2 Kings 18-25

New Catholic Bible

Kingdom of Judah after 721 B.C.

Chapter 18

Hezekiah.^{[a] 1} Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, the king of Judah began to reign during the third year of the reign of Hoshea, the son of Elah, the king of Israel. ² He began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi, and she was the daughter of Zechariah.

³ He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his father David had done. ⁴ He eliminated the high places and he broke down the pillars. He cut down the Asherah and he broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to those days the Israelites had burned incense to it and they called it Nehushtan. ⁵ He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so much that there was no one like him among all of the kings of Judah who followed him or who preceded him. ⁶ He held fast to the Lord, and he did not depart from following after him. He kept the commandments that the Lord had given to Moses. ⁷ The Lord was with him whenever he went forth and he prospered.

He rebelled against the king of Assyria and he refused to serve him. ⁸ He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from its watchtower to its fortified city.

^9 [b]In the fourth year of the reign of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea, the son of Elah, the king of Israel, Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, attacked Samaria and besieged it. ¹⁰ At the end of three years he captured it. It was in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the king of Israel, that Samaria was captured.

¹¹ The king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. ¹² This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, their God. They transgressed his covenant, everything that Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded. They would not listen nor would they obey.

¹³ Invasion of Sennacherib. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came up against all of the fortified cities of Judah, and he captured them during the fourteenth year of the reign of King Hezekiah. ¹⁴ Hezekiah, the king of Judah, sent a message to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying, “I am guilty; withdraw from me and I will pay any penalty you decide.” The king of Assyria required Hezekiah, the king of Judah, to pay three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵ Hezekiah gave him all of the silver that was to be found in the temple of the Lord and the treasury of the royal palace.

¹⁶ It was at this time that Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors to the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah, the king of Judah, had overlaid. He gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷ The king of Assyria sent the general, the lord chamberlain, and the commander along with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they stood by the conduit of the upper pool that is on the highway in the Fuller’s Field. ¹⁸ They called out for the king, and Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, the major-domo, Shebna, the scribe, Joah, the son of Asaph, who kept the archives, came out to them.

¹⁹ The commander said to them, “Say this to Hezekiah: ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What is the source of your hope in which you trust? ²⁰ You say (but they are only empty words), “I have counsel and strength for war!” Now, on whom do you rely that makes you willing to rebel against me? ²¹ Behold, you have placed your confidence upon the staff of this bruised reed, you trust in Egypt, which, if someone were to lean on it, it would pierce his hand, going through it. That is what Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is to all who trust in him. ²² But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord, our God,” is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has eliminated, for he said to Judah and Jerusalem, “You will worship before this altar in Jerusalem.” ’

²³ “Therefore, give your pledge to my lord, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to put riders on them. ²⁴ How could you repulse the least important of my master’s servants even though you are trusting Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ²⁵ Was it apart from the Lord I have now come up to destroy this place? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up to attack this land and destroy it.’ ”

²⁶ Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Please do not speak to us in Hebrew when the people who are upon the wall can hear it.”^[c]

²⁷ But the commander said to them, “My master has not sent me just to you and your master to say these things, but to the men sitting on the wall who may have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine like you.”

²⁸ The commander then stood and cried out in a loud voice in Hebrew, “Hear the word of the great king of Assyria! ²⁹ Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you out of my hands. ³⁰ Do not let Hezekiah convince you to trust in the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be delivered over into the hands of the king of Assyria.’ ³¹ Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make peace with me by paying tribute. Then, come out and eat from your own vines and from your own fig trees and drink water from your own cistern ³² until I take you away to a land which is like your own, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey. Live, do not die.

“Do not listen to Hezekiah when he tries to convince you saying, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ ³³ Have the gods of any of the nations delivered their land out of the hands of the king of Assyria? ³⁴ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Shepharvaim, Henah, and Ivvah? Did they rescue Samaria from out of my hands?

³⁵ “Which of the gods from any of the nations has delivered their land from out of my hands? How could the Lord deliver Jerusalem out of my hands?”

³⁶ But the people remained silent and they did not say a word to him, for the king had commanded them, “You are not to answer him.”

³⁷ Then Eliakim, the major-domo, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, who kept the archives, went to Hezekiah with their torn clothes, and they told him what the commander had said.

Chapter 19

Hezekiah and Isaiah. ¹ When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went into the temple of the Lord.

² He sent Eliakim, the major-domo, Shebna, the scribe, and all of the elders of the priests, all wearing sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ³ They said to him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of trouble and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to term but there is not enough strength to deliver them. ⁴ Perhaps the Lord, your God, will hear the words of the commander whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to taunt the living God. Perhaps he will rebuke him for the words which the Lord, your God, has heard. Therefore, raise up a prayer for the survivors who still remain.”

⁵ When King Hezekiah’s servants came to Isaiah, ⁶ Isaiah said to them, “This is what you are to tell your master: Thus says the Lord: Do not let the words you have heard, the words by which the king of Assyria blasphemed me, do not let them frighten you. ⁷ Behold, I will send a spirit into him so that when he hears a certain rumor, he will return to his own land. I will have him cut down by the sword in his own land.”

⁸ When the commander returned, he heard that the king of Assyria had withdrawn from Lachish and he found him in Libnah. ⁹ He had heard a report concerning Tirhakah, the king of Ethiopia, saying, “Behold, he has come to fight against you.”

So he once again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, ¹⁰ “Say this to Hezekiah, the king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you when he tells you that Jerusalem will be delivered out of the hands of the king of Assyria. ¹¹ You have heard what the king of Assyria has done to every land, totally destroying them. Will you then be delivered? ¹² Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my ancestors deliver them, the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Edomites who were in Telassar? ¹³ Where is the king of Hamath? The king of Arpad? The king of the city of Shepharvaim? Of Hena? Of Ivvah?’ ”

¹⁴ Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messenger and he read it. He then went to the temple of the Lord and he spread it out before the Lord.

¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, “O Lord, God of Israel, who dwells between the cherubim, you alone are the God of all of the nations on the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁶ Bend your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Hear the words that Sennacherib has sent to taunt the living God. ¹⁷ It is true, O Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands. ¹⁸ They have cast their gods into the flames, for they were not really gods. They were only the work of human hands, made from wood and stone. ¹⁹ Now, O Lord, our God, deliver us from out of his hands so that all of the kingdoms upon the earth might know that you, O Lord, are the only God.”

²⁰ Punishment of Sennacherib. Isaiah, the son of Amoz, then sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘I have heard your prayer to me concerning Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.’

^21 [d]“This is the word that the Lord has spoken about him:

³⁵ That night an angel of the Lord went out and killed one hundred eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians. ³⁶ Sennacherib, the king of Assyria withdrew, departed, and returned to Nineveh.

³⁷ Once, when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down by the sword. They escaped into the land of Armenia, and Esarhaddon reigned in his stead.

Chapter 20

Hezekiah’s Illness. ¹ In those days Hezekiah fell ill, and his death was approaching. Isaiah, the son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you are to die, you will not survive.”

² Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed, saying, ³ “Please remember, O Lord, how I walked before you in fidelity and with a perfect heart. I have done what was good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

⁴ The word of the Lord came to Isaiah before he left the middle courtyard, saying, ⁵ “Return and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: Thus says the Lord, the God of David, your father: I have heard, I have seen your tears. I will heal you today, and the day after tomorrow you will go up to the temple of the Lord. ⁶ I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hands of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own sake and that of David, my servant.”

⁷ Isaiah said, “Prepare a fig poultice.” They took it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

⁸ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and on the day after tomorrow I will go up into the temple of the Lord?” ⁹ Isaiah answered, “This is the sign that you will receive from the Lord that the Lord is going to do what he said: shall the shade climb up ten stairs, or go down ten stairs?”

¹⁰ Hezekiah answered, “It is too easy for the shade to go down ten stairs. No, let the shade go back up ten stairs.”

¹¹ Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and he brought the shade back up the ten stairs that it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.

¹² At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah for he had heard that Hezekiah was ill. ¹³ Hezekiah listened to them and showed them his entire treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious ointments as well as the armory in the treasury. There was nothing in his palace or his dominion that Hezekiah failed to show them.

¹⁴ Isaiah the prophet came to Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say to you? Where did they come from?” Hezekiah answered, “They came from a distant land, from Babylon.” ¹⁵ He said, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen everything in my palace; they did not miss any of my treasures.”

¹⁶ Isaiah the prophet said to Hezekiah, “Listen to the word of the Lord: ¹⁷ Behold, the days are coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors collected up to the present, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, nothing, says the Lord. ¹⁸ Some of your sons who come forth from you, whom you begot, will be taken away. They will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

¹⁹ Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,” for he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my days?”

²⁰ Now the rest of the deeds of Hezekiah, his achievements, and how he built a pool and a conduit^[e] that brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²¹ Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh, his son, reigned in his stead.

Chapter 21

Reign of Manasseh. ¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.

² He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, practicing the abominations of the nations whom the Lord cast out before the Israelites. ³ He rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed. He raised up altars to Baal, and he made an Asherah, just as Ahab, the king of Israel, had done. He also worshiped the hosts of heaven^[f] and served them. ⁴ He built altars in the temple of the Lord of which the Lord had stated, “I will place my name in Jerusalem.” ⁵ He built altars for the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. ⁶ He burned his son in flames, practiced witchcraft, used divination, and cooperated with mediums and wizards. He did horrible things in the sight of the Lord, provoking the Lord to anger. ⁷ He set up a carved image of the Asherah in the temple about which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon, his son, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from out of the tribes of Israel, I will place my name forever, ⁸ nor will I make the feet of Israel wander from the land that I have given to their fathers if only they will be careful to do everything that I have commanded them, everything according to the law that Moses, my servant, gave them.”

⁹ But they would not listen, and Manasseh enticed them to do more evil than the nations that the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites had done.

¹⁰ The Lord therefore spoke through his servant, the prophets, saying, ¹¹ “Manasseh, the king of Judah, has committed these abominations, doing worse things than the Amorites who preceded him, causing Judah to sin with his idols. ¹² Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing a terrible disaster upon Jerusalem and Judah that is so bad that the ears of those who hear about it will tingle. ^13 [g]I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line that I used against Samaria and the plumb line I used against the house of Ahab. ¹⁴ I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a dish, wiping it out and turning it over. I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance, and I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They will be plunder and booty to all of their enemies ¹⁵ for they have done what is evil in my sight, provoking me to anger from the day that their fathers came forth from Egypt even up to the present day.”

¹⁶ Manasseh had shed so much blood that it covered Jerusalem from one end to the other. He caused Judah to sin, doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

¹⁷ As for the other deeds of Manasseh, what he did, and the sins that he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

¹⁸ Manasseh slept with his fathers, and he was buried in his palace gardens, the Garden of Uzza.

Reign of Amon. Amon, his son, then reigned in his stead. ¹⁹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth. She was the daughter of Haruz from Jotbah.

²⁰ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. ²¹ He walked in all of the ways of his father. He served the idols that his father had served, and he worshiped them. ²² He abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and he did not walk in the ways of the Lord.

²³ Amon’s servants plotted against him, and they killed him in his own palace. ²⁴ The people of the land then plotted against all of those who killed King Ahab, and the people of the land made Josiah, his son, king in his stead.

²⁵ As for the other deeds of Amon, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁶ He was buried in his own grave in the Garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah reigned in his stead.

Chapter 22

Reign of Josiah.^{[h] 1} Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah, and she was the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath.

² He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the ways of David, his father. He did not wander off to the right or to the left.

The Book of the Law.^{[i] 3} During the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the temple. He said, ⁴ “Go up to Hilkiah, the high priest. Have him count the money that the doorkeepers have collected from the people in the temple of the Lord. ⁵ Have him give it to the supervisors of the workmen in the temple of the Lord. Have them pay those who are working to repair the damage in the temple of the Lord: ⁶ the carpenters, the builders, and the masons. Also have them buy timber and hewn stone to repair the temple. ⁷ They do not need to make an accounting of the money that has been given to them because they have acted honestly.”

⁸ Hilkiah, the high priest, said to Shaphan, the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the temple of the Lord.” Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan who read it.

⁹ Then Shaphan the scribe went to the king and he brought the king a report saying, “Your servants have gathered together the money that has been collected in the temple, and they have handed it over to the supervisors of the workmen in the temple of the Lord.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the scribe informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” Shaphan read it in the presence of the king.

¹¹ When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. ¹² King Josiah gave orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, Achbor, the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, the king’s servant, saying, ¹³ “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for all of the people and for all of Judah about the words of the book that had been found. The Lord’s anger against us is great for our fathers have not heeded the words of this book. They did not do everything that is written in it concerning us.”

¹⁴ Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah, the wife of Shallum, the guardian of the wardrobe, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas. She lived in the second district of Jerusalem. They spoke with her. ¹⁵ She said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, go tell the man who sent you to me: ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon all of those who live in it, everything that is in the book that the king of Judah has read. ¹⁷ They have forsaken me, and they have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to anger with all the deeds of their hands. My wrath will blaze out against this place and it will not be quenched.

¹⁸ “But as for the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, this is what you will say to him: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: As for the words that you have heard, ¹⁹ because your heart was penitent and you have humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and you wept before me, I have also heard you, says the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, so that you will not have to look upon all of the evil that I will bring upon this place with your own eyes.” They brought the report back to the king.

Chapter 23

Josiah the Reformer. ¹ The king then sent and assembled all of the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ² The king went up to the temple of the Lord, and all of the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem went with him, including the priests, the prophets, and all of the people, both the humble and the important. He read aloud all of the words from the book of the covenant that had been found in the temple of the Lord.

³ The king stood by the pillar, and he made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord and to observe his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, fulfilling the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All of the people joined in the covenant.

⁴ The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doormen to carry out of the temple of the Lord all of the utensils that had been used for Baal, for Asherah, and for the heavenly host. He burned them outside of Jerusalem in a field in the Kidron Valley, and they took their ashes to Bethel.

⁵ He expelled the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and those that surrounded Jerusalem, those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the planets, and to all of the hosts of heaven. ⁶ He brought the Asherah out of the temple of the Lord, taking it outside of Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley. He smashed it to pieces, tossing its dust upon the graves of the common people.

⁷ He also tore down the quarters that housed the male prostitutes in the temple of the Lord, and where the women did the weavings for the Asherah. ⁸ He brought all of the priests from the cities of Judah, and he desecrated all of the high places from Geba to Beer-sheba where the priests had burned incense. He demolished the shrines at the gates, at the entrance to the gate of Joshua, the leader of the city, which was to the left of the city gate. ⁹ Although the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord, they did eat the unleavened bread with their brethren.

¹⁰ He desecrated Topheth^[j] in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in fire to Molech. ¹¹ He removed the horses that the king of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance to the temple of the Lord. They had been in the court near the room of the official Nathan-melech. He burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.

¹² The king demolished the altars^[k] that the kings of Judah had built on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz as well as the two altars that Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. He broke them to pieces and cast them into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The king also desecrated the high places that were to the east of Jerusalem, that is, to the south of the Hill of Corruption which Solomon, the king of Israel, had dedicated to the Ashtaroth, the vile goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the vile god of the Moabites, and to Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites.

¹⁴ He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He defiled these places with human bones. ¹⁵ He broke down the altar in Bethel, the altar and the high place that Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had built. He burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and he also burned the Asherah.

¹⁶ Josiah looked around and when he saw that there were graves on the hillside, he sent for and removed the bones from the graves. He burned them upon the altar to defile it. This fulfilled the word of the Lord that the man of God had proclaimed through these words.

¹⁷ He then asked, “What is that monument that I see?” The men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel.” ¹⁸ He said, “Leave it alone! Do not let anyone disturb his bones!” So they left his bones and the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

¹⁹ Josiah also removed all of the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria that the kings of Israel had established, thus provoking the Lord to anger, just as he had done at Bethel.

²⁰ Josiah killed all of the priests of the high places upon the altars and he burned human bones upon them. He then returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ The king then commanded all of the people saying, “Observe the Passover of the Lord, your God, according to what is written in this book of this covenant.” ²² Passover had not been observed from the days of the judges who governed Israel nor all throughout the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³ This Passover of the Lord was celebrated in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah.

²⁴ Josiah also expelled the mediums and the wizards. He did away with the household gods, the idols, and all the other abominations that were to be found in the land of Judah and Jerusalem. He did this to fulfill the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the temple of the Lord.

²⁵ There had never before been any king like him nor will there ever be one after him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and all his soul and all his might according to the law of Moses.

²⁶ In spite of this, the Lord did not turn away the heat of his fierce anger which raged against Judah because all of the things that Manasseh had done to provoke his anger. ²⁷ The Lord said, “I will remove Judah from out of my sight just as I have removed Israel. I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the temple of which I said: My name will be there.”

^28 [l]As for all of the other deeds of Josiah, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁹ During his reign, Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, traveled up to the Euphrates River to give his assistance to the king of Assyria. King Josiah attacked him. When Pharaoh Neco saw him at Megiddo, he killed him. ³⁰ His servants brought his dead body back from Megiddo to Jerusalem and they buried him in his own tomb.

The people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and they anointed him as king in his father’s stead.

³¹ Reign of Jehoahaz. Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal, and she was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

³² He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, everything that his fathers had done.

³³ Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he could not reign in Jerusalem. He imposed a tribute upon the land of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.^[m]

³⁴ Pharaoh Neco appointed Eliakim, the son of Josiah, as king in his father’s stead. He changed his name to Jehoiakim, and he took Jehoahaz away when he returned to Egypt, where he died.

³⁵ Jehoiakim gave silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to get the money that Pharaoh had demanded. He taxed the people of the land according to their assessments for the silver and the gold that he had to give to Pharaoh.

³⁶ Reign of Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Zebidah, and she was the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah.

³⁷ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, everything that his fathers had done.

Chapter 24

^1 [n]During his reign Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. He then changed his path and rebelled against him.

² The Lord sent bands of Chaldeans, bands of Arameans, bands of Moabites, and bands of Ammonites against him. They attacked Judah to destroy it, fulfilling the word of the Lord which he had spoken through his servants, the prophets. ³ This surely came upon Judah at the command of the Lord so that he might remove them from out of his sight on account of the sins of Manasseh and everything that he had done ⁴ and on account of the innocent blood that he had shed, for he covered Jerusalem with innocent blood, something that the Lord would not forgive.

⁵ As for the rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim, all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

⁶ Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin, his son, reigned in his stead.

⁷ The king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore because the king of Babylon had taken everything that belonged to him all the way from the River of Egypt up to the Euphrates River.

Reign of Jehoiachin.^{[o] 8} Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta. She was the daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.

⁹ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, everything that his fathers had done. ¹⁰ During his reign, the servants of Nebu-chadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came up to Jerusalem and the city was besieged. ¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem while his servants were besieging it.

¹² Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officials. The king of Babylon carried him off during the eighth year of his reign. ¹³ He carried off all of the treasures from the temple of the Lord and the treasures from the royal palace. He cut to pieces all of the gold vessels that Solomon, the king of Israel, had made for the temple of the Lord, just as the Lord had foretold. ¹⁴ He carried away all of Jerusalem and all of its princes and all of its brave warriors. There were ten thousand captives, and no craftsmen or iron smiths remained, only the poorest of the people were left. ¹⁵ He carried Jehoiachin off to Babylon along with the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers, and the important people of the land. He carried them off into captivity in Babylon. ¹⁶ The king of Babylon brought them into captivity, all of the important people, seven thousand of them, and the craftsmen and iron smiths, one thousand of them, and all of those who were strong and ready for war.

¹⁷ The king of Babylon made Mattaniah king in his father’s stead, and he changed his name to Zedekiah.

¹⁸ Reign of Zedekiah.^[p] Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal. She was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

¹⁹ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, everything that Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ This happened to Jerusalem and Judah on account of the anger of the Lord, and he cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah then rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Chapter 25

¹ It was during the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and all his army came up against Jerusalem. He camped and made siege-works all around it.^{[q] 2} The city was under siege until the eleventh year of the reign of King Zedekiah. ³ By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe that there was no food left for the people of the land.

⁴ There was a breach in the city wall, and all of the warriors fled at night by way of the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They went toward the Arabah.

⁵ The Chaldean army chased after them and caught up with the king in the plains of Jericho, scattering his entire army. ⁶ They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon who was at Riblah where he pronounced his judgment. ⁷ They killed Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and then they put out his eyes, bound him in brass fetters, and carried him off to Babylon.

Destruction of Jerusalem. ⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month of the ninth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard and a servant of the king of Babylon, came up to Jerusalem. ⁹ He burned down the temple of the Lord, the royal palace, all of the buildings of Jerusalem. He burned down every large building. ¹⁰ All of the Chaldean army that was with the captain of the guard broke down all of the walls surrounding Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried off the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.

¹² But the captain of the guard left the poorest of the people who were to be vinedressers and herdsmen.

¹³ The Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars in the temple of the Lord and the bronze sea and its base in the temple of the Lord. They carried the bronze off to Babylon. ¹⁴ They took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all of the bronze vessels that were used for ministry there. ¹⁵ The captain of the guard also took away the censers and the bowls, and everything that was made with gold or silver. ¹⁶ One could not even measure the weight of the bronze from all these things: the two pillars, the sea, and its base that were made by Solomon for the temple of the Lord. ¹⁷ Each bronze pillar with its capital was eighteen cubits tall. The capital was three cubits high, along with a bronze network and pomegranates upon the capital. The other pillar was identical with its network.

¹⁸ The captain of the guard took away Seraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah, the second priest, as well as three of the doormen. ¹⁹ He also took the officer who was in charge of the fighting men out of the city as well as five of the king’s advisors who were caught in the city. He took the scribe assigned to the leader of the army, the one who would muster the people of the land. He also took sixty of the people of the land who were found in the city.

²⁰ Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon in Riblah. ²¹ The king of Babylon struck them down and killed them in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus, Judah was carried away from their land into exile.

²² Gedaliah Governs Judah.^[r] As for the rest of the people who had remained in the land of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over them.

²³ When all of the captains of the army (they and their men) heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah in Mizpah. They were Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, Johanan, the son of Kareah, Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah, the son of the Maachathite, and their men.

²⁴ Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, saying to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and everything will be all right with you.”

²⁵ But during the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, a member of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah. He died along with the Jews and Chaldeans who were with him in Mizpah.

²⁶ All of the people then rose up, the small and the great, and the captains of the army, and they went to Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

²⁷ Jehoiachin’s Release from Prison.^[s] In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach who had become king that year, released Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, from prison. ²⁸ He spoke kindly to him and he set him upon his throne which was above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ He changed his prison clothes, and he ate his meals with him for the rest of his life. ³⁰ He was given a regular allowance from the king, a portion for each day of the rest of his life.