2 Chronicles 28; 2 Kings 16; 2 Kings 17

1 Achaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord as David his father had done,

2 But walked in the ways of the kings of Israel; moreover also he cast statues for Baalim.

3 It was he that burnt incense in the valley of Benennom, and consecrated his sons in the fire according to the manner of the nations, which the Lord slew at the coming of the children of Israel.

4 He sacrificed also, and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

5 And the Lord his God delivered him into the hands of the king of Syria, who defeated him, and took a great booty out of his kingdom, and carried it to Damascus: he was also delivered into the hands of the king of Israel, who overthrew him with a great slaughter.

6 For Phacee the son of Romelia slew of Juda a hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all valiant men, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers.

7 At the same time Zechri a powerful man of Ephraim, slew Maasias the king’s son, and Ezricam the governor of his house, and Elcana who was next to the king.

8 And the children of Israel carried away of their brethren two hundred thousand women, boys, and girls, and an immense booty: and they brought it to Samaria.

9 At that time there was a prophet of the Lord there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria, and said to them: Behold the Lord the God of your fathers being angry with Juda, hath delivered them into your hands, and you have butchered them cruelly, so that your cruelty hath reached up to heaven.

10 Moreover you have a mind to keep under the children of Juda and Jerusalem for your bondmen and bondwomen, which ought not to be done: for you have sinned in this against the Lord your God.

11 But hear ye my counsel, and release the captives that you have brought of your brethren, because a great indignation of the Lord hangeth over you.

12 Then some of the chief men of the sons of Ephraim, Azarias the son of Johanan, Barachias the son of Mosollamoth, Ezechias the son of Sellum, and Amasa the son of Adali, stood up against them that came from the war.

13 And they said to them: You shall not bring in the captives hither, lest we sin against the Lord. Why will you add to our sins, and heap up upon our former offences? for the sin is great, and the fierce anger of the Lord hangeth over Israel.

14 So the soldiers left the spoils, and all that they had taken, before the princes and all the multitude.

15 And the men, whom we mentioned above, rose up and took the captives, and with the spoils clothed all them that were naked: and when they had clothed and shod them, and refreshed them with meat and drink, and anointed them because of their labour, and had taken care of them, they set such of them as could not walk, and were feeble, upon beasts, and brought them to Jericho the city of palm trees to their brethren, and they returned to Samaria.

16 At that time king Achaz sent to the king of the Assyrians asking help.

17 And the Edomites came and slew many of Juda, and took a great booty.

18 The Philistines also spread themselves among the cities of the plains, and to the south of Juda: and they took Bethsames, and Aialon, and Gaderoth, and Socho, and Thamnan, and Gamzo, with their villages, and they dwelt in them.

19 For the Lord had humbled Juda because of Achaz the king of Juda, for he had stripped it of help, and had contemned the Lord.

20 And he brought against him Thelgathphalnasar king of the Assyrians, who also afflicted him, and plundered him without any resistance.

21 And Achaz stripped the house of the Lord, and the house of the kings, and of the princes, and gave gifts to the king of the Assyrians, and yet it availed him nothing.

22 Moreover also in the time of his distress he increased contempt against the Lord: king Achaz himself by himself,

23 Sacrificed victims to the gods of Damascus that struck him, and he said: The gods of the kings of Syria help them, and I will appease them with victims, and they will help me; whereas on the contrary they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.

24 Then Achaz having taken away all the vessels of the house of God, and broken them, shut up the doors of the temple of God, and made himself altars in all the corners of Jerusalem.

25 And in all the cities of Juda he built altars to burn frankincense, and he provoked the Lord the God of his fathers to wrath.

26 But the rest of his acts, and all his works first and last are written in the book of the kings of Juda and Israel.

27 And Achaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of Jerusalem: for they received him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel. And Ezechias his son reigned in his stead.

1 In the seventeenth year of Phacee, the son of Romelia reigned Achaz, the son of Joatham, king of Juda.

2 Achaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: he did not that which was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, his God, as David, his father.

3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel: moreover, he consecrated also his son, making him pass through the fire, according to the idols of the nations which the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.

4 He sacrificed also, and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

5 Then Rasin, king of Syria, and Phacee, son of Romelia, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to fight: and they besieged Achaz, but were not able to overcome him.

6 At that time Rasin, king of Syria, restored Aila to Syria, and drove the men of Juda out of Aila: and the Edomites came into Aila, and dwelt there unto this day.

7 And Achaz sent messengers to Theglathphalasar, king of the Assyrians, saying: I am thy servant, and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who are risen up together against me.

8 And when he had gathered together the silver and gold that could be found in the house of the Lord, and in the king’s treasures, he sent it for a present to the king of the Assyrians.

9 And he agreed to his desire: for the king of the Assyrians went up against Damascus, and laid it waste: and he carried away the inhabitants thereof to Cyrene; but Rasin he slew.

10 And king Achaz went to Damascus to meet Theglathphalasar, king of the Assyrians, and when he had seen the altar of Damascus, king Achaz sent to Urias, the priest, a pattern of it, and its likeness, according to all the work thereof.

11 And Urias, the priest, built an altar according to all that king Achaz had commanded from Damascus so did Urias, the priest, until king Achaz came from Damascus.

12 And when the king was come from Damascus, he saw the altar and worshipped it: and went up and offered holocausts, and his own sacrifice;

13 And he offered libations, and poured the blood of the peace offerings, which he had offered, upon the altar.

14 But the altar of brass that was before the Lord, he removed from the face of the temple, and from the place of the altar, and from the place of the temple of the Lord: and he set it at the side of the altar towards the north.

15 And king Achaz commanded Urias, the priest, saying: Upon the great altar offer the morning holocaust, and the evening sacrifice, and the king’s holocaust, and his sacrifice, and the holocaust of the whole people of the land, and their sacrifices, and their libations: and all the blood of the holocaust, and all the blood of the victim, thou shalt pour out upon it: but the altar of brass shall be ready at my pleasure.

16 So Urias, the priest, did according to all that king Achaz had commanded him.

17 And king Achaz took away the graven bases, and the laver that was upon them: and he took down the sea from the brazen oxen that held it up, and put it upon a pavement of stone.

18 The Musach also for the sabbath, which he had built in the temple, and the king’s entry from without, he turned into the temple of the Lord, because of the king of the Assyrians.

19 Now the rest of the acts of Achaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the of the days of the kings of Juda?

20 And Achaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with them in the city of David, and Ezechias, his son, reigned in his stead.

1 In the twelfth year of Achaz king of Juda, Osee the son of Ela reigned in Samaria, over Israel, nine years.

2 And he did evil before the Lord: but not as the kings of Israel that had been before him.

3 Against him came up Salmanasar, king of the Assyrians; and Osee became his servant, and paid him tribute.

4 And when the king of the Assyrians found that Osee, endeavouring to rebel, had sent messengers to Sua, the king of Egypt, that he might not pay tribute to the king of the Assyrians, as he had done every year, he besieged him, bound him, and cast him into prison.

5 And he went through all the land: and going up to Samaria, he besieged it three years.

6 And in the ninth year of Osee, the king of the Assyrians took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria: and he placed them in Hala, and Habor, by the river of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes.

7 For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord, their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharao, king of Egypt; and they worshipped strange gods.

8 And they walked according to the way of the nations which the Lord had destroyed in the sight of the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel: because they had done in like manner.

9 And the children of Israel offended the Lord, their God, with things that were not right: and built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

10 And they made them statues and groves on every high hill, and under every shady tree:

11 And they burnt incense there upon altars, after the manner of the nations which the Lord had removed from their face: and they did wicked things, provoking the Lord.

12 And they worshipped abominations, concerning which the Lord had commanded them that they should not do this thing.

13 And the Lord testified to them in Israel, and in Juda, by the hand of all the prophets and seers, saying: Return from your wicked ways, and keep my precepts, and ceremonies, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers: and as I have sent to you in the hand of my servants the prophets.

14 And they hearkened not, but hardened their necks like to the neck of their fathers, who would not obey the Lord, their God.

15 And they rejected his ordinances, and the covenant that he made with their fathers, and the testimonies which he testified against them: and they followed vanities, and acted vainly: and they followed the nations that were round about them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them that they should not do as they did.

16 And they forsook all the precepts of the Lord, their God: and made to themselves two molten calves, and groves, and adored all the host of heaven: and they served Baal,

17 And consecrated their sons, and their daughters, through fire: and they gave themselves to divinations, and soothsayings: and they delivered themselves up to do evil before the Lord, to provoke him.

18 And the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from his sight, and there remained only the tribe of Juda.

19 But neither did Juda itself keep the commandments of the Lord, their God: but they walked in the errors of Israel, which they had wrought.

20 And the Lord cast off all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, till he cast them away from his face:

21 Even from that time, when Israel was rent from the house of David, and made Jeroboam, son of Nabat, their king: for Jeroboam separated Israel from the Lord, and made them commit a great sin.

22 And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he had done: and they departed not from them,

23 Till the Lord removed Israel from his face, as he had spoken in the hand of all his servants, the prophets: and Israel was carried away out of their land to Assyria, unto this day.

24 And the king of the Assyrians brought people from Babylon, and from Cutha, and from Avah, and from Emath, and from Sepharvaim: and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

25 And when they began to dwell there, they feared not the Lord: and the Lord sent lions among them, which killed them.

26 And it was told the king of the Assyrians, and it was said: The nations which thou hast removed, and made to dwell in the cities of Samaria, know not the ordinances of the God of the land: and the Lord hath sent lions among them: and behold they kill them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.

27 And the king of the Assyrians commanded, saying: Carry thither one of the priests whom you brought from thence captive, and let him go, and dwell with them: and let him teach them the ordinances of the God of the land.

28 So one of the priests, who had been carried away captive from Samaria, came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should worship the Lord.

29 And every nation made gods of their own and put them in the temples of the high places, which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities where they dwelt.

30 For the men of Babylon made Sochothbenoth: and the Cuthites made Nergel: and the men of Emath made Asima.

31 And the Hevites made Nebahaz, and Tharthac. And they that were of Sepharvaim burnt their children in fire, to Adramelech and Anamelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

32 And nevertheless they worshipped the Lord. And they made to themselves, of the lowest of the people, priests of the high places, and they placed them in the temples of the high places.

33 And when they worshipped the Lord, they served also their own gods, according to the custom of the nations out of which they were brought to Samaria:

34 Unto this day they follow the old manner: they fear not the Lord, neither do they keep his ceremonies, and judgments, and law, and the commandment, which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he surnamed Israel:

35 With whom he made a covenant, and charged them, saying: You shall not fear strange gods, nor shall you adore them, nor worship them, nor sacrifice to them.

36 But the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and a stretched out arm, him shall you fear, and him shall you adore, and to him shall you sacrifice.

37 And the ceremonies, and judgments, and law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do them always: and you shall not fear strange gods.

38 And the covenant that he made with you, you shall not forget: neither shall ye worship strange Gods,

39 But fear the Lord, your God, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.

40 But they did not hearken to them, but did according to their old custom.

41 So these nations feared the Lord, but nevertheless served also their idols: their children also, and grandchildren, as their fathers did, so do they unto this day.