The Book of Chronicles—Part Second

1 And David’s son Solomon took a strong hold on his royal prerogatives; and his God Jehovah was with him and made him surpassingly great. 2 And Solomon gave word to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every prince of all Israel, the heads of families; 3 and Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the height at Gibeon, because that was where Jehovah’s tent of meeting was, which Jehovah’s servant Moses had made in the wilderness; 4 the ark of God, though, David had brought up from Kirjath-Jeʽarim when David made the arrangements for it, for David had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. 5* And the bronze altar that Besalel the son of Uri the son of Hur had made was there before Jehovah’s tabernacle; and Solomon and all the assembly visited it, 6 and Solomon made burnt-offerings there on the bronze altar before Jehovah that belonged to the tent of meeting: he offered a thousand burnt-offerings on it.

7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said “Ask for what I am to give you.”

8 And Solomon said to God “You greatly befriended my father David, and have made me king in his place. 9* Now, Jehovah God, let your words with my father David prove true; for you have made me king over a people numerous as the particles of the earth. 10 Now give me wisdom and knowledge that I may go out and in before this people; for who is to judge this great people of yours?”

11 And God said to Solomon “Since you had your mind on this, and did not ask for riches and substance and honors and the lives of those who hate you, and did not ask for long life either, but asked to have wisdom and knowledge that you might judge my people over which I have made you king, 12 the wisdom and knowledge is given to you, and I will give you such riches and substance and honors as the kings before you have not had the like of nor shall there be the like after you.”

13 And Solomon came from the height at Gibeon to Jerusalem from before the tent of meeting, and reigned over Israel. 14 And Solomon amassed chariots and horses, and had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he quartered in the chariot cities and at Jerusalem with the king. 15 And the king made silver and gold as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as sycamores in the lowlands. 16* And Solomon’s sources of supply for ponies were Egypt and Kue; the king’s dealers had them from Kue on commission, and used to bring up a chariot out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a pony for a hundred and fifty; 17 and they were similarly imported through them for all the kings of the Hittites and for the kings of Syria.

2 And Solomon thought of building a house for the name of Jehovah and a house for his own royal residence; 2 and Solomon counted off seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand woodcutters to cut on the mountain, and thirty-two hundred supervisors over them.

3* And Solomon sent word to King Huram of Tyre “As you did by my father David, sending him cedar to build himself a house to live in,— 4 here I am building a house for the name of my God Jehovah to dedicate to him for burning aromatic incense before him and for regular stacks of bread and burnt-offerings at morning and at evening, on sabbaths and at new moons and on the annual dates of our God Jehovah; this is Israel’s duty forever. 5 And the house I am building is to be great, because our God is greater than all gods; 6 and who holds power to build a house for him? for the skies and the skies of the skies cannot contain him, and who am I to build a house for him, except to burn incense before him? 7 Now send me a man skilled at working in gold and silver and bronze and iron and purple and crimson and violet, who will know how to execute carvings with the artists I have by me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father David provided. 8 And send me cedar, cypress, and algum from the Lebanon, for I know your subjects know how to cut Lebanon timber; and you will have my subjects there with yours; 9 and there will have to be a great deal of timber got ready for me, because the house I am building is to be great and marvelous. 10 And here for the woodcutters, those who are felling the trees, I am giving wheat as food for your subjects, wheat two hundred thousand bushels and barley two hundred thousand bushels and wine two hundred thousand gallons and oil two hundred thousand gallons.”

11 And King Huram of Tyre said in writing, and sent it to Solomon, “It was because Jehovah loved his people that he put you over them as king.” 12* And Huram said “Blessed be Israel’s God Jehovah who made the sky and the earth, that he gave King David a wise son, a man of good sense and discernment, who should build a house for Jehovah and a house for his own royal residence. 13 Now then, I am sending you an intelligent skilled man, Huram-Abi 14 the son of a Danite woman, whose father was a Tyrian, one who knows how to work in gold and silver, in bronze, in iron, in stone, in wood, in purple, in violet, and in lawn and crimson, and to create designs which shall be proposed to him, with your artists and your father David’s. 15 Now then as to the wheat and barley and oil and wine that my lord spoke of, let him send it to his servants, 16 and we will cut timber from the Lebanon in whatever quantities you need and raft it to Joppa roadstead for you; and you will do the bringing it up to Jerusalem.”

17 And Solomon counted all the immigrant population in Israel, after the count that his father David had taken of them, and there were found to be a hundred and fifty-three thousand and six hundred of them; 18 and he made seventy thousand of them porters, and eighty thousand woodcutters on the mountain, and thirty-six hundred supervisors to keep the people at work.

3 And Solomon began building Jehovah’s house in Jerusalem on Mount Morijah, which had been selected by his father David, David having made preparations on the site, on the threshing-floor of the Jebusite Ornan. 2 And he began building in the second month, in the year four of his reign. 3 And Solomon laid the foundations for building the house of God as follows: the length sixty cubits by the old standard (ninety feet), and width twenty cubits (thirty feet), 4* and the porch on the front of the length, parallel to the width of the house, twenty cubits and the height twenty cubits; and Solomon coated it with pure gold on the inside, 5* and the main house he wainscoted with cypress and lined it with good gold and put on palm trees and chains on it. 6 And he inlaid the house with precious stones for magnificence; and the gold was Parvaim gold. 7 And he lined the house with gold, beams and thresholds and walls and doors, and carved cherubs on the walls. 8 And he made the room for the holiest of the holy, its length along the width of the house twenty cubits and its width twenty cubits, and lined it with good gold, 9* six hundred hundredweight and a weight for thirty-ounce gold nails; and he lined the roof-chambers with gold. 10* And in the room for the holiest of the holy he made two cherubs of identical work and coated them with gold; 11 and the stretch of the cherubs’ wings was twenty cubits, the one wing five cubits touching the wall of the house, and the other wing five cubits touching the wing of the other cherub, 12 and the other cherub’s wing five cubits touching the wall of the house, and the other wing five cubits meeting the wing of the other cherub; 13 these cherubs’ wings spread twenty cubits, and they stood on their feet with their faces to the house.

14 And he made the veil of violet and purple and crimson and lawn, and put on cherubs on it.

15 And he made before the house two pillars fifty feet long, and the finial on top, seven and a half feet; 16* and he made chains on the collar and put on top of the pillars, and made a hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains, 17 and set the pillars up in front of the temple, one to the right and one to the left, and named the right-hand one Jakin and the left-hand one Boʽaz.

4 And he made a bronze altar thirty feet long and thirty feet wide and fifteen feet high.

2 And he made the sea, a casting fifteen feet from lip to lip, circular in outline, seven and a half feet high and forty-five feet in girth; 3* and representations of cattle all round it underneath, fifteen feet, encircling the sea; the cattle were in two rows, cast in one piece with it. 4 It stood on twelve cattle, three facing north and three facing west and three facing south and three facing east, with the sea up on top of them, and their hinder parts all inward. 5 And it was three inches thick, with its lip made like the lip of a cup, a lily-bud; it held thirty thousand gallons.

6 And he made ten lavers, and put five on the right and five on the left, to wash in; they were to rinse the work for the burnt-offering in them; and the sea was for the priests to wash in.

7 And he made the golden lampstands, ten of them in proper fashion, and put them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left.

8 And he made ten tables, and set them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left.

And he made a hundred golden bowls.

9 And he made the priests’ court and the large precinct, and doors for the precinct, and coated their leaves with bronze. 10* And the sea he put east of the southeast corner.

11 And Huram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls; and Huram finished doing all the work he did for King Solomon in Jehovah’s house: 12 two pillars, and the globes and capitals on top of the pillars, two of them; and the nettings, two of them, to cover the two globes of the capitals on top of the pillars; 13 and the pomegranates, four hundred of them, for the two nettings, two rows of pomegranates to a netting, to cover the two globes of the capitals on top of the pillars; 14* and the stands, ten of them, and the lavers, ten of them, on the stands; 15 the sea, one, and the cattle, twelve of them, under it; 16 and the pots and the shovels and the forks, and all their furnishings, Huram-Abi made for King Solomon for Jehovah’s house in polished bronze. 17 It was in the Pale of the Jordan that the king cast them, in the heavy soil between Succoth and Seredah. 18 And Solomon made all these furnishings in very great quantity—for there were no statistics taken of the weight of the bronze.

19* And Solomon made all the furnishings the house of God had in it, and the golden altar and the tables with the showbread on them, 20 and the lampstands and their lamps to be kept burning in due course before the shrine, solid gold, 21* and the buds and the lamps and the pincers, gold, 22* and the snuffers and the bowls and the pans and the firepans, solid gold, and the hinges of the house, for its inner doors for the holiest of the holy and for the house doors for the nave, gold.

5 And all the work Solomon did on Jehovah’s house was finished; and Solomon brought in his father David’s consecrated articles and put the silver and the gold and all the furnishings in the treasuries of the house of God.

2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the family princes of the sons of Israel, at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of Jehovah’s covenant from David’s City (that is, Sion); 3* and all the men of Israel assembled with the king at the feast (that is, the seventh month); 4 and all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark, 5* and they brought up the ark and the Tent of Meeting, and all the consecrated furnishings that there were in the Tent; the Levite priests brought them up, 6 while King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had gathered around him were in front of the ark sacrificing sheep and cattle too many for the count to be taken or the number known. 7 And the priests brought the ark of Jehovah’s covenant in to its place in the shrine of the house, in the holiest of the holy, under the cherubs’ wings; 8 and the cherubs spread out two wings over the place for the ark, and the cherubs covered over the ark and its poles, 9* but the poles were long and the heads of the poles were seen from the holy place along the front of the shrine, but were not seen outside; and it is there to this day. 10 There was nothing at all in the ark but the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, that Jehovah covenanted with the sons of Israel when they came out of Egypt.

11 And when the priests came out of the holy place (for all the priests that were to be found had hallowed themselves; there was no observing divisions), 12 the Levite singers all of them, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, dressed in lawn, with cymbals and with harps and lyres, stood east of the altar, and with them priests to the number of a hundred and twenty sounding trumpets, 13** and they played in concert, the trumpeters and the singers, giving a single sound of praise and thanksgiving to Jehovah; and as they pealed out the sound with trumpets and cymbals and instruments of song and with praise to Jehovah, “because he is good, because his friendship lasts forever,” the house was filled with the cloud of Jehovah’s house, 14 and the priests could not stand to officiate because of the cloud because Jehovah’s glory had filled the house of God.

6 Then Solomon said

3 And the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood; 4 and he said “Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who said with his mouth to my father David and has with his hands made it good, 5 ‘Since the day that I brought my people out of Egypt I had not chosen a city out of any of the tribes of Israel for building a house where my name should be, nor chosen a man to be warden over my people Israel; 6 but I have chosen Jerusalem where my name should be, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’ 7 And my father David had in mind to build a house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel; 8 but Jehovah said to my father David ‘Whereas you had in mind to build a house for my name, you did well to have it in mind; 9 yet you shall not build the house, but your son, who comes out of your loins, he shall build the house for my name.’ 10 And Jehovah has been as good as his word, and I have risen in place of my father David and have taken my seat on the throne of Israel as Jehovah promised, and have built the house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel, 11 and have placed there the ark where Jehovah’s covenant is, which he made with the sons of Israel.”

12 And he stood before the altar of Jehovah in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands 13 (for Solomon had made a bronze rostrum, and put it in the middle of the precinct, seven and a half feet long and seven and a half feet wide and four and a half feet high, and he stood on it and knelt down before all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands to the sky) 14 and said “Jehovah, God of Israel, there is not a God like you in the heavens and on earth, keeping covenant and friendship with your servants who walk before you with all their hearts, 15 seeing you have kept your word with my father David and spoken with your mouth and made good with your hands as this day. 16 And now, Jehovah, God of Israel, keep with your servant my father David your word ‘You shall never be without a man before me who shall sit on the throne of Israel, if only your sons guard their ways, walking by my instructions as you did’; 17 now, Jehovah, God of Israel, let your word to your servant David prove true.

18 “But will God really live with men on earth? why, the skies and the skies of the skies cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built; 19 but turn to your servant’s prayer and petition, Jehovah my God, listening to the appeal and prayer that your servant is praying before you, 20 that your eyes be open toward this house day and night, toward the place where you have thought to place your name, listening to the prayer that your servant prays toward this place, 21* and that you listen to the petitions of your servant and of your people Israel that they pray toward this place, and that you hear out of your dwelling-place heaven, and, listening, forgive.

22 “If a man does wrong by his neighbor, and he raises a curse on him, cursing him out, and comes and pronounces the curse before your altar in this house, 23 and you hear it out of heaven, act and judge your servants, requiting the knave, sending retribution upon his head, and vindicating the man who stands for his rights, sending to him what he deserves.

24 “And if your people Israel are beaten by an enemy because they sin against you, but they come back and confess your name and pray and beseech before you in this house, 25 and you hear it out of heaven, forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the soil you gave to them and to their fathers.

26 “When the sky is barred and there is no rain, because they sin against you, and they pray toward this place and confess your name, coming back from their sin because you afflict them, 27 and you hear it in heaven, forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, when you guide them on the good path that they are to walk in, and give rain on your country which you give to your people as a domain.

28 “When famine there is in the country, when pestilence there is, when on the grain there is blasting or mildew, spring grasshoppers, fall grasshoppers, when their enemies beset them in any of their gates, in every calamity, in every malady, 29 whatever prayer or petition any man or all your people Israel may have, each feeling his own blow and pain and spreading out his hands toward this house, 30 and you hearing it out of heaven your dwelling-place, forgive and act and give to each as he deserves, as you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of mankind), 31 that they may fear you, walking in your ways, all the time they live over the soil you gave their fathers.

32* “And as to the foreigner too, who does not belong to your people Israel, but comes from a distant country drawn by your name (because they will hear of your great name and strong hand and outstretched arm and will come and pray toward this house, 33 and you will hear it out of heaven your dwelling-place), do as the foreigner may call on you to, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, fearing you like your people Israel, and knowing that this house I have built wears your name.

34 “When your people go out to war against their enemies on a course you send them on, and pray to you toward this city which you have chosen and the house I have built for your name, 35 and you hear out of heaven their prayer and petition, do justice for them. 36 When they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin) and you are angry with them and give them to be defeated before an enemy, and their captors carry them as slaves to a far country or a near, and in the country to which they are carried off 37 they bethink themselves and come back and beseech you in the country of their slavery, saying ‘We have sinned, we have offended and are guilty,’ 38 and come back to you sincerely and wholeheartedly in the country of their captors who carried them off, and pray toward their country that you gave to their fathers and the city you have chosen and the house I have built for your name, 39 and you hear their prayer and petition out of heaven your dwelling-place, do justice for them and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

40 “Now, my God, let your eyes be open and your ears sharpened for prayer at this place.

41 “And now up, Jehovah, to come to your resting-place, you and your ark of might. Let your priests, Jehovah God, be robed in salvation, and your godly men glad by goodness. 42* Jehovah God, do not refuse to listen to your anointed one; remember the piety of your servant David.”

7 And when Solomon finished praying, the fire came down out of the sky and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifices, and Jehovah’s glory filled the house, 2 and the priests could not go into Jehovah’s house because Jehovah’s glory filled Jehovah’s house. 3 And all the sons of Israel saw when the fire and Jehovah’s glory came down on the house, and they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground and did reverence and gave thanks to Jehovah because he is good, because his friendship lasts forever. 4 And the king and all the people were making sacrifices before Jehovah; 5 and King Solomon sacrificed as the sacrifice of horned cattle twenty-two thousand, and sheep and goats a hundred and twenty thousand; and the king and all Israel dedicated the house of God, 6* while the priests stood attending to their duties, and the Levites with the instruments for song to Jehovah which King David had made for giving thanks to Jehovah, because his friendship lasts forever, when David was employing their services in praise, and the priests sounding the trumpets in time with them, and all Israel standing. 7 And Solomon consecrated the middle of the court in front of Jehovah’s house, because there he offered the burnt-offerings and the fats of the welfare-sacrifices, since the bronze altar Solomon had made was not adequate to hold the burnt-offering and the grain-offering and the fats.

8 And Solomon kept the Feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from Lebo-Hamath to Egypt Arroyo. 9 And they kept a holiday on the eighth day, because they had been keeping the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days. 10 And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he dismissed the people to their homes joyous and merry over the good things Jehovah had done for David and Solomon and his people Israel.

11 And Solomon finished Jehovah’s house and the royal palace; and in everything that it came into Solomon’s mind to do in Jehovah’s house and in his own house he had good success.

12 And Jehovah appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself for a house of sacrifice. 13 In case I bar the sky and there is no rain, or in case I order grasshoppers to eat up the country, or if I let loose a pestilence among my people, 14 and my people who wear my name humble themselves and pray and betake themselves to me and turn back from their bad courses, I will hear out of heaven and forgive their sin and restore the health of their country. 15 My eyes shall now be open and my ears sharpened for prayer at this place.

16 “And now I have chosen this house and made it a sacred place where my name shall forever be; and my eyes and my mind shall always be there. 17 And for yourself, if you walk before me as your father David did, doing just as I have commanded, and keep my usages and laws, 18 I will set up the throne of your kingdom as I covenanted to your father David, ‘You shall never be without a man ruling Israel.’ 19* But if you and the people turn back and abandon my usages and commandments that I have set before you, and go and worship other gods and do them reverence, 20 I will uproot them from the soil I gave them, and this house which I had made a sacred place for my name I will discard and render it a byword and a jeer among all peoples. 21* And this house, which had stood sublime for every passerby, shall lie desolate; and one shall say ‘What did Jehovah do like that to this country and this house for?’ 22 and they will say ‘On account of their having left their fathers’ God Jehovah who had brought them out of Egypt, and taken to other gods and done reverence to them and worshiped them; it was on this account that he brought upon them all this mischief.’”

8 And at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had been building Jehovah’s house and his own house, 2 Solomon fortified the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, and settled the sons of Israel there. 3 And Solomon went to Hamath of Sobah and mastered it, 4 and built Palmyra in the wilderness and all the storage cities that he built in Hamath. 5 And he fortified Upper Beth-Horon and Nether Beth-Horon, cities to stand a siege, with walls and gates and bars, 6 and built Baʽalath and all the storage cities Solomon had, and the chariot cities and the cavalry-horse cities, and all Solomon’s fancies that he took the fancy to build in Jerusalem and in the Lebanon and throughout his dominion.

7 All the people that were left of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivvites and the Jebusites, who were not sons of Israel, 8 of their sons that had been left in the country after them, whom the sons of Israel had not made an end of, Solomon levied as a corvée, which they are to this day. 9 But of the sons of Israel Solomon enslaved none for his work, but they were men of war and the captains of his adjutants and of his chariots and cavalry.

10 And these were King Solomon’s chief commissioners, two hundred and fifty of them who were in authority over the people.

11* And the Pharaoh’s daughter Solomon brought up out of David’s City to the house he built for her, because he said “No wife of mine shall live in the house of King David of Israel, because the premises are hallowed inasmuch as the ark of Jehovah has been into them.”

12 Then Solomon offered burnt-offerings to Jehovah on Jehovah’s altar which he built before the porch; 13 and, each day as was proper for the day, offering them according to Moses’s commandment on the sabbaths and the new moons and the anniversaries three times a year, at the feast of matzoth and at the feast of weeks and at the feast of booths. 14 And he had the divisions of the priests stand for their service in accordance with the ritual of his father David, and the Levites for their duties, singing praises and assisting in concurrence with the priests, giving the daily service each day, and the gatemen by their divisions at each gate, because such was the command of David the man of God; 15 and they did not deviate from the king’s command to the priests and the Levites as to any matter or as to the treasuries. 16* And all Solomon’s work was brought into good condition up to that day, the founding of Jehovah’s house and up to its completion; Jehovah’s house was finished.

17 Then Solomon went to Ghesjon-Geber and to Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea in Edom, 18 and Huram sent him, by his subjects, ships and workingmen familiar with the sea, and they came with Solomon’s subjects to Ophir and fetched from there four hundred and fifty hundredweight of gold and brought it to King Solomon.

9 And the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon, and came to test Solomon with problems at Jerusalem, with an immense retinue and camels carrying spices and gold in large quantity and precious stones; and she came to Solomon and said to him whatever she had in mind to say, 2 and Solomon told her all her points; of not a point was Solomon ignorant so as not to tell her. 3 And the queen of Sheba saw Solomon’s wisdom, and the house he had built, 4 and the food that came to his table, and the order in which his officers sat and his attendants stood, and their costumes, and his cupbearers and their costumes, and the burnt-offering that he used to offer in Jehovah’s house, she had no spirit left in her; 5 and she said to the king “It was a true word that I heard in my own country about your state and your wisdom; 6 and I did not believe their talk till I came and saw with my own eyes, and found that I had not been told half the preeminence of your wisdom; you outdo the report I had heard. 7 Happy are your men, happy these officers of yours who stand before you always and hear your wisdom. 8 Jehovah your God be blessed who was pleased with you for setting on his throne to be king for Jehovah your God; it was because your God loved Israel, to make it stand forever, that he set you over them as king to do justice and right.” 9 And she gave the king sixteen thousand pounds of gold, and spices in great quantity, and precious stones; and there never was the equal of those spices that the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. 10* (And Huram’s subjects, too, and Solomon’s subjects, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum wood and precious stones; 11 and the king made the algum wood into passage-floors for Jehovah’s house and the royal palace, and lyres and harps for the singers; and the like had never been seen in Judah.) 12* And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything which pleased her that she asked for, besides what she had brought to the king. And she turned and went back to her own country, she and her officers.

13 And the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was eighty-seven thousand six hundred and forty pounds, gold, 14 besides the mulcts on travelers; and the merchants brought in, and all the kings of Arabia and the viceroys of the country brought in gold to King Solomon. 15 And King Solomon made two hundred shields of beaten gold, three hundred ounces of beaten gold going on one shield, 16 and three hundred beaten gold bucklers, a hundred and fifty ounces of gold going on one buckler; and the king put them in the Forest-of-Lebanon house.

17 And the king made a great ivory throne, and gilded it with pure gold; 18 and there were six steps to the throne and a footrest in gold, fastened to the throne, and arms on each side of the seat, and two standing lions beside the arms, 19 and twelve standing lions on the six steps, one each side; nothing of the sort had been made for any kingdom. 20 And all King Solomon’s drinking-vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the Forest-of-Lebanon house were solid gold; silver was not thought anything of in Solomon’s days. 21 For the king had ships going to Spain with Huram’s subjects; once in three years the Spain-ships came in, carrying gold and silver, ivory and monkeys and peacocks. 22 And King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom; 23 and all the kings of the earth betook themselves to Solomon to listen to his wisdom which God had put into his heart, 24 and brought their presents man by man, articles of silver and of gold and garments, arms, and spices, ponies and mules, a yearly supply.

25 And Solomon had four thousand teams of ponies and chariots, and twelve thousand cavalry horses, which he quartered in the chariot cities and at Jerusalem with the king. 26 And he ruled over all the kings from the River to the country of the Philistines and to the boundary of Egypt. 27 And the king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as sycamores in the lowlands. 28 And ponies were exported to Solomon from Egypt and from all countries.

29 And as to the remainder of Solomon’s history, first and last, it is recorded in the history of Nathan the prophet and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visioning of Jeʽdo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 30 And Solomon was king at Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. 31 And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was buried in his father David’s city; and his son Rehoboam succeeded him.

10 And Rehoboam came to Shekem, because all Israel had come to Shekem to install him as king. 2 And when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (he was in Egypt, as he had fled away from King Solomon) Jeroboam came back from Egypt; 3 and they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all Israel came and told Rehoboam 4 “Your father made our yoke bear hard on us; now make the hard service to your father rather easier, and his heavy yoke that he put on us, and we will be your subjects.” 5 And he said to them “Come back to me again in three days”; and the people went.

6 And King Rehoboam consulted the old men who had been in the service of his father Solomon when he was alive, asking them “How do you advise me to reply to these people?” 7 and they told him “If you will be kindly to these people and take everything in good part from them and speak them fair, they will be subjects to you permanently.” 8 But he discarded the old men’s policy which they had recommended to him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, whom he had in his service, 9 and said to them “What reply do you advise that we give to these people who have told me ‘Make the yoke your father put on us rather easier’?” 10 And the young men who had grown up with him told him “This is what you will say to the people who have told you ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, be easier on us’: you will tell them ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s hips. 11 Now my father imposed a heavy yoke on you, and I will add to your yoke; my father punished you with whips, and I will with scorpions.’”

12 And Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had told them “Come back to me on the third day”; 13 and the king gave them a harsh answer. And King Rehoboam discarded the old men’s policy 14 and spoke to them in accordance with the young men’s policy, “I will make your yoke heavy and add to it; my father punished you with whips, and I will with scorpions.” 15* And the king did not listen to the people, because it was a crisis determined by God in order that Jehovah might make good his prediction which he had given by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

16* And all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them; and the people replied to the king “What share have we in David? no estate in Jesse’s son; all to your homes, Israel! now look after your own house, David!” and all Israel went to their homes. 17 But over the sons of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah Rehoboam became king. 18 And King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, the superintendent of the corvée; and the sons of Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam put his best foot foremost in getting into his chariot to take flight to Jerusalem; 19 and Israel rebelled against the house of David, and it has lasted to this day.

11 And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem and assembled all the house of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors, to make war with Israel, to restore the kingship to Rehoboam. 2 And Jehovah’s word came to Shema’iah the man of God 3 “Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, the king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, 4 ‘Says Jehovah, You shall not go up, nor make war with your brothers; go back home; for this thing has come from me.’” And they listened to Jehovah’s word and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

5 And Rehoboam settled down in Jerusalem, and fortified cities in Judah to stand sieges; 6 and he fortified Bethlehem and ʽEtam and Tekoaʽ 7 and Beth-Sur and Soco and ʽAdullam 8 and Gath and Mareshah and Ziph 9 and Adoraim and Lakish and ʽAzekah 10 and Soreah and Aijalon and Hebron in Judah and Benjamin as guard-cities. 11 And he strengthened the guard-posts and put wardens in them, and stores of food and oil and wine, 12 and in each and every city shields and pikes, and made them very strong indeed, and had Judah and Benjamin for his.

13 And the priests and Levites throughout Israel sided with him out of all their territory; 14 for the Levites left their glebes and property and went to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had superseded them from serving as priests to Jehovah, 15 and he had set up priests of his own for the heights and for the satyrs and for the calves he had made. 16 And after them out of all the tribes of Israel those who had given their hearts to looking up Israel’s God Jehovah came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Jehovah the God of their fathers; 17 and they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and reinforced Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years, because for three years they went the way of David and Solomon.

18 And Rehoboam married Mahalath, the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and Abihail the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab; 19 and she bore him sons, Jeghush and Shemariah and Zaham. 20 And after her he married Maʽacah the daughter of Absalom; and she bore him Abijah and ʽAttai and Ziza and Shelomith. 21 And Rehoboam loved Maʽacah the daughter of Absalom more than any of his wives and concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and begot twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. 22* And Rehoboam set Maʽacah’s son Abijah at the head, as warden over his brothers, because he had determined to make him the king; 23* and he disjoined some of all his sons in all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, in all the guard-cities, and gave them provender in plenty and married them to wives.

12 But when Rehoboam’s royal power was firmly established and he had grown strong, he abandoned Jehovah’s instructions, and all Israel with him. 2 And in the year five of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had been unfaithful to Jehovah, 3 with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and there was no counting the men that came with him from Egypt, Libyans and Sukkites and Nubians; 4 and he took all the guard-cities of Judah and came up to Jerusalem. 5 And the prophet Shemaʽiah came to Rehoboam and the captains of Judah who had come together at Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and said to them “Says Jehovah, You have left me and so have I left you in Shishak’s hands.” 6 And the captains of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said “Jehovah is in the right.” 7 And when Jehovah saw that they humbled themselves, Jehovah’s word came to Shemaʽiah “They have humbled themselves; I will not make away with them, but will let them have a bare survival, and my ire shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by Shishak. 8** But they shall become subjects to him and know the difference between subjection to me and subjection to the empires of earth.”

9 And King Shishak of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took the treasures of Jehovah’s house and of the palace, took everything; and he took the golden shields Solomon had made. 10 And King Rehoboam made bronze shields instead, and committed them to the charge of the captains of the runners who guarded the door of the palace; 11 and as often as the king came to Jehovah’s house the runners came and carried them and took them back to the guard-chamber. 12 But at his humbling himself Jehovah’s anger turned back from him and he did not make away with him outright; and in Judah too there were good points.

13 And King Rehoboam consolidated his power in Jerusalem and reigned on; for Rehoboam was forty-one years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned seventeen years at Jerusalem, the city Jehovah had chosen, to put his name there, out of all the tribes of Israel. And his mother’s name was Na’amah the ʽAmmonite. 14 And he did what was bad; for he had not made up his mind to devote himself to Jehovah.

15* And as to the history of Rehoboam, first and last, it is recorded in the history of Shemaʽiah the prophet and of ʽIddo the seer for genealogical records. And the fightings of Rehoboam and Jeroboam went on all the time. 16 And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was buried in David’s City, and his son Abijah succeeded him.

13 In the year eighteen of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah; 2 he reigned three years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Micajah the daughter of Uriel from Gibeah.

3 And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam; and Abijah took the offensive with a force of champion warriors, four hundred thousand picked men, and Jeroboam joined battle with him with eight hundred thousand picked stalwart champions. 4 And Abijah stood up on top of Mount Semaraim in the highland of Ephraim, and said

“Listen, Jeroboam and all Israel! 5 You ought to know that Israel’s God Jehovah gave David kingship over Israel forever, to him and to his sons, in a covenant of salt; 6 but Jeroboam the son of Nebat, a subject of David’s son Solomon, stood up and rebelled against his sovereign, 7 and a set of reprobate riffraff gathered about him and organized a mutiny against Solomon’s son Rehoboam, and Rehoboam was young and irresolute and did not hold his own against them. 8 And now you are expecting to hold your own against Jehovah’s kingship in the hands of David’s sons, you being a great crowd and having with you gold calves that Jeroboam made you for gods! 9* Haven’t you banished Jehovah’s priests, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made yourselves priests like those of the peoples of all the countries, everybody that comes to get installed with a steer of horned cattle and seven rams and become a priest to no-gods? 10 But we have Jehovah for our God, and have not left him; and priests officiating to Jehovah, the sons of Aaron and the Levites at work 11 and making burnings to Jehovah, burnt-offerings morning by morning and evening by evening, and aromatic incense, and stacked bread on the clean table, and the gold lampstand and its lamps to be lighted evening by evening, because we are keeping the charge of our God Jehovah; but you have left him. 12 And here we have with us at our head God and his priests and the martial trumpets to sound the forward-march over us. Sons of Israel, do not fight your fathers’ God Jehovah, for you will have no success.”

13 But Jeroboam had sent the ambush around to come in at their rear; and they were in front of Judah, and the ambush at their rear. 14 And Judah faced about and found that they had the attack before and behind; and they cried to Jehovah, and the priests sounded the trumpets, 15 and the men of Judah raised a cheer; and when the men of Judah cheered, God let Jeroboam and all Israel be beaten by Abijah and Judah, 16 and the sons of Israel were routed before Judah, and God gave them into their hands, 17 and Abijah and his people made a great slaughter among them; and there fell, stabbed through, five hundred thousand picked men out of Israel. 18 And the sons of Israel were humbled at that time, and the sons of Judah were nerved up, because they leaned on their fathers’ God Jehovah; 19 and Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took cities from him, Bethel and its dependencies and Jeshanah and its dependencies and ʽEphron and its dependencies. 20 And Jeroboam no longer retained any strength in Abijah’s time; and Jehovah struck him down, and he died.

21 And Abijah consolidated his power, and married fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22 And the rest of the history of Abijah, and his courses and his words, are recorded in the story of the prophet ʽIddo.

14 And Abijah went to rest with his fathers, and was buried in David’s City; and his son Asa succeeded him.

In his time the country was quiet ten years, 2 and Asa did what his God Jehovah liked and approved, 3 and cleared out the foreign altars and the heights, and broke up the obelisks and cut down the asherahs, 4 and told Judah to devote themselves to their fathers’ God Jehovah and to live up to his code and commandment; 5 and he cleared out from all the cities of Judah the heights and the hammans; and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6 And he built guard-cities in Judah because the country was quiet and he was involved in no war in those years, because Jehovah had given him rest; 7* and he said to Judah “Let us fortify these cities and enclose them with wall and towers and gates and bars; we still have the country before us, because we have devoted ourselves to our God Jehovah; we devoted ourselves, and he gave us rest on all sides”; and they built and prospered. 8 And Asa had troops carrying shield and pike, three hundred thousand out of Judah, and out of Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand carrying buckler and bending bow; stalwart champions all these.

9* And Zerah the Nubian came out against them with a million troops and three hundred chariots, and came up to Mareshah; 10 and Asa went out to face them, and they joined battle in the valley north of Mareshah. 11** And Asa called out to his God Jehovah “Jehovah, with you there is no difference for helping between many and the powerless; help us, Jehovah, our God, because we lean on you and in your name we have come against this host. Jehovah, you are our God; let not a man be a match for you!” 12* And Jehovah let the Nubians be beaten by Asa and Judah; and the Nubians were routed, 13* and Asa and the people he had with him pursued them to Gerar, and so many Nubians fell that they were beyond any rallying, for they were broken up before Jehovah and his army; and they took up a very great quantity of booty, 14 and conquered all the cities around Gerar, because the dread of Jehovah had come upon them, and plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them. 15* And they also struck at the stockmen’s tents, and drove off sheep and goats in great numbers, and camels; and they came back to Jerusalem.

15 And God’s spirit came upon ʽAzariah the son of ʽOded, 2 and he went out before Asa and said to him “Hear me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin: Jehovah is with you when you are with him, and if you go in quest of him he will let himself be found, but if you leave him he will leave you. 3 Israel had a long time of being without the God of truth and without a priest that gave rulings and without a code; 4 but in distress it turned back to Israel’s God Jehovah and looked for him, and he let himself be found. 5 And in those times there was no peace for the goer-out or the comer-in, but great embroilments over all the inhabitants of the countries, 6 and nation clashed with nation and city with city, because God had embroiled them in all distress. 7 But as for you, courage, and do not slacken, because there is to be a reward for your activities.”

8* And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy, he went to work with a will and ousted the disgustments from all the country of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities of the highland of Ephraim that he had captured, and renewed Jehovah’s altar in front of Jehovah’s porch; 9 and he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those who were living as immigrants with him out of Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon (for they had come over to him out of Israel in great numbers when they saw that his God Jehovah was with him), 10 and they gathered at Jerusalem at the third new moon in the year fifteen of Asa’s reign, 11 and sacrificed to Jehovah on that day, out of the booty they had brought, seven hundred horned cattle and seven thousand sheep, 12 and entered into covenant to devote themselves to their fathers’ God Jehovah with all their heart and soul, 13 and that anybody who did not devote himself to Israel’s God Jehovah should be put to death, small or great, man or woman; 14 and they swore to Jehovah with loud voice and with cheers and trumpets and ram-horns. 15 And all Judah was glad over the oath, because they had sworn with all their hearts, and with all goodwill they looked for him and he let himself be found; and Jehovah gave them rest on all sides.

16 And King Asa’s mother too he deposed from her queenship because she had made a horror of an asherah; and Asa cut down her horror and reduced it to sawdust and burned it in Kidron Arroyo. 17 But the heights were not removed out of Israel; Asa’s heart, however, was sound all his life. 18 And he brought in his father’s consecrated articles and his own to Jehovah’s house, silver and gold and furnishings.

19 And there was no war up to the year thirty-five of Asa’s reign.

16 In the year thirty-six of Asa’s reign King Baʽasha of Israel came up against Judah and fortified Ramah, blockading King Asa of Judah. 2 And Asa took out silver and gold from the treasuries of Jehovah’s house and the palace and sent them to King Ben-Hadad of Syria, who lived at Damascus, with the message 3 “There is a treaty between you and me, between your father and mine; here I have sent you silver and gold; go break your treaty with King Baʽasha of Israel, so that he will withdraw from his attack on me.” 4 And Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa, and sent his generals against the cities of Israel, and they ravaged ʽIjon and Dan and Abel-Maim and all the storages for the cities of Naphtali; 5 and when Baʽasha heard of it he left off fortifying Ramah and made an end of the measures he was taking, 6 and King Asa took all Judah and they carried away the stone and timber of Ramah, that Baʽasha had built in, and with it he fortified Gebaʽ and Mispah.

7 But at that time the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah and said to him “Because you leaned on the king of Syria and not on your God Jehovah, therefore the forces of the king of Syria escaped out of your hands. 8* Did not the Nubians and Libyans constitute a vast force in numbers, in chariots, and in cavalry? but by your leaning on Jehovah he gave them into your hands. 9 For Jehovah’s eyes range through all the earth for working strongly with those whose hearts are sound toward him. You did foolishly in this: henceforth you have wars on hand.” 10* And Asa was provoked at the seer and put him in the house where the stocks were, in displeasure at him over this. And Asa persecuted some of the people at that time.

11 And the history of Asa, first and last, is to be found recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. 12 And in the year thirty-nine of his reign Asa was taken with a disease in his legs, which became uncommonly severe; and in his disease too he resorted not to Jehovah but to the doctors. 13 And Asa went to rest with his fathers, and died in the year forty-one of his reign; 14 and they buried him in his grave that he had dug for himself in David’s City, and laid him in a niche which he had filled with spices and specialties concocted by professional pharmacy; and they made a very great burning for him.

17 And his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him, and consolidated his power over Israel. 2 And he put troops in all the fortified cities of Judah, and put prefects in the country of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim which his father Asa had captured. 3* And Jehovah was with Jehoshaphat, because he went along his father’s first courses and did not resort to the Baals 4 but resorted to his father’s God and went by his commandments and not like the doings of Israel. 5 And Jehovah established the royal power firmly in his hands; and all Judah gave tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had wealth and grandeur in great measure. 6 And his heart went high in Jehovah’s ways, and he made a further clearance of the heights and asherahs out of Judah.

7 And in the year three of his reign he sent his generals, Ben-Hail and ʽObadiah and Zecariah and Nethaneel and Micajah, to teach in the cities of Judah, 8 and with them the Levites Shemaʽiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and ʽAsahel and Shemiramoth and Jonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tob-Adonijah, the Levites, and with them Elishamaʽ and Jehoram the priests; 9 and they taught in Judah, having with them the book of Jehovah’s code, and went the rounds throughout the cities of Judah and taught among the people.

10 And the dread of Jehovah came upon all the kingdoms of the countries around Judah, and they did not make war with Jehoshaphat. 11* And some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat tribute, silver by the load; the Arabs too brought him sheep and goats, seventy-seven hundred rams and seventy-seven hundred he-goats. 12 And Jehoshaphat grew greater and surpassingly greater, and built fortresses and storage cities in Judah, 13 and had many activities in the cities of Judah and stalwart warriors at Jerusalem. 14 And this is their muster by families: of Judah, captains of thousands, General Ghadnah and with him three hundred thousand stalwart champions, 15 and at his side General Jehohanan and with him two hundred and eighty thousand, 16 and at his side ʽAmasiah the son of Zicri, who volunteered for Jehovah, and with him two hundred thousand stalwart champions; 17 and of Benjamin, Eljadaʽ a stalwart champion, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bow and shield, 18 and at his side Jehozabad and with him a hundred and eighty thousand armed for service. 19 These were the king’s retinue, besides those whom the king put in the fortified cities throughout Judah.

18 And Jehoshaphat had wealth and grandeur in great measure; and he connected himself by marriage with Ahab.

2 And he went down to Ahab to Samaria at the end of some years; and Ahab killed sheep and goats and cattle in great numbers for him and for the people he had with him; and he suggested to him that they go up to Ramoth-Gilead. 3* And King Ahab of Israel said to King Jehoshaphat of Judah “Will you go up to Ramoth-Gilead with me?” and he told him “I am the same as you are, and my people the same as your people; and we are with you for the war.”

4 But Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel “First inquire of Jehovah’s word”; 5 and the king of Israel gathered the prophets, four hundred of them, and said to them “Shall we go against Ramoth-Gilead to war or shall I let it be?” and they said “Go up, and God will give it into your majesty’s hands.”

6 And Jehoshaphat said “Is there not any other prophet of Jehovah here for us to inquire from?” 7 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat “There is one other man to inquire of Jehovah from, but I hate him because he does not prophesy good luck for me but all the time bad; that is Micajah the son of Imla.” And Jehoshaphat said “Do not say such things, your majesty.” 8 And the king of Israel called to a eunuch and said “Hurry up with Micajah the son of Imla.” 9 And the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were sitting each on his throne, robed and enthroned on a threshing-floor at the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets under the power before them. 10 And Sidkijah the son of Kenaʽanah made himself iron horns, and said “Says Jehovah, With these you shall gore the Syrians till you have finished them”; 11 and all the prophets prophesied so, “Go up to Ramoth-Gilead and be successful, Jehovah will give it into your majesty’s hands.” 12 And the messenger who went to summon Micajah told him “Here the prophets’ words are unanimously good luck for the king; let your word be like the word of one of them, speak good luck”; 13 but Micajah said “By Jehovah, what Jehovah tells me, that I will speak.”

14 And he came to the king, and the king said to him “Micajah, shall we go to Ramoth-Gilead to war or shall we let it be?” and he said to him “Go up and be successful, they will be given into your hands.” 15 And the king said to him “How many times shall I adjure you not to speak anything at all but truth to me in Jehovah’s name?” 16 And he said “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd, and Jehovah said ‘These have no sovereign; let them go home in peace.’”

17 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat “Did I not tell you he would not prophesy good luck for me but bad?” 18 And he said “Hear Jehovah’s word, then! I saw Jehovah sitting on his throne, and all the legions of heaven stood by at his right and left, 19 and Jehovah said ‘Who will inveigle Ahab into going up and falling at Ramoth-Gilead?’ And one said this way and another that way; 20* but the Spirit stood out before Jehovah and said ‘I will inveigle him,’ and Jehovah said ‘In what way?’ 21 and it said ‘I will go out and be a spirit of falsehood in the mouths of all his prophets.’ And he said ‘You shall inveigle him and be successful in it; go out and do so.’ 22 Now here has Jehovah put a spirit of falsehood in the mouths of these prophets of yours, but Jehovah proposes bad luck for you.” 23 And Sidkijah the son of Kenaʽanah came up and struck Micajah on the cheek and said “Which way did Jehovah’s spirit pass from me to speak with you?” 24 and Micajah said “You are going to see on that day, you will be getting into a closet to hide.” 25 And the king of Israel said “Take Micajah and take him back to City Captain Amon and Prince Joash 26 and say ‘By order of the king, put this fellow in jail and feed him half rations of bread and water till I come safe back.’” 27 And Micajah said “If you do come back safe, Jehovah did not speak in me.” And he said “Listen, all peoples.”

28 And the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went up to Ramoth-Gilead; 29 and the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat “I disguise myself and go into the fighting; but do you wear your robes”; and the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the fighting. 30 And the king of Syria had given his chariot-captains the order “Do not attack small or great but only the king of Israel”; 31** and when the chariot-captains saw Jehoshaphat, thinking it was the king of Israel, they surrounded him to attack him; but Jehoshaphat cried out, and Jehovah helped him, and God impelled them away from him, 32 and when the chariot-captains saw that it was not the king of Israel they turned back and left off following him.

33** And a man drew his bow at haphazard and hit the king of Israel between the tassets and the hauberk; and he said to the charioteer “Turn your ponies and take me out of the army, for I am hard hit”; 34 but the fight ran high that day, and the king of Israel was keeping on his feet in the chariot facing the Syrians till evening; and he died at the moment of sunset.

19 And King Jehoshaphat of Judah came back to his house in Jerusalem safe and sound.

2 But the seer Jehu the son of Hanani came out confronting him and said to King Jehoshaphat “Were you to help the wrong-doer and love the haters of Jehovah? for this there is wrath against you from Jehovah. 3 There are good points found about you, though, in that you routed out the asherahs from the country and made up your mind to devote yourself to God.”

4 And Jehoshaphat settled down in Jerusalem and again went out among the people from Beer-Shebaʽ to the highland of Ephraim and turned them back to their fathers’ God Jehovah. 5 And he stationed judges in all the fortified cities of Judah, for each city in the country; 6 and he said to the judges “Look out for what you are doing, because you are not to judge for man but for Jehovah, and he is with you in the business of judging. 7 Now let the dread of Jehovah be on you; act observantly; for with our God Jehovah there are no such things as bad faith and partiality and bribe-taking.” 8 And in Jerusalem too Jehoshaphat stationed some of the Levites and the priests and the heads of families of Israel to give Jehovah’s decision and for the litigation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 9 and he gave them the order “You are to do like this: in the fear of Jehovah, in good faith, and with sincere heart. 10 And every litigation that comes before you from your brothers who are seated in their cities, between blood and blood, between ruling and commandment, usages, laws, you are to notify them about, that they may not incur guilt with Jehovah and there be wrath against you and your brothers; thus you are to do, and not incur guilt. 11 And you have Head Priest Amariah over you for every matter of Jehovah’s, and Zebadiah the son of Ishmaʽel, the warden of the house of Judah, for every matter of the king’s; and you have the Levites before you as marshals. Courage, and go to work; and Jehovah be with the good.”

20 And after this the Bene-Moab and the Bene-ʽAmmon, and with them some of the Meʽunites, came against Jehoshaphat for war. 2 And they came and reported to Jehoshaphat “There has come in against you a great host from the other side of the sea, from Edom, and here they are at Haseson-Tamar”—that is, ʽEn-Gedi.

3 And Jehoshaphat was afraid, and turned his face to invoke Jehovah, and proclaimed a fast for all Judah. 4* And Judah gathered to seek from Jehovah; also out of all the cities of Judah they came in to seek Jehovah. 5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at Jehovah’s house, in front of the new court, 6 and said “Jehovah, God of our fathers, is it not true that you are God in heaven and you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in your hands are power and might, and there is no way to stand one’s ground with you? 7 did not you, our God, dispossess the inhabitants of this country before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham who loved you? 8 and they settled in it and have built you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying 9* ‘If there comes upon us disaster, a warfare, a judgment, a pestilence, a famine, we will stand before this house and before you, because your name is in this house, and cry to you out of our distress, and you will hear and save.’ 10 And now here are the sons of ʽAmmon and Moab and the highlands of Seʽir, whom you did not let Israel go in among when they came out of Egypt, for they turned out from them and did not root them out,— 11 here are they requiting us by coming in to expel us from our possession which you bestowed on us. 12 Our God, will you not pass judgment on them? for there is no power in us before this great host that is coming against us, and we do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.” 13 And all Judah were standing before Jehovah, babies and women and children and all.

14 And Jahaziel the son of Zecariah the son of Benajah the son of Jeʽiel the son of Mattaniah the Levite, one of the sons of Asaph, had Jehovah’s spirit come upon him in the midst of the assembly; 15 and he said “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat! Says Jehovah to you, Be not you afraid nor dismayed at this great host; for the war is not yours but God’s. 16 Go down against them tomorrow; there they are, coming up Flowery Slope, and you will find them at the end of the arroyo, the east face of the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 You do not have to fight on this occasion: take your places, stand still, and see Jehovah’s succor on your side, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid nor dismayed; go out tomorrow to confront them, and Jehovah will be with you.” 18 And Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem threw themselves down before Jehovah to do reverence to Jehovah, 19 and the Levites, some of the sons of the Kehathites and of the sons of the Korahites, stood up to praise Israel’s God Jehovah’ with loudest voice.

20 And the first thing in the morning they went out to the wilderness of Tekoaʽ; and as they went out Jehoshaphat stood and said “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: have confidence in your God Jehovah and you will have permanence; have confidence in his prophets and you will have success.” 21 And, after consulting with the people, he stationed singers for Jehovah and praisers of holy grandeur going out before the armed men and saying “Give thanks to Jehovah, because his friendship lasts forever.” 22 And at the moment when they began with carol and praise, Jehovah brought ambushed enemies against the Bene-ʽAmmon, Moab, and the highlanders of Seʽir, and they were beaten; 23 and the Bene-ʽAmmon and Moab stood against the ones from the highland of Seʽir to exterminate them without quarter, and when they had finished with the ones from Seʽir they helped each other to wreck. 24 And Judah came to the lookout toward the wilderness and faced toward the host, and there they were, corpses fallen on the ground and no survivors. 25 And Jehoshaphat and his people went in to plunder the booty and found beasts in great numbers, and chattels and clothing and valuables, and helped themselves to more than they could carry; and they were three days plundering the booty, it was so great. 26 And on the fourth day they assembled in Blessing Vale (because they blessed Jehovah there; that is why they named that place Blessing Vale and it bears the name to this day). 27 And all the men of Judah and Jerusalem came back, with Jehoshaphat at their head, coming back to Jerusalem with festivity because Jehovah had gladdened them by relief from their enemies; 28 and they came into Jerusalem with harps and lyres and trumpets, up to Jehovah’s house. 29 And the dread of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard that Jehovah had fought Israel’s enemies. 30 And Jehoshaphat’s kingdom was quiet, and Jehovah gave him rest on all sides.

31 And Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah, being thirty-five years old at his accession to the throne and reigning twenty-five years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ʽAzubah the daughter of Shilhi. 32 And he walked in the path of his father Asa and never turned from it, doing what Jehovah approved; 33 only the heights were not removed, and the people had not directed their hearts to their fathers’ God. 34 And as to the rest of the history of Jehoshaphat, first and last, it is recorded in the history of Jehu the son of Hanani, which was put into the book of the kings of Israel.

35 And later on King Jehoshaphat of Judah associated himself with King Ahaziah of Israel, who had a bad record, 36 and took him as his associate for building ships to go to Spain; and they built ships at Ghesjon-Geber. 37* But Eliʽezer the son of Dodavahu from Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat “As you have associated yourself with Ahaziah, Jehovah has burst your works”; and his ships were wrecked and were not able to go to Spain.

21 And Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s City; and his son Jehoram succeeded him. 2** And he had six brothers, Jehoshaphat’s sons, ʽAzariah and Jehiel and Zecariah and ʽAzariah and Micael and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of King Jehoshaphat of Israel, 3 and their father gave them great gifts in silver and gold and rich objects, with guard-cities in Judah; but the kingship he gave to Jehoram because he was the eldest. 4 And Jehoram came into power over his father’s kingdom and consolidated his power, and killed all his brothers with the sword, and also some of the captains of Israel. 5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned eight years at Jerusalem. 6 And he followed the path of the kings of Israel, as the family of Ahab did, because he had Ahab’s daughter for his wife; and he did what displeased Jehovah. 7 And Jehovah was not willing to make away with David’s family on account of the pledge he had given to David, and as he had told him he would give him and his sons a lamp through all time. 8 In his time Edom rebelled against the jurisdiction of Judah, and set up a king over themselves; 9 and Jehoram went over with his captains, and all the chariots with him. And he rose in the night and defeated the Edomites who had surrounded him, and the captains of the chariots; 10 but Edom is in rebellion against the jurisdiction of Judah to this day. Libnah rebelled then, at that time, against his jurisdiction, because he had left his fathers’ God Jehovah. 11* Also, he made heights among the mountains of Judah, and set the inhabitants of Jerusalem to prostitution and Judah to straying.

12 And there came to him a letter from the prophet Elijah in the words “Says Jehovah, your father David’s God, Whereas you have not followed the paths of your father Jehoshaphat and of King Asa of Judah 13 but have followed the path of the kings of Israel and have set Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to prostitution as the house of Ahab did the like, and have also killed your brothers, your father’s better sons, 14 here is Jehovah bringing a great catastrophe on your people and your sons and your wives and all that belongs to you, 15* and you yourself shall fall into severe sickness by a disease of your bowels till your bowels come out by your sickness, month after month.”

16* And Jehovah roused against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and of the Arabs next the Nubians, 17 and they came up into Judah and ripped it open and carried off all the chattels that were to be found belonging to the king’s household, and also his sons and his wives; and he had not a son remaining but Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. 18 And after all this Jehovah struck him with an incurable disease in his bowels, and it lasted a long time; 19** and at the time when the end ran out, for two days his bowels were coming out along with his disease, and he died in grievous malady. And his people did not make a burning for him like the burning for his fathers. 20 He was thirty-two at his accession to the throne, and reigned eight years at Jerusalem, and went a way that gave no satisfaction; and they buried him in David’s City, but not in the tombs of the kings.

22* And the inhabitants of Jerusalem installed his youngest son Ahaziah as his successor, because the invading raiders, the Mazonite Arabs, had killed all the first ones.

And Ahaziah the son of King Jehoram of Judah became king. 2* Ahaziah was twenty-two years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned one year at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ʽAthaliah the daughter of ʽOmri. 3 He too followed the paths of the family of Ahab, because his mother was his adviser to do wrong; 4 and he did what displeased Jehovah like the family of Ahab, because he had them as advisers after his father’s death to ruin him; 5 he went by their advice too, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab, the king of Israel, to war against King Hazael of Syria at Ramoth-Gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram, 6 and he went back to recover at Jezreʽel from the wounds they had given him at Ramah in his fighting with King Hazael of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, the king of Judah, went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab at Jezreʽel, because he was sick 7** (and the trampling down of Ahaziah, for him to come to Joram, was from God), and when he came there he went out with Jehoram to Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Jehovah had anointed to extirpate the family of Ahab; 8 and as Jehu was prosecuting the case against the family of Ahab he found the captains of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers in attendance on Ahaziah, and killed them, 9 and looked for Ahaziah; and they captured Ahaziah (he having gone into hiding in Samaria) and brought him to Jehu, and he put him to death. And they buried him, because they said “He was the son of Jehoshaphat, who devoted himself to Jehovah with all his heart.” And Ahaziah’s family could not muster strength to assert the royal power.

10 And Ahaziah’s mother ʽAthaliah saw that her son was dead, and she stood up and destroyed all the royal blood of the house of Judah. 11 But Princess Jehoshabeʽath took Ahaziah’s son Joash and spirited him away from among the princes who were being dispatched, and put him and his nurse in the bedding-closet, and King Jehoram’s daughter Jehoshabeʽath, Priest Jehojadaʽ’s wife, because she was Ahaziah’s sister, concealed him from ʽAthaliah and she did not put him to death. 12 And he was with them in Jehovah’s house in hiding for six years, and ʽAthaliah reigned over the country.

23 And in the seventh year Jehojadaʽ took courageous action and took into his confidence the captains of hundreds, ʽAzariah the son of Jeroham and Ishmaʽel the son of Jehohanan and ʽAzariah the son of ʽObed and Maʽasejah the son of ʽAdajah and Elishaphat the son of Zicri, 2 and they went the rounds in Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of families of Israel; and they came to Jerusalem, 3 and all the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said to them “Here is the king’s son; he is to be king, in accordance with what Jehovah promised regarding David’s sons. 4 This is the thing you are to do: the third of you priests and Levites that go in on the sabbath, to act as threshold gatemen; 5 and the third, at the royal palace; and the third, at the Foundation Gate; and all the people, in the courts of Jehovah’s house, 6 but let nobody enter Jehovah’s house except the priests and such of the Levites as are on duty; they are to enter, because they are consecrated, but all the people are to keep Jehovah’s charge. 7 And the Levites are to encircle the king on all sides, weapon in hand, and he who comes into the house is to be put to death; and they are to be with the king when he goes in and when he goes out.” 8 And the Levites and all Judah did just as Priest Jehojadaʽ ordered them, and each fetched his men, those who went in on the sabbath with those who came out on the sabbath, because Priest Jehojadaʽ had not let the divisions off. 9 And Priest Jehojadaʽ gave the captains of hundreds the spears and shields and bucklers that had belonged to King David, that were in Jehovah’s house, 10 and had all the people stand weapon in hand from the southeast corner of the house to the northeast corner, for the altar and the house, around the king; 11 and they brought out the prince and put on him the diadem and the Lessons, and declared him king, and Jehojadaʽ and his sons anointed him and said “Long live the king!”

12 And ʽAthaliah heard the voices of the people running and praising the king, and came to the people in Jehovah’s house 13 and saw the scene: there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpets beside the king, and all the populace rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and the singers with the instruments for song and giving notice for praise; and ʽAthaliah tore her garments and said “Treason! treason!” 14 And Priest Jehojadaʽ brought out the captains of hundreds, the officers of the forces, and said to them “Let her out inside the cordon, and let anyone that goes in after her be put to the sword”; for the priest said “You are not to put her to death in Jehovah’s house.” 15* And they stood away from her, and she went into the entrance to the driveway gate of the palace, and they put her to death there.

16 And Jehojadaʽ made a covenant between himself and the people and the king that they should be Jehovah’s people. 17 And all the people went into the Baal’s house and tore it down and broke to pieces its altars and images, and killed Mattan, the priest of the Baal, in front of the altars. 18* And Jehojadaʽ installed a committee on Jehovah’s house by the Levite priests whom David had set off to be over Jehovah’s house to offer Jehovah’s burnt-offerings, in accordance with what is written in Moses’s code, with joyousness and song as prescribed by David; 19 and he stationed the gatemen at the gates of Jehovah’s house, and no one unclean on any account was to come in. 20 And he took the captains of hundreds and the grandees and the rulers of the people and all the populace, and brought the king down from Jehovah’s house; and they went in through the middle of the upper gate to the palace, and seated the king on the royal throne. 21 And all the populace rejoiced, and the city quieted down; and ʽAthaliah they put to death by the sword.

24 Joash was seven years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned forty years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Sibjah, from Beer-Shebaʽ. 2 And Joash did what Jehovah approved all the lifetime of Priest Jehojadaʽ. 3 And Jehojadaʽ married him to two wives, and he begot sons and daughters.

4 And after this it came into Joash’s mind to renovate Jehovah’s house; 5 and he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them “Go out to the cities of Judah and gather money out of all Israel to repair the house of your God, year by year, and expedite the matter yourselves.”

6 But the Levites did not expedite it. And the king summoned Chief Jehojadaʽ and said to him “How comes it you have not required the Levites to bring in out of Israel the impost of Moses the man of God and the assembly of Israel for the tent of the Lessons?” 7** for wicked ʽAthaliah’s sons had breached the house of God, and had also used all the sacred things of Jehovah’s house for the Baals. 8 And the king gave directions and they made a chest and put it in the outer gate of Jehovah’s house, 9 and issued a proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for Jehovah the impost that God’s servant Moses laid on Israel in the wilderness; 10 and all the captains and all the people were happy and brought in and threw into the chest till they had finished. 11 And at the time of bringing the chest to the king’s commissioner by the Levites, and as they saw that the amount of money was great, the king’s secretary for documents and the chief priest’s officer came in and emptied the chest and carried it off and put it back in its place; thus they did day by day.

And they collected money in great quantity, 12 and the king and Jehojadaʽ gave it to the contractors for the work on Jehovah’s house, and they hired stonecutters and carpenters for renovating Jehovah’s house, and also blacksmiths and coppersmiths for repairing Jehovah’s house. 13 And the contractors went to work, and the job came into order in their hands, and they got the house of God standing as originally built and braced it. 14 And when they had finished they brought before the king and Jehojadaʽ the remainder of the money, and he made it into vessels for Jehovah’s house, ritual and sacrificial vessels and pans and gold and silver vessels. And they were offering burnt-offerings in Jehovah’s house regularly all Jehojadaʽ’s life.

15 And Jehojadaʽ grew old, had lived as long as he wanted to, and died at the age of a hundred and thirty years; 16 and they buried him in David’s City with the kings, because he had done good in Israel and by God and his house.

17 And after Jehojadaʽ’s death the captains of Judah came in and did reverence to the king. Then the king listened to them; 18 and they abandoned the house of their fathers’ God Jehovah, and worshiped the asherahs and the idols; and there was wrath against Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. 19 And he sent among them prophets to turn them back to Jehovah, and they protested to them, but they did not give ear to them.

20 And God’s spirit took possession of Priest Jehojadaʽ’s son Zecariah, and he stood above the people and said to them “Says God, Why are you violating Jehovah’s commandment? you will not prosper, because you have abandoned Jehovah and he has abandoned you.” 21 But they mobbed him and stoned him, by the king’s orders, in the court of Jehovah’s house; 22 and King Joash did not remember how his father Jehojadaʽ had befriended him, but killed his son. And as he died he said “Let Jehovah see it and see to it.”

23* And at the turn of the year the Syrian forces came up against him, and came into Judah and Jerusalem and made away with all the captains of the people and sent the booty from them to the king of Damascus. 24 For the Syrian forces came in with insignificant numbers, and Jehovah gave very great forces into their hands because they had abandoned their fathers’ God Jehovah; and they executed judgments on Joash. 25* And when they went away from him—for they left him badly hurt—his officers conspired against him for the blood of Priest Jehojadaʽ’s sons, and killed him in his bed; so he died, and they buried him in David’s City but did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. 26 And these are the ones who conspired against him: Zabad the son of an ʽAmmonite woman Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of a Moabite woman Shimrith. 27* And his sons, and the volume of bodings against him, and the laying of foundations for the house of God, are recorded in the story of the book of the kings. And his son Amasiah succeeded him.

25 Amasiah was twenty-five years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned twenty-nine years at Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoʽaddan, from Jerusalem. 2 And he did what Jehovah approved, only not wholeheartedly. 3* And when he had the kingship firmly in his hands, he killed his officers who had killed the king his father, 4* but their children he did not put to death, but did in accordance with what is written in the code in the book of Moses, that Jehovah commanded “Fathers shall not be put to death for children, nor children for fathers, but each shall be put to death for his own sin.”

5 And Amasiah gathered Judah and ranged them by families under captains of thousands and of hundreds, all Judah and Benjamin, and mustered them from twenty years old up and found them to be three hundred thousand picked men to go out on service, wielding pike and shield. 6 And he hired out of Israel a hundred thousand stalwart champions for a hundred hundredweight of silver; 7 but a man of God came to him and said “Your majesty, let the Israelite levy not come in with you, because Jehovah is not with Israel, all the sons of Ephraim. 8* For if by these you are making up strength for the war, God will give you a stumble before an enemy; for there is power in God to help and to give a stumble.” 9 And Amasiah said to the man of God “And what is to be done for the hundred hundredweight that I have given to the Israelite brigade?” and the man of God said “Jehovah has enough to give you much more than this.” 10 And Amasiah detached the brigade that had come to him out of Ephraim to go to their own place; and they were very angry at Judah, and went back in anger to their place.

11 But Amasiah courageously led his people on and went to Salt Valley and defeated the sons of Seʽir, killing ten thousand; 12 and the sons of Judah took ten thousand prisoners and brought them to the top of the crag and threw them down from the top of the crag, and all of them were battered to pieces.

13 But the men of the brigade that Amasiah turned back from going with him to the war raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-Horon and killed three thousand out of them and lifted much plunder.

14 And after Amasiah came in from defeating the Edomites he brought in the gods of the sons of Seʽir and set them up for gods for himself and did reverence before them and burned incense to them; 15* and Jehovah was angry with Amasiah and sent a prophet to him, who said to him “Why have you resorted to that people’s gods, who did not deliver their people out of your hands?” 16* But when he spoke to him he told him “Have we made you a royal counselor? leave off, why should you get a beating?” and the prophet left off and said “I know God has a purpose to bring you to grief, because you have done this and not listened to my advice.”

17 And King Amasiah of Judah chose a policy and sent word to Joash the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, “Come on, let us come face to face.” 18* And King Joash of Israel sent word to King Amasiah of Judah “The brier in the Lebanon sent word to the cedar in the Lebanon ‘Give my son your daughter as wife’; and the wild beasts in the Lebanon came by and trampled the brier. 19 You think, here you have defeated Edom, and you feel confident of gaining glory; now stay at home; why should you challenge trouble, and fall, and Judah with you?” 20* But Amasiah would not listen, because it came from God, to give him into hostile hands, because they had resorted to the Edomite gods; 21 and King Joash of Israel came up, and they came face to face, he and King Amasiah of Judah, at Beth-Shemesh, which belongs to Judah. 22 And the Judahites were beaten by the Israelites, and fled to their homes. 23 And King Joash of Israel captured King Amasiah of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-Shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem and breached the wall of Jerusalem for two hundred yards, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. 24 And he took all the gold and silver, and all the articles that were found in Jehovah’s house with ʽObed-Edom, and the palace treasures, and the hostages, and went back to Samaria.

25 And Amasiah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the king of Israel. 26 And as to the rest of the history of Amasiah, first and last, it is recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27 And from the time when Amasiah turned off from following Jehovah they went to organizing a revolution against him at Jerusalem; and he fled to Lakish, and they sent to Lakish after him and put him to death there. 28 And they took him away on ponies, and buried him in David’s City with his fathers.

26 And all the people of Judah took ʽUzzijah, who was sixteen years old, and installed him as successor to his father Amasiah. 2 He fortified Eloth, and reannexed it to Judah, after the king had gone to rest with his fathers.

3 ʽUzzijah was sixteen years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned fifty-two years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jecoliah, from Jerusalem. 4 And he did what Jehovah approved, just as his father Amasiah had, 5 and undertook to devote himself to God in the time of Zecariah the director in the fear of God; and during the time that he devoted himself to Jehovah, God gave him prosperity. 6* And he went out and attacked the Philistines, and breached the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities in Ashdod and among the Philistines; 7 and God helped him against the Philistines and against the encampment-dwelling Arabs and against the Meʽunites; 8* and the Meʽunites paid tribute to ʽUzzijah; and his prestige reached to the frontier of Egypt, because he showed himself surpassingly strong. 9 And ʽUzzijah built towers in Jerusalem over the Corner Gate and over the Valley Gate and over the angle, and made them strong. 10 And he built towers in the wilderness and cut out many cisterns, because he had much livestock, and in the foothills and on the plain plowmen and vineyardists on the mountainsides and in the vineyards, because he was a lover of the soil. 11 And ʽUzzijah had a war force, men going out on raiding service, by the count of their muster by Secretary Jeʽiel and Marshal Maʽasejah under the direction of Hananiah one of the king’s captains, 12 total number of heads of families, men of solid fortunes, twenty-six hundred, 13 and under their direction a service force of three hundred and seven thousand and five hundred who warred with stalwart strength to help the king against the enemy; 14 and ʽUzzijah had ready for them, for all the army, shields and pikes and helmets and cuirasses, and slingstones; 15* and he made in Jerusalem newly-invented machines to stand on the towers and on the corners of the wall to shoot bolts and great stones. And his fame went out to distant parts; for he was marvelously helped till he was strong.

16 But when he was strong his heart went so high that he grew vicious and was unfaithful to his God Jehovah, and went into Jehovah’s temple to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17 And Priest ʽAzariah went in after him, and with him eighty stalwart priests of Jehovah, 18 and opposed King ʽUzzijah and said to him “It does not belong to you, ʽUzzijah, to burn incense to Jehovah, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary, because you have been unfaithful and Jehovah will not have it redound to your glory.” 19 And ʽUzzijah was displeased, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense; but as he vented his displeasure on the priests, leprosy shot out in his forehead before the priests in Jehovah’s house above the altar of incense, 20* and Chief Priest ʽAzariah and all the priests faced toward him and found him leprous in the forehead, and hurried him out of there; and he of his own accord bolted out because Jehovah had marred him. 21* And King ʽUzzijah was leprous to the day of his death, and lived as a leper in the exempt house because he was sundered from Jehovah’s house, while his son Jotham, as steward of the royal palace, acted as regent. 22 And the rest of the history of ʽUzzijah, first and last, the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos has recorded. 23* And ʽUzzijah went to rest with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers, in the royal burial-field, because they thought “He is a leper”; and his son Jotham succeeded him.

27 Jotham was twenty-five years old at his accession to the throne, and he reigned sixteen years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Sadok. 2 And he did what Jehovah approved, just as his father ʽUzzijah had; only he did not go into Jehovah’s temple, and the people still acted viciously. 3 He built the upper gate of Jehovah’s house, and did much building on the wall of the castle ridge, 4 and fortified cities in the highland of Judah, and built fortresses and towers on the peaks. 5 And he made war with the king of the Bene-ʽAmmon and mastered them; and the Bene-ʽAmmon gave him in that year a hundred hundredweight of silver and a million bushels of wheat and a million of barley; this indemnity the Bene-ʽAmmon paid him; and in the second year and the third. 6 And Jotham consolidated his power, because he set his courses in order before his God Jehovah.

7* And as to the rest of the history of Jotham, and all his wars and his courses, they are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. 8 He was twenty-five years old at his accession, and reigned sixteen years at Jerusalem. 9 And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and they buried him in David’s City; and his son Ahaz succeeded him.

28* Ahaz was twenty years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned sixteen years at Jerusalem. 2 And he did not do what Jehovah approved as his father David had, but followed the paths of the kings of Israel, and even made bronze images for the Baals. 3 And he made burnings in Ben-Hinnom’s Valley, and burned his sons up in the fire, in accordance with the detestable ways of the nations Jehovah dispossessed before the sons of Israel, 4 and sacrificed and made burnings at the heights and on the hills and under every verdant tree.

5* And his God Jehovah gave him into the hands of the king of Syria, and they killed in his country and took a great number of prisoners out of it and brought them to Damascus; and he was also given into the hands of the king of Israel, who killed great numbers in his country. 6 And Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah a hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all stalwart men, for their having abandoned their fathers’ God Jehovah; 7 and the Ephraimite champion Zicri killed the king’s son Maʽasejah and ʽAzrikam the warden of the palace, and Elkanah the prime minister; 8 and the sons of Israel took prisoners from their brothers two hundred thousand, wives and sons and daughters, and also plundered much booty from them, and brought the booty to Samaria.

9 But there was there a prophet of Jehovah named ʽOded, and he went out to confront the army that was coming to Samaria and said to them “Here it has been by the ire of your fathers’ God Jehovah against Judah that he has given them into your hands and you have been killing among them in an irritation that reached to the sky. 10 And now you are thinking of reducing the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to be slaves to you; do not you yourselves decidedly have your own guilts against your God Jehovah? 11 Now listen to me and send back the prisoners you have brought that are brothers of yours; for there is anger of Jehovah’s against you.”

12 And some of the heads of the sons of Ephraim, ʽAzariah the son of Jehohanan and Berekiah the son of Meshillemoth and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum and ʽAmasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who were coming from the expedition 13 and said to them “You shall not bring the prisoners in here; for it is by way of laying upon us guilt against Jehovah that you are thinking of adding to our sins and our guilts; for we have too much guilt, and there is anger against Israel.”

14 And the armed force left the prisoners and the plunder before the generals and all the assembly; 15 and the men named above stood up and took the prisoners in hand, and clothed out of the booty all nakedness of theirs, and furnished them clothing and sandals and food and drink and oil to rub on, and brought them along, with donkeys for everybody who was breaking down, and brought them to Jericho the City of Palms alongside their brothers, and went back to Samaria.

16* At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria to help him, 17 the Edomites having made another invasion and killed in Judah and carried off prisoners for slaves, 18 and the Philistines having raided among Judah’s lowland and southern cities and captured Beth-Shemesh and Aijalon and Gederoth and Soco and its dependencies and Timnah and its dependencies and Gimzo and its dependencies and settled in them; 19 for Jehovah had humbled Judah on account of King Ahaz of Israel because he had been a demoralizing influence in Judah and had been unfaithful to Jehovah. 20 But King Tiglath-Pilneser of Assyria came against him and harassed him, and did not strengthen him; 21 for Ahaz despoiled Jehovah’s house and the royal palace and the generals, and gave to the king of Assyria, but it was no help to him. 22* And at the time he was harassed he was additionally unfaithful to Jehovah—that was King Ahaz— 23 and sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had inflicted blows on him, thinking “Because the gods of the kings of Syria give them help, I will sacrifice to them and they shall help me”; and they served to bring him to his fall, him and all Israel. 24* And Ahaz got together the vessels of the house of God, and mutilated the vessels of the house of God, and shut the doors of Jehovah’s house and made himself altars at every corner in Jerusalem, 25 and in each and every city of Judah he made heights to make burnings to other gods, and provoked his fathers’ God Jehovah.

26 And as to the rest of his history, and all his courses first and last, they are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27 And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not put him into the tombs of the kings of Israel; and his son Hezekiah succeeded him.

29 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned twenty-nine years at Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abijah the daughter of Zecariah. 2 And he did what Jehovah approved, just as his father David had. 3 He, in the first year of his reign, at new moon of the first month, opened the doors of Jehovah’s house and strengthened them, 4 and brought in the priests and the Levites, and brought them together in the East Square and said to them

5 “Hear me, Levites. Now put yourselves in sacred condition and put the house of your fathers’ God Jehovah in sacred condition, and take out the filth from what is holy, 6 because our fathers have been unfaithful and done what displeased our God Jehovah and left him, and turned their faces away from Jehovah’s dwelling and turned their backs to it; 7 they also shut the porch doors and put out the lamps, and did not burn incense nor offer burnt-offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel; 8 and Jehovah’s wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he made them victims, a sight to stand aghast at and to whistle at, as you see with your own eyes; 9 and here our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives are in foreign slavery, on this account. 10 It is now in my mind to make a covenant with Jehovah the God of Israel, that his anger may turn back from us. 11 Now, sons, do not take it easy; for it was you that Jehovah chose to stand before him to perform his service and to be servitors and incense-burners to him.”

12 And the Levites stood up, Mahath the son of ʽAmasai and Joel the son of ʽAzariah of the sons of the Kehathites, and of the sons of Merari Kish the son of ʽAbdi and ʽAzariah the son of Jehallelel, and of the Gershonites Joah the son of Zimmah and Gheden the son of Joah, 13 and of the sons of Elisaphan Shimri and Jeʽiel, and of the sons of Asaph Zecariah and Mattaniah, 14 and of the sons of Heman Jehiel and Shimei, and of the sons of Jeduthun Shemaʽiah and ʽUzziel, 15 and brought together their brothers; and they put themselves in sacred condition, and went in, in accordance with the king’s command by Jehovah’s words, to cleanse Jehovah’s house. 16 And the priests went into the interior of Jehovah’s house to do the cleansing, and brought all the unclean matter that they found in Jehovah’s temple out to the court of Jehovah’s house, and the Levites received it to carry out to Kidron Arroyo outside. 17 And they began on the first day of the first month to put things in sacred condition; and on the eighth of the month they entered Jehovah’s porch, and put Jehovah’s house in condition in eight days; and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. 18 And they went inside to King Hezekiah and said “We have cleansed all Jehovah’s house: the altar of burnt-offering and all its vessels, and the table of showbread and all its vessels, 19 and all the vessels that King Ahaz during his reign rejected in his unfaithfulness we have fitted for use and put in sacred condition, and there they are before Jehovah’s house.”

20 And the first thing in the morning King Hezekiah brought together the captains of the city and went up to Jehovah’s house, 21 and they brought seven steers and seven rams and seven sheep and seven he-goats for a sin-offering on behalf of the kingdom and of the sanctuary and of Judah; and he told the sons of Aaron, the priests, to make burnt-offerings on Jehovah’s altar. And they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests received the blood and threw it against the altar; 22 and they slaughtered the rams, and they threw their blood against the altar; and they slaughtered the sheep, and they threw their blood against the altar; 23 and they brought the sin-goats on before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them, 24 and the priests slaughtered them and put their blood on the altar for sin to purge all Israel, because the king had designated the burnt-offering and the sin-offering for all Israel. 25* And he stationed the Levites in Jehovah’s house with cymbals, with harps, and with lyres, in accordance with the command of David and of the king’s seer Gad and of the prophet Nathan; for the command was by Jehovah by the prophets. 26 And the Levites stood with David’s instruments and the priests with the trumpets, 27 and Hezekiah gave the word to offer the burnt-offering at the altar; and at the time of beginning the burnt-offering Jehovah’s song began, and the trumpets, conducted by the instruments of King David of Israel, 28 and all the assembly did reverence, the song going on and the trumpets sounding, all till the burnt-offering was finished. 29 And when the burnt-offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed and did reverence. 30 And King Hezekiah and the captains told the Levites to praise Jehovah in the words of David and Asaph the seer; and they praised right merrily, and bowed down and did reverence.

31 And Hezekiah responded “You have now qualified yourselves to take part in Jehovah’s worship; approach and bring sacrifices and thank-offerings for Jehovah’s house.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank-offerings, and, any that were liberally disposed, burnt-offerings. 32 And the count of the burnt-offerings that the assembly brought was seventy cattle, a hundred rams, two hundred sheep: all these for burnt-offerings to Jehovah. 33 And of the sacramental offerings there were six hundred cattle and three thousand sheep and goats. 34* The priests were but too few, and could not skin all the burnt-offerings, and their brothers the Levites reinforced them until the work was finished and until the priests had put themselves in sacred condition; for the Levites were more right-minded about putting themselves in sacred condition than the priests, 35 and also the burnt-offering was in great quantity with the pieces of fat of the welfare-sacrifices and with the libations for the burnt-offering.

And the service of Jehovah’s house was set in order; 36 and Hezekiah and all the people were happy over what God had set in order for the people; for the thing had come suddenly.

30 And Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters for Ephraim and Manasseh, to come to Jehovah’s house at Jerusalem to celebrate a passover to Israel’s God Jehovah. 2 And the king and the generals and all the assembly in Jerusalem came to the decision to celebrate the passover in the second month; 3 for they were not able to celebrate it at that time because the priests had not put themselves in sacred condition in sufficient numbers and the people had not come together at Jerusalem; 4 and the proposition seemed right to the king and to all the assembly, 5 and they adopted a resolution to pass the cry through all Israel from Beer-Shebaʽ to Dan to come to celebrate a passover to Israel’s God Jehovah at Jerusalem, for they had not celebrated it in great numbers as is written.

6* And the runners went throughout Israel and Judah with the letters from the hands of the king and his generals as ordered by the king, saying “Sons of Israel, come back to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may come back to the survivors whom you have remaining out of the hands of the king of Assyria, 7 and do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who were unfaithful to their fathers’ God Jehovah and he gave them to be a desolation, as you see for yourselves. 8 Now do not stiffen your necks as your fathers did; give homage to Jehovah and come to his sanctuary which he has hallowed forever, and worship your fathers’ God Jehovah and have his anger turn back from you; 9** for when you turn back to Jehovah your brothers and sons will become objects of sympathy to their captors and will be coming back to this country, because your God Jehovah is kindly and tenderhearted and will not take his face away from you if you turn back to him.” 10 And the runners went through from city to city in the country of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed at them and made fun of them; 11 only individuals out of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem; 12 Judah too had God’s hand upon it to give them unanimity to live up to the command of the king and the generals by Jehovah’s word, 13 and there came together at Jerusalem numerous people to celebrate the feast of matzoth in the second month, a very numerous assembly.

14 And they stood up and removed the altars in Jerusalem, and removed all the stands for incense-burning and threw them into Kidron Arroyo; 15 and they slaughtered the passover on the fourteenth of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were humiliated and put themselves in sacred condition and brought burnt-offerings to Jehovah’s house, 16* and stood at their posts as was their duty in accordance with the code of Moses the man of God, the priests throwing the blood as they received it from the Levites’ hands. 17 For there were numbers in the assembly who had not put themselves in sacred condition, and the Levites were engaged in slaughtering the passovers for everyone who was not clean, to hallow them for Jehovah. 18* For the majority of the people, a great many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issacar and Zebulun, had not been cleansed but ate the passover without conforming to the prescription; for Hezekiah had prayed for them “Jehovah, may the good cause purge 19 everyone who has fixed his heart on devoting himself to God, his fathers’ God Jehovah, but not in accordance with the purification for sacred things”; 20 and Jehovah listened to Hezekiah and rectified the people.

21* And the sons of Israel who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the feast of matzoth seven days with great gladness, and the Levites and the priests praised Jehovah day by day with all energy, 22* and Hezekiah complimented all the Levites who brought out the sense well for Jehovah. And they ate the ordinance seven days, sacrificing welfare-sacrifices and giving thanks to their fathers’ God Jehovah; 23 and all the assembly came to the decision to celebrate another seven days, and they celebrated seven days with merrymaking. 24 For King Hezekiah contributed for the assembly a thousand steers and seven thousand sheep and goats, and the generals contributed for the assembly a thousand steers and ten thousand sheep and goats, and priests in great numbers put themselves in sacred condition. 25 And all the assembly of Judah, and the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly that had come from Israel, and the immigrants that had come from the Israelite country and were living in Judah, made merry; 26 and there was a great merrymaking in Jerusalem. For since the time of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, it had not been like this in Jerusalem. 27* And the Levite priests stood up and blessed the people, and God heard, and their prayer came into his holy dwelling heaven.

31 And when all this was finished, all Israel who were to be found in the cities of Judah went out and broke up the obelisks and chopped down the asherahs and pulled down the heights and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, till they had finished. And all the sons of Israel went back to their cities to their properties.

2* And Hezekiah assigned the divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions suitably to each one’s service, the priests and Levites for burnt-offering and welfare-sacrifice, to officiate and to thank and praise Jehovah with songs. 3 And the king’s allowance out of his chattels was for the burnt-offerings, the morning and evening burnt-offerings and the burnt-offerings for the sabbaths and the new moons and the anniversaries, as is written in Jehovah’s code; 4 and he told the people, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to give the allowance of the priests and the Levites, in order that they might hold fast to Jehovah’s code. 5 And when the news broke, the sons of Israel gave plenty of the first of grain, grape-juice, and oil and honey and all produce of the range, and brought the tithe of everything in large quantity; 6 and the sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought tithe of cattle and sheep and goats and tithe of sacred things consecrated to their God Jehovah, and laid them by heaps. 7* It was in the third month they started the heaps, and in the seventh month they finished them; 8 and Hezekiah and the generals came and saw the heaps, and blessed Jehovah and his people Israel. 9 And Hezekiah inquired of the priests and Levites about the heaps; 10* and ʽAzariah the head priest of the family of Sadok told him “Since the contribution began to come in to Jehovah’s house there has been eating and taking our fill and leaving over in large quantity, because Jehovah has blessed his people; and we have this accumulation left.”

11 And Hezekiah told them to get ready vestry-rooms in Jehovah’s house; and they got them ready, 12 and brought in the contribution and the tithe and the sacred things faithfully. And over them were Conaniah the Levite as warden, and his brother Shimei as second; 13 and Jehiel and ʽAzaziah and Nahath and ʽAsahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismakiah and Mahath and Benajah were committee subordinate to Conaniah and his brother Shimei by appointment of King Hezekiah and of ʽAzariah the warden of the house of God. 14 And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the gateman on the east, was over the voluntary gifts to God, to give out Jehovah’s contribution and the holiest of the holy; 15 and under his direction were Gheden and Minjamin and Jeshuaʽ and Shemaʽiah, Amariah and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, entrusted with giving out to their brothers by divisions, great and small alike, 16 besides keeping their genealogical records by males from three years old up, everybody who was to go into Jehovah’s house for daily functions, for their service in their charges by their divisions, 17 and the genealogical records of the priests by families, and the Levites, from twenty years old up, by their charges by their divisions, 18 and genealogical records with all dependents, their wives and sons and daughters, every aggregation, when on honor they were hallowed as sacred; 19 and for the sons of Aaron, the priests, in the glebe lands of their cities there were in each and every city men designated by name to give portions to every male among the priests, and for all of genealogical record among the Levites.

20 And Hezekiah did the like in all Judah, and did what was good and right and loyal before his God Jehovah; 21 and in every work he initiated in the service of God’s house and in giving rulings and giving orders for devotion to his God, he acted whole-souledly and was successful.

32* After these events and this loyalty, King Sennacherib of Assyria came and invaded Judah, and beset all the fortified cities and proposed to lay them open to his troops. 2 And Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come in and was heading toward an attack on Jerusalem; 3 and he consulted with his generals and champions about choking down the water of the springs outside the city, and they backed him. 4* And they gathered a large number of people and choked all the sources of water and buried the bed of the arroyo that streams through the middle of the country, saying “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” 5 And he consolidated his position and rebuilt all the dilapidated wall, and raised towers on it, and outside it another wall, and strengthened the Millo, David’s City, and provided missiles in large quantity, and shields. 6 And he put war-captains over the people, and gathered them before him in the square at the city gate and spoke encouragingly to them, 7 saying “Courage, and do your best; do not be afraid nor dismayed at the king of Assyria and at all the host he has with him, for there is more with us than with him. 8 He has with him an arm of flesh, but we have with us our God Jehovah to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people were steadied by the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.

9 After this, King Sennacherib of Assyria sent his officers to Jerusalem (he being at Lakish and all his power with him) to King Hezekiah of Judah and to all of Judah who were in Jerusalem, with the message 10 “Says King Sennacherib of Assyria, What are you putting confidence in, standing a siege in Jerusalem? 11* Do you not see that Hezekiah is so influencing you as to give you up to die by hunger and thirst, saying ‘Our God Jehovah will deliver us out of the hands of the king of Assyria’? 12* was it not his heights and altars that Hezekiah made away with and told Judah and Jerusalem ‘You are to worship before one altar and burn your incense on that’? 13* Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to the peoples of all countries? have the gods of the nations of the countries been able to deliver their country out of my hands? 14 Who is there, among all the gods of these nations which my fathers destroyed without quarter, that was able to deliver his country out of my hands, that your god should be able to deliver you out of my hands? 15 Now do not let Hezekiah delude you and influence you like this, and do not trust him; for not any god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people out of my hands and out of the hands of my fathers; much less will your god deliver you out of my hands.” 16 And his officers spoke still more against Jehovah, the God, and against his servant Hezekiah; 17 and he wrote letters to insult Jehovah the God of Israel and to say of him “As with the gods of the nations of the different countries, which did not deliver their people out of my hands, so Hezekiah’s god will not deliver his people out of my hands.” 18 And they called out in a loud voice in Judaic to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to throw them into fear and consternation so that they might capture the city; 19 and they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of human hands.

20 And Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos prayed about this, and cried out to heaven. 21 And Jehovah sent an angel who killed off every champion fighter and staff officer and captain in the Assyrian king’s camp; and he went back crestfallen to his own country, and went into the house of his god, and some who had come out of his own body struck him down with swords. 22 And Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of the hands of King Sennacherib of Assyria and out of everybody’s hands, and gave them rest on all sides. 23 And many brought presents to Jehovah at Jerusalem, and rich objects to King Hezekiah of Judah; and he stood high in the eyes of all nations thenceforth.

24 In those days Hezekiah fell sick and was at the point of death; and he prayed to Jehovah, and he granted the prayer and gave him a token. 25 But Hezekiah did not requite him as the favor deserved; for his heart went high. And there was wrath against him and against Judah and Jerusalem; 26 but Hezekiah humbled himself in his loftiness of heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and Jehovah’s wrath did not come upon them in Hezekiah’s time.

27 And Hezekiah had very great wealth and grandeur; and he made himself treasuries for silver and for gold and for precious stones and for spices and for shields and for miscellaneous choice articles, 28* and storehouses for produce of grain and grape-juice and oil, and stables for each and every kind of cattle, and flocks for the stables; 29 and he made himself cities, and accumulated stock in sheep and goats and horned cattle in great numbers, for God gave him chattels in great quantity. 30 And he, Hezekiah, blocked the outlet of the water of Upper Gihon and directed it down westward to David’s City. 31* And Hezekiah was successful in all his doings; as to the emissaries of the generals of Babylon, though, sent to him to inquire about the prodigy that there had been in the country, God left him, to test him, to know what he had in his heart.

32 And as to the rest of the history of Hezekiah and his devout acts, they are recorded in the vision of the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 33 And Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers, and they buried him on the slope up to the graves of David’s sons; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem paid him honor at his death; and his son Manasseh succeeded him.

33 Manasseh was twelve years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned fifty-five years at Jerusalem. 2 And he did what displeased Jehovah, like the detestable doings of the nations Jehovah dispossessed before the sons of Israel; 3 and he rebuilt the heights his father Hezekiah had pulled down, and set up altars to the Baals and made asherahs, and did reverence to all the legions of the sky and worshiped them, 4 and built altars in the house of Jehovah, which Jehovah had spoken of, “In Jerusalem my name shall forever be”; 5 and he built altars to all the legions of the sky in both the courts of Jehovah’s house. 6 And he, he sent his son over through the fire in Ben-Hinnom’s Valley, and practiced fortune-telling and believed in signs and played the wizard and employed spirit-mediums of different kinds: he did what displeased Jehovah on a great scale, provoking him. 7 And he set the effigy-statue he had made in the house of God, in the house of which God had said to David and his son Solomon “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will set my name forever, 8 and I will no more dislodge Israel’s feet off the soil I set your fathers standing on, if only they take care to do just as I commanded them, all the instructions and usages and laws, by Moses.” 9 And Manasseh demoralized Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into misdoing more than had the nations Jehovah had rooted out before the sons of Israel.

10 And Jehovah spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they did not listen. 11 And Jehovah brought against them the generals of the king of Assyria, and they caught Manasseh with hooks and put him in fetters and took him to Babylon. 12 But when he was in distress he took steps to propitiate his God Jehovah, and humbled himself thoroughly before the God of his fathers 13 and prayed to him; and he let himself be invoked and listened to his appeal and brought him back to Jerusalem to his royalty, and Manasseh knew that Jehovah was God.

14* And after that he built an outer wall for David’s City west of Gihon in the arroyo and of the approach to the Fish Gate and around the castle ridge, and made it very high; and he set army officers in all the fortified cities in Judah. 15 And he removed the foreign gods and the effigy from Jehovah’s house, and all the altars he had built on the mountain of Jehovah’s house and in Jerusalem, and threw them away outside the city, 16 and reconditioned the altar of Jehovah and sacrificed welfare-sacrifices and sacrifices of thanks on it, and told Judah to worship Jehovah the God of Israel. 17 The people still, though, sacrificed on the heights, but only to their God Jehovah.

18 And as to the rest of the history of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Jehovah the God of Israel, they are in the history of the kings of Israel. 19* And as to his praying and having his prayer granted, and all his sin and his unfaithfulness, and the places in which he built heights and erected the asherahs and the carvings before his humbling himself, they are recorded in the chronicles of the seers. 20* And Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and they buried him at his house; and his son Amon succeeded him.

21 Amon was twenty-two years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned two years at Jerusalem. 22 And he did what displeased Jehovah, as his father Manasseh had; and Amon sacrificed to all the carvings his father Manasseh had made, and worshiped them. 23 And he did not humble himself before Jehovah as his father Manasseh had; for he, Amon, went far in guilt. 24 And his officers organized a revolution against him and took his life in his palace; 25 but the populace killed all who had taken part in the conspiracy against King Amon, and the populace installed his son Josiah as his successor.

34 Josiah was eight years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned thirty-one years at Jerusalem. 2 And he did what Jehovah approved, and went by the paths of his father David, and did not turn off to right or to left.

3 And in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began to devote himself to the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem from the heights and the asherahs and the carvings and the bronze statues, 4 and they pulled down before him the altars of the Baals, and he chopped down the hammans that were up over them and broke up the asherahs and carvings and bronzes and reduced them to powder and threw it over the graves of those who had sacrificed on them, 5 and burned priests’ bones on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem; 6* and in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon and up to Naphtali he went round among their ruins 7 and pulled down the altars, and pounded fine the asherahs and the carvings, and chopped down all the hammans throughout the Israelite country, and came back to Jerusalem.

8 And in the year eighteen of his reign, to cleanse the country and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Asaliah and Maʽasejah the captain of the city and Joah the son of Joahaz the king’s private secretary to repair the house of his God Jehovah; 9 and they came to High Priest Hilkijah and delivered the money that had been brought into the house of God, that the Levites who kept the thresholds had collected from the hands of Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remainder of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,— 10 gave it into the hands of the contractors employed on Jehovah’s house, and the contractors working on Jehovah’s house gave it for mending and strengthening the house, 11 gave it to the carpenters and builders to buy dressed stone and wood for the ties and for retimbering the houses that the kings of Judah had allowed to break down. 12 And the men worked on honor on the job, and had over them commissioners, Jahath and ʽObadiah the Levites, sons of Merari, and Zecariah and Meshullam, Kehathites, to give directions; and the Levites, all who were proficient with instruments of song, 13 were over the carriers and giving directions for one and another piece of work to all who worked on the job; and some of the Levites were account-keepers and marshals and gatemen.

14 And while they were getting out the money that had been brought into Jehovah’s house, Priest Hilkijah found the code Jehovah had given through Moses; 15 and so Hilkijah said to Secretary Shaphan “I have found the Code in Jehovah’s house”; and Hilkijah gave the book to Shaphan. 16 And Shaphan brought the book to the king, and, besides, made his report to the king, “Everything that was put into your servants’ hands they are doing; 17 and they have poured out the money that was found in Jehovah’s house and given it into the hands of the commissioners and the contractors.” 18 And Secretary Shaphan told the king “Priest Hilkijah has given me a book”; and Shaphan read from it before the king; 19 and when the king heard the words of the Code he tore his clothes.

20 And the king gave Hilkijah and Ahikam the son of Shaphan and ʽAbdon the son of Micah and Secretary Shaphan and King’s Sergeant ʽAsajah the order 21 “Go inquire of Jehovah on my behalf and on behalf of what remains of Israel and Judah about the words of the book that has been found, because it is a great ire of Jehovah’s that is poured out on us for our fathers’ not having observed the words of this book, and acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.” 22* And Hilkijah and those whom the king had named went to the prophetess Huldah the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath the son of Hasrah the keeper of the wardrobe (she lived in Jerusalem, in the second quarter), and spoke to her to this effect. 23 And she said to them “Says Israel’s God Jehovah, Say to the man who sent you to me 24 ‘Says Jehovah, I am bringing mischief upon this place and its inhabitants, all the maledictions written in the book that they have read before the king of Judah. 25 In return for their having left me and made burnings to other gods, provoking me with all their manufactures, my ire is poured out upon this place and will not die down.’ 26 And to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Jehovah you shall say ‘Says Israel’s God Jehovah, the words which you have heard. 27 Since your heart quailed and you humbled yourself before God when you heard my words against this place and its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before me and tore your clothes and wept before me, I on my part have heard it, quoth Jehovah. 28 I am taking you home to your fathers, and you shall be taken home to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not look upon all the mischief I am bringing on this place and its inhabitants.’” And they reported it to the king.

29 And the king sent and brought together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, 30 and the king went up to Jehovah’s house, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites and all the people from the greatest to the smallest, and he read to them all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in Jehovah’s house. 31 And the king stood at his place and ratified the covenant before Jehovah, to follow Jehovah and keep his commandments and his lessons and his usages unreservedly and heartily, living up to the provisions of the covenant, which are recorded in this book. 32* And he had all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem lived up to their covenant with God, their fathers’ God. 33 And Josiah removed everything abominable out of all the countries that belonged to the sons of Israel, and reformed all who were found in Israel to worship their fathers’ God Jehovah; all his lifetime they did not turn aside from following their fathers’ God Jehovah.

35 And Josiah celebrated a passover to Jehovah in Jerusalem; and they slaughtered the passover on the fourteenth of the first month. 2 And he stationed the priests for their functions, and exhorted them to the service of God’s house, 3* and said to the Levites who had to give explanations to all Israel, who were sacred to Jehovah, “By the putting of the sacred ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built, you have no carrying on shoulders to do; now serve your God Jehovah and his people Israel, 4 and prepare yourselves by families, in accordance with your divisions, as prescribed by King David of Israel and by his son Solomon, 5 and stand in the sanctuary, for the family sections of your brothers the laity a family division of the Levites, 6 and slaughter the passover; and put yourselves in sacred condition, and make preparations for your brothers, for doing in accordance with Jehovah’s word by Moses.”

7 And Josiah contributed small cattle for the laity, sheep and young he-goats, all for passover offerings for everyone who presented himself, to the number of thirty thousand, and horned cattle three thousand; these were out of the king’s chattels. 8 And his generals contributed voluntarily for the people, for the priests, and for the Levites. Hilkijah and Zecariah and Jehiel, the wardens of God’s house, gave the priests twenty-six hundred for passover sacrifices, and three hundred horned cattle; 9 and Conaniah and Shemaʽiah and Nethaneel their brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeʽiel and Jozabad the chiefs of the Levites, contributed for the Levites five thousand for passover sacrifices and five hundred horned cattle.

10 And the work was made ready, and the priests stood in their stations and the Levites in their divisions, in accordance with the king’s command. 11* And they slaughtered the passover, and the priests threw blood, and the Levites were skinning; 12 and they removed the burnt-offerings to give them to the laity by family sections to present to Jehovah, as is written in the book of Moses; and the same with the horned cattle. 13 And they duly cooked the passover with fire, and boiled the sacramental offerings in pots and crocks and kettles and ran them to all the laity, 14 and afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests; for the priests, the sons of Aaron, were at the offering of the burnt-offerings and the fats till night, and the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. 15 And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were at their stations in accordance with the command of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun the king’s seer, and the gatemen were at one and another gate; there was no going away from their service for them, because their brother Levites prepared for them. 16 And all Jehovah’s service was prepared that day, celebrating the passover and offering the burnt-offerings on Jehovah’s altar, in accordance with King Josiah’s commandment; 17 and the sons of Israel who were present celebrated the passover at that time, and the feast of matzoth seven days. 18 And no passover like it had been celebrated in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; and all the kings of Israel had not celebrated the like of the passover that Josiah and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who presented themselves, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, celebrated. 19 In the year eighteen of Josiah’s reign this passover was celebrated.

20* After all this, that Josiah had put the house in order, King Neco of Egypt went up to fight at Carkemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to oppose him. 21* And he sent envoys to him with the message. “What business have you with me, king of Judah? It [is] not against you today but at the Euphrates that my war is, and God has spoken to hurry me; keep clear of God, who is with me, and do not have him make away with you.” 22* But Josiah did not turn his face from him, but resolved to fight him and did not listen to Neco’s words from the mouth of God, and came to fight on the plain of Megiddo. 23 And the archers hit King Josiah, and he said to his officers “Pass me out, for I am hard hit”; 24 and his officers passed him out of the chariot and put him into his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the graves of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned over Josiah; 25 and Jeremiah sang a lament for Josiah; and all singers mention Josiah in their dirges to this day, and have made it a usage for Israel; they are to be found written down among the dirges.

26 And as to the rest of Josiah’s history, and his devout acts in accordance with what is written in Jehovah’s code, 27 and his history first and last, it is recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

36 And the populace took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and installed him as his father’s successor at Jerusalem. 2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned three months at Jerusalem. 3 And the king of Egypt removed him at Jerusalem, and gave the country a fine of a hundred hundredweight of silver and a hundredweight of gold; 4 and the king of Egypt installed his brother Eljakim as king over Judah and Jerusalem, and renamed him Jehojakim. And Neco took his brother Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt.

5 Jehojakim was twenty-five years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned eleven years at Jerusalem; and he did what displeased his God Jehovah. 6 Against him King Nebucadnessar of Babylon came up, and put him in fetters to take him to Babylon; 7 and Nebucadnessar brought some of the vessels of Jehovah’s house to Babylon and put them in his palace in Babylon. 8 And as to the rest of the history of Jehojakim and his detestable deeds that he committed, and what is to be found about him, it is recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And his son Jehojakin succeeded him.

9* Jehojakin was eight years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned three months and ten days at Jerusalem; and he did what displeased Jehovah. 10 And at the return of the year King Nebucadnessar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the choice vessels of Jehovah’s house, and installed his brother Sidkijah as king over Judah and Jerusalem.

11 Sidkijah was twenty-one years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned eleven years at Jerusalem; 12* and he did what displeased his God Jehovah; he did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah, who prophesied from Jehovah’s mouth. 13 And he also rebelled against King Nebucadnessar, who had had him swear by God; and he was too hard-necked and obdurate-hearted to turn back to Israel’s God Jehovah. 14* Also all the generals of Judah and the priests and the people were in many ways unfaithful, doing like all the detestable doings of the nations, and defiled Jehovah’s house which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. 15 And their fathers’ God Jehovah sent to them by his messengers, each one early, because he did not want his people and his dwelling hurt; 16 but they made jokes on God’s messengers and despised his words and put derisive indignities on his prophets till Jehovah’s ire rose unappeasably against his people, 17 and he brought the king of the Chaldeans up against them, who killed their young men with the sword in their holy house and did not spare young man or maiden, elder nor graybeard; he gave all into his hands. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of Jehovah’s house and the treasures of the king and the generals, all he brought to Babylon. 19 And he burned the house of God, and tore down the wall of Jerusalem and burned down its palaces, and let all its choice furniture be spoiled. 20 And he deported to Babylon the remnant that was left from the swords, and they became subjects to him and his sons till the rise of the Persian empire, 21 to fulfill Jehovah’s word by the mouth of Jeremiah, till the country had paid up its sabbaths: all the time of its desolation it kept sabbath, filling out seventy years.

22 And in the year one of King Cyrus of Persia, for the finishing of Jehovah’s prediction by the mouth of Jeremiah, Jehovah stirred the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia and he had proclamation made by criers throughout his empire, and also in writing, 23* “Cyrus king of Persia says: Jehovah, God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever of all his people among you will volunteer to go, be his God with him and let him go up.”

MARGINAL NOTES TO SECOND CHRONICLES