

20 These Nabuzardan, the general of the army, took away, and carried them to the king of Babylon, to Reblatha.

21 And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Reblatha, in the land of Emath: so Juda was carried away out of their land.

22 But over the people that remained in the land of Juda, which Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, had left, he gave the government to Godolias, the son of Ahicam, the son of Saphan.

23 And when all the captains of the soldiers had heard this, they and the men that were with them, to wit, that the king of Babylon had made Godolias governor they came to Godolias to Maspha, Ismael, the son of Nathanias, and Johanan, the son of Caree, and Saraia, the son of Thanehumeth, the Netophathite, and Jezonias, the son of Maachathi, they and their men.

24 And Godolias swore to them and to their men, saying: Be not afraid to serve the Chaldees: stay in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.

25 But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ismael, the son of Nathanias, the son of Elisama, of the seed royal came, and ten men with him, and smote Godolias; so that he died: and also the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him in Maspha.

26 And all the people, both little and great, and the captains of the soldiers, rising up, went to Egypt, fearing the Chaldees.

27 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Joachin, king of Juda, in the twelfth month, the seven and twentieth day of the month: Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Joachin, king of Juda, out of prison.

28 And he spoke kindly to him: and he set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon.

29 And he changed his garments which he had in prison, and he ate bread always before him, all the days of his life.

30 And he appointed him a continual allowance, which was also given him by the king, day by day, all the days of his life.