^24:1Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he was ruling for forty years in Jerusalem: his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. ^24:2And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as long as Jehoiada the priest was living. ^24:3And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters. ^24:4Now after this Joash had a desire to put the house of the Lord into good order again; ^24:5And getting together the priests and Levites, he said to them, Go out into the towns of Judah year by year, and get from all Israel money to keep the house of your God in good condition; and see that this is done without loss of time. The Levites, however, were slow in doing so. ^24:6Then the king sent for Jehoiada, the chief priest, and said to him, Why have you not given the Levites orders that the tax fixed by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and by the meeting of Israel, for the Tent of witness, is to be got in from Judah and Jerusalem and handed over? ^24:7For the house of the Lord had been broken up by Athaliah, that evil woman, and her sons; and all its holy things they had given to the Baals. ^24:8So at the king's order they made a chest and put it outside the doorway of the house of the Lord. ^24:9And an order was sent out through all Judah and Jerusalem that payment was to be made to the Lord of the tax which Moses, the servant of God, had put on Israel in the waste land. ^24:10And all the chiefs and all the people came gladly and put their money into the chest, till they had all given. ^24:11So when the chest was taken to the king's servants by the Levites, and they saw that there was much money in it, the king's scribe and the chief priest's servant took the money out, and put the chest back in its place. They did this day by day, and got together a great amount of money. ^24:12Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who were responsible for getting the work done on the Lord's house, and with it they got wall-builders and woodworkers and metal-workers to put the house of the Lord in good order again. ^24:13So the workmen did their work, making good what was damaged and building up the house of God till it was strong and beautiful again. ^24:14And when the work was done, they took the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and it was used for making the vessels for the house of the Lord, all the vessels needed for the offerings, the spoons and the vessels of gold and silver. And as long as Jehoiada was living, the regular burned offerings were offered in the house of the Lord. ^24:15But Jehoiada became old and full of days, and he came to his end; he was a hundred and thirty years old at the time of his death. ^24:16And they put him into his last resting-place in the town of David, among the kings, because he had done good in Israel for God and for his house. ^24:17Now after the death of Jehoiada, the chiefs of Judah came and went down on their faces before the king. Then the king gave ear to them. ^24:18And they gave up the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and became worshippers of pillars of wood and of the images; and because of this sin of theirs, wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem. ^24:19And the Lord sent them prophets to make them come back to him; and they gave witness against them, but they would not give ear. ^24:20Then the spirit of God came on Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, and, getting up before the people, he said to them, God has said, Why do you go against the orders of the Lord, so that everything goes badly for you? because you have given up the Lord, he has given you up. ^24:21But when they had made a secret design against him, he was stoned with stones, by the king's order, in the outer square of the Lord's house. ^24:22So King Joash did not keep in mind how good Jehoiada his father had been to him, but put his son to death. And in the hour of his death he said, May the Lord see it and take payment! ^24:23Now in the spring, the army of the Aramaeans came up against him; they came against Judah and Jerusalem, putting to death all the great men of the people and sending all the goods they took from them to the king of Damascus. ^24:24For though the army of Aram was only a small one, the Lord gave a very great army into their hands, because they had given up the Lord, the God of their fathers. So they put into effect the punishment of Joash. ^24:25And when they had gone away from him, (for he was broken with disease,) his servants made a secret design against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they put him to death on his bed; and they put his body into the earth in the town of David, but not in the resting-place of the kings. ^24:26Those who made designs against him were Zabad, the son of Shimeath, an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, the son of Shimrith, a Moabite woman. ^24:27Now the story of his sons, and all the words said by the prophet against him, and the building up again of the Lord's house, are recorded in the account in the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son became king in his place.

^25:1Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. ^25:2He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but his heart was not completely true to the Lord. ^25:3Now when he became strong in the kingdom, he put to death those men who had taken the life of the king his father. ^25:4But he did not put their children to death, for he kept the orders of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses, saying, The fathers are not to be put to death for their children or the children for their fathers, but a man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done. ^25:5Then Amaziah got all Judah together and put them in order by their families, even all Judah and Benjamin, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds: and he had those of twenty years old and over numbered, and they came to three hundred thousand of the best fighting-men, trained for war and in the use of the spear and the body-cover. ^25:6And for a hundred talents of silver, he got a hundred thousand fighting-men from Israel. ^25:7But a man of God came to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with you; for the Lord is not with Israel, that is, the children of Ephraim. ^25:8But go yourself, and be strong in war; God will not let you go down before those who are fighting against you; for God has power to give help or to send you down before your attackers. ^25:9Then Amaziah said to the man of God, But what is to be done about the hundred talents which I have given for the armed band of Israel? And the man of God in answer said, God is able to give you much more than this. ^25:10So Amaziah, separating the armed band which had come to him from Ephraim, sent them back again; which made them very angry with Judah, and they went back burning with wrath. ^25:11Then Amaziah took heart, and went out at the head of his people and came to the Valley of Salt, where he put to death ten thousand of the children of Seir; ^25:12And ten thousand more the children of Israel took living, and made them go up to the top of the rock, pushing them down from the top of the rock so that their bodies were broken by the fall. ^25:13But the men of the band which Amaziah sent back and did not take with him to the fight, made attacks on the towns of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, putting to death three thousand of their people and taking away a great store of their goods. ^25:14Now when Amaziah came back from the destruction of the Edomites, he took the gods of the children of Seir and made them his gods, worshipping them and burning offerings before them. ^25:15And so the wrath of the Lord was moved against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, Why have you gone after the gods of the people who have not given their people salvation from your hands? ^25:16But while he was talking to him the king said to him, Have we made you one of the king's government? say no more, or it will be the cause of your death. Then the prophet gave up protesting, and said, It is clear to me that God's purpose is your destruction, because you have done this and have not given ear to my words. ^25:17Then Amaziah, king of Judah, acting on the suggestion of his servants, sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us have a meeting face to face. ^25:18And Joash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife: and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing the thorn under his feet. ^25:19You say, See, I have overcome Edom; and your heart is lifted up with pride: now keep in your country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you, in danger of downfall? ^25:20But Amaziah gave no attention; and this was the purpose of God, so that he might give them up into the hands of Joash, because they had gone after the gods of Edom. ^25:21And so Joash, king of Israel, went up; and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face at Beth-shemesh in Judah. ^25:22And Judah was overcome before Israel, and they went in flight, every man to his tent. ^25:23And Joash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, prisoner at Beth-shemesh, and took him to Jerusalem; and he had the wall of Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the doorway in the angle, four hundred cubits. ^25:24And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels which were in the house of the Lord, under the care of Obed-edom, and all the wealth from the king's house, as well as those whose lives would be the price of broken faith, and went back to Samaria. ^25:25Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, went on living for fifteen years after the death of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. ^25:26Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, are they not recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? ^25:27Now from the time when Amaziah gave up worshipping the Lord, they made secret designs against him in Jerusalem; and he went in flight to Lachish: but they sent to Lachish after him and put him to death there. ^25:28And they took his body on horseback and put it into the earth with his fathers in the town of David.

^26:1Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. ^26:2He was the builder of Eloth, which he got back for Judah after the death of the king. ^26:3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name was Jechiliah of Jerusalem. ^26:4He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Amaziah had done. ^26:5He gave himself to searching after God in the days of Zechariah, who made men wise in the fear of God; and as long as he was true to the Lord, God made things go well for him. ^26:6He went out and made war against the Philistines, pulling down the walls of Gath and Jabneh and Ashdod, and building towns in the country round Ashdod and among the Philistines. ^26:7And God gave him help against the Philistines, and against the Arabians living in Gur-baal, and against the Meunim. ^26:8The Ammonites gave offerings to Uzziah: and news of him went out as far as the limit of Egypt; for he became very great in power. ^26:9Uzziah made towers in Jerusalem, at the doorway in the angle and at the doorway in the valley and at the turn of the wall, arming them. ^26:10And he put up towers in the waste land and made places for storing water, for he had much cattle, in the low hills and in the table land; and he had farmers and vine-keepers in the mountains and in the fertile land, for he was a lover of farming. ^26:11In addition, Uzziah had an army of fighting-men who went out to war in bands, as they had been listed by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the ruler, under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king's captains. ^26:12The heads of families, the strong men of war, were two thousand, six hundred. ^26:13And under their orders was a trained army of three hundred and seven thousand, five hundred, of great strength in war, helping the king against any who came against him. ^26:14And Uzziah had all these forces armed with body-covers and spears and head-covers and coats of metal and bows and stones for sending from leather bands. ^26:15And in Jerusalem he made machines, the invention of expert men, to be placed on the towers and angles of the walls for sending arrows and great stones. And his name was honoured far and wide; for he was greatly helped till he was strong. ^26:16But when he had become strong, his heart was lifted up in pride, causing his destruction; and he did evil against the Lord his God; for he went into the Temple of the Lord for the purpose of burning perfumes on the altar of perfumes. ^26:17And Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty of the Lord's priests, who were strong men; ^26:18And they made protests to Uzziah the king, and said to him, The burning of perfumes, Uzziah, is not your business but that of the priests, the sons of Aaron, who have been made holy for this work: go out of the holy place, for you have done wrong, and it will not be to your honour before God. ^26:19Then Uzziah was angry; and he had in his hand a vessel for burning perfume; and while his wrath was bitter against the priests, the mark of the leper's disease came out on his brow, before the eyes of the priests in the house of the Lord by the altar of perfumes. ^26:20And Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests, looking at him, saw the mark of the leper on his brow, and they sent him out quickly and he himself went out straight away, for the Lord's punishment had come on him. ^26:21So King Uzziah was a leper till the day of his death, living separately in his private house; for he was cut off from the house of God; and Jotham his son was ruling over his house, judging the people of the land. ^26:22Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, were recorded by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. ^26:23So Uzziah went to rest with his fathers; and they put his body into the earth in the field used for the resting-place of the kings, for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son became king in his place.

^27:1Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years; and his mother's name was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok. ^27:2He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Uzziah had done; but he did not go into the Temple of the Lord. And the people still went on in their evil ways. ^27:3He put up the higher doorway of the house of the Lord, and did much building on the wall of the Ophel. ^27:4In addition, he made towns in the hill-country of Judah, and strong buildings and towers in the woodlands. ^27:5He went to war with the king of the children of Ammon and overcame them. That year, the children of Ammon gave him a hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of grain and ten thousand measures of barley. And the children of Ammon gave him the same amount the second year and the third. ^27:6So Jotham became strong, because in all his ways he made the Lord his guide. ^27:7Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. ^27:8He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years. ^27:9And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the earth in the town of David; and Ahaz his son became king in his place.

^28:1Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years; he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father: ^28:2But he went in the ways of the kings of Israel and made images of metal for the Baals. ^28:3More than this, he had offerings burned in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and made his children go through fire, copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before the children of Israel. ^28:4And he made offerings and had perfumes burned in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. ^28:5So the Lord his God gave him up into the hands of the king of Aram; and they overcame him, and took away a great number of his people as prisoners to Damascus. Then he was given into the hands of the king of Israel, who sent great destruction on him. ^28:6For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, in one day put to death a hundred and twenty thousand men of Judah, all of them good fighting-men; because they had given up the Lord, the God of their fathers. ^28:7And Zichri, a great fighting-man of Ephraim, put to death Maaseiah, the king's son, and Azrikam, the controller of his house, and Elkanah, who was second in authority to the king. ^28:8And the children of Israel took away as prisoners from their brothers, two hundred thousand, women and sons and daughters, and a great store of their goods, and took them to Samaria. ^28:9But a prophet of the Lord was there, named Oded; and he went out in front of the army which was coming into Samaria and said to them, Truly, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them up into your hands, and you have put them to death in an outburst of wrath stretching up to heaven. ^28:10And now your purpose is to keep the children of Judah and Jerusalem as men-servants and women-servants under your yoke: but are there no sins against the Lord your God to be seen among yourselves? ^28:11And now give ear to me, and send back the prisoners whom you have taken from your brothers: for the wrath of the Lord is burning against you. ^28:12Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshillemoth Jehizkiah, the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, put themselves against those who had come from the war, ^28:13And said to them, You are not to let these prisoners come here; for what you are designing to do will be a cause of sin against the Lord to us, making even greater our sin and our wrongdoing, which now are great enough, and his wrath is burning against Israel. ^28:14So the armed men gave up the prisoners and the goods they had taken to the heads and the meeting of the people. ^28:15And those men who have been named went up and took the prisoners, clothing those among them who were uncovered, with things from the goods which had been taken in the war, and putting robes on them and shoes on their feet; and they gave them food and drink and oil for their bodies, and seating all the feeble among them on asses, they took them to Jericho, the town of palm-trees, to their people, and then went back to Samaria. ^28:16At that time King Ahaz sent for help to the king of Assyria. ^28:17For the Edomites had come again, attacking Judah and taking away prisoners. ^28:18And the Philistines, forcing their way into the towns of the lowlands and the south of Judah, had taken Beth-shemesh and Aijalon and Gederoth and Soco, with their daughter-towns, as well as Timnah and Gimzo and their daughter-towns, and were living there. ^28:19For the Lord made Judah low, because of Ahaz, king of Israel; for he had given up all self-control in Judah, sinning greatly against the Lord. ^28:20Then Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came to him, but was a cause of trouble and not of strength to him. ^28:21For Ahaz took a part of the wealth from the house of the Lord, and from the house of the king and of the great men, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it was no help to him. ^28:22And in the time of his trouble, this same King Ahaz did even more evil against the Lord. ^28:23For he made offerings to the gods of Damascus, who were attacking him, and said, Because the gods of the kings of Aram are giving them help, I will make offerings to them so that they may give me help. But they were the cause of his downfall, and of that of all Israel. ^28:24And Ahaz got together the vessels of the house of God, cutting up all the vessels of the house of God, and shutting the doors of the Lord's house; and he made altars in every part of Jerusalem. ^28:25And in every town of Judah he made high places where perfumes were burned to other gods, awaking the wrath of the Lord, the God of his fathers. ^28:26Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ^28:27And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the earth in Jerusalem; but they did not put him in the resting-place of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son became king in his place.

^29:1Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old; and he was king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ^29:2He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. ^29:3In the first year of his rule, in the first month, opening the doors of the Lord's house, he made them strong. ^29:4And he sent for the priests and the Levites, and got them together in the wide place on the east side, ^29:5And said to them, Give ear to me, O Levites: now make yourselves holy, and make holy the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and take away everything unclean from the holy place. ^29:6For our fathers have done evil, sinning in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have given him up, turning away their faces from the house of the Lord, and turning their backs on him. ^29:7The doors of his house have been shut and the lights put out; no perfumes have been burned or offerings made to the God of Israel in his holy place. ^29:8And so the wrath of the Lord has come on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has given them up to be a cause of fear and wonder and shame, as your eyes have seen. ^29:9For see, our fathers have been put to death with the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives have been taken away prisoners because of this. ^29:10Now it is my purpose to make an agreement with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from us. ^29:11My sons, take care now: for you have been marked out by the Lord to come before him and to be his servants, burning offerings to him. ^29:12Then the Levites took their places; Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, among the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah, the son of Zimmah, and Eden, the son of Joah; ^29:13And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ^29:14And of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ^29:15And they got their brothers together and made themselves holy, and went in, as the king had said by the word of the Lord, to make the house of the Lord clean. ^29:16And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to make it clean, and everything unclean which was to be seen in the Temple of the Lord they took out into the outer square of the Lord's house, and the Levites got it together and took it away to the stream Kidron. ^29:17On the first day of the first month the work of making the house holy was started, and on the eighth day they came to the covered way of the Lord; in eight days they made the Lord's house holy, and on the sixteenth day of the first month the work was done. ^29:18Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, We have made all the house of the Lord clean, as well as the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and the table for the holy bread, with all its vessels. ^29:19And all the vessels which were turned out by King Ahaz in his sin while he was king, we have put in order and made holy, and now they are in their places before the altar of the Lord. ^29:20Then Hezekiah the king got up early, and got together the great men of the town, and went up to the house of the Lord. ^29:21And they took with them seven oxen and seven male sheep and seven lambs and seven he-goats as a sin-offering for the kingdom and for the holy house and for Judah. And he gave orders to the sons of Aaron, the priests, that these were to be offered on the altar of the Lord. ^29:22So they put the oxen to death and their blood was given to the priests to be drained out against the altar; then they put the male sheep to death, draining out their blood against the altar, and they put the lambs to death, draining out their blood against the altar. ^29:23Then they took the he-goats for the sin-offering, placing them before the king and the meeting of the people, and they put their hands on them: ^29:24And the priests put them to death, and made a sin-offering with their blood on the altar, to take away the sin of all Israel: for the king gave orders that the burned offering and the sin-offering were for all Israel. ^29:25Then he put the Levites in their places in the house of the Lord, with brass and corded instruments of music as ordered by David and Gad, the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for the order was the Lord's, given by his prophets. ^29:26So the Levites took their places with David's instruments, and the priests with their horns. ^29:27And Hezekiah gave the word for the burned offering to be offered on the altar. And when the burned offering was started, then the song of the Lord was started, with the blowing of horns and with all the instruments of David, king of Israel. ^29:28And all the people gave worship, to the sound of songs and the blowing of horns; and this went on till the burned offering was ended. ^29:29And at the end of the offering, the king and all who were present with him gave worship with bent heads. ^29:30Then King Hezekiah and the captains gave orders to the Levites to give praise to God in the words of David and Asaph the seer. And they made songs of praise with joy, and with bent heads gave worship. ^29:31Then Hezekiah made answer and said, Now that you have given yourselves to the Lord, come near and take offerings and praise-offerings into the house of the Lord. So all the people took in offerings and praise-offerings: and those whose hearts were moved, took in burned offerings. ^29:32The number of burned offerings which the people took in was seventy oxen, a hundred male sheep, and two hundred lambs: all these were for burned offerings to the Lord. ^29:33And the holy things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep. ^29:34There were not enough priests for the work of cutting up all the burned offerings; so their brothers the Levites gave them help till the work was done and the priests had made themselves holy: for the Levites were more upright in heart to make themselves holy than the priests. ^29:35And there was a great amount of burned offerings, with the fat of the peace-offerings and the drink offerings for every burned offering. So the work of the Lord's house was put in order. ^29:36And Hezekiah and all the people were full of joy, because God had made the people ready: for the thing was done suddenly.

^30:1Then Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and sent letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, requesting them to come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel. ^30:2For the king, after discussion with his chiefs and all the body of the people in Jerusalem, had made a decision to keep the Passover in the second month. ^30:3It was not possible to keep it at that time, because not enough priests had made themselves holy, and the people had not come together in Jerusalem. ^30:4And the thing was right in the eyes of the king and all the people. ^30:5So it was ordered that word was to be sent out through all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that they were to come to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: because they had not kept it in great numbers in agreement with the law. ^30:6So runners went with letters from the king and his chiefs through all Israel and Judah, by the order of the king, saying, O children of Israel, come back again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may come again to that small band of you which has been kept safe out of the hands of the kings of Assyria. ^30:7Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were sinners against the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he made them a cause of fear, as you see. ^30:8Now do not be hard-hearted, as your fathers were; but give yourselves to the Lord, and come into his holy place, which he has made his for ever, and be the servants of the Lord your God, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from you. ^30:9For if you come back to the Lord, those who took away your brothers and your children will have pity on them, and let them come back to this land: for the Lord your God is full of grace and mercy, and his face will not be turned away from you if you come back to him. ^30:10So the runners went from town to town through all the country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun: but they were laughed at and made sport of. ^30:11However, some of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun put away their pride and came to Jerusalem. ^30:12And in Judah the power of God gave them one heart to do the orders of the king and the captains, which were taken as the word of the Lord. ^30:13So a very great number of people came together at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month. ^30:14And they got to work and took away all the altars in Jerusalem, and they put all the vessels for burning perfumes into the stream Kidron. ^30:15Then on the fourteenth day of the second month they put the Passover lambs to death: and the priests and the Levites were shamed, and made themselves holy and took burned offerings into the house of the Lord. ^30:16And they took their places in their right order, as it was ordered in the law of Moses, the man of God: the priests draining out on the altar the blood given them by the Levites. ^30:17For there were still a number of the people there who had not made themselves holy: so the Levites had to put Passover lambs to death for those who were not clean, to make them holy to the Lord. ^30:18For a great number of the people from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not made themselves clean, but they took the Passover meal, though not in the right way. For Hezekiah had made prayer for them, saying, May the good Lord have mercy on everyone ^30:19Who, with all his heart, is turned to God the Lord, the God of his fathers, even if he has not been made clean after the rules of the holy place. ^30:20And the Lord gave ear to Hezekiah, and made the people well. ^30:21So the children of Israel who were present in Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great joy: and the Levites and the priests gave praise to the Lord day by day, making melody to the Lord with loud instruments. ^30:22And Hezekiah said kind words to the Levites who were expert in the ordering of the worship of the Lord: so they kept the feast for seven days, offering peace-offerings and praising the Lord, the God of their fathers. ^30:23And by the desire of all the people, the feast went on for another seven days, and they kept the seven days with joy. ^30:24For Hezekiah, king of Judah, gave to the people for offerings, a thousand oxen and seven thousand sheep; and the rulers gave a thousand oxen and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests made themselves holy. ^30:25And all the people of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and those who had come from Israel, and men from other lands who had come from Israel or who were living in Judah, were glad with great joy. ^30:26So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for nothing like this had been seen in Jerusalem from the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. ^30:27Then the priests and the Levites gave the people a blessing: and the voice of their prayer went up to the holy place of God in heaven.

^31:1Now when all this was over, all the men of Israel who were present went out into the towns of Judah, causing the stone pillars to be broken up and the wood pillars to be cut down, pulling down the high places and the altars in all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, till all were gone. Then all the children of Israel went back to their towns, every man to his property. ^31:2Then Hezekiah put in order the divisions of the priests and Levites, every man in his division, in relation to his work, for the burned offerings and peace-offerings, and for the ordering of worship and for giving praise at the doors of the Lord's house. ^31:3And he gave the king's part of his private property for the burned offerings, that is, for the morning and evening offerings, and the offerings for the Sabbath and the new moons and the regular feasts, as it is recorded in the law of the Lord. ^31:4In addition, he gave orders to the people of Jerusalem to give to the priests and Levites that part which was theirs by right, so that they might be strong in keeping the law of the Lord. ^31:5And when the order was made public, straight away the children of Israel gave, in great amounts, the first-fruits of their grain and wine and oil and honey, and of the produce of their fields; and they took in a tenth part of everything, a great store. ^31:6And the children of Israel and Judah, who were living in the towns of Judah came with the tenth part of their oxen and sheep, and a tenth of all the holy things which were to be given to the Lord their God, and put them in great masses. ^31:7The first store of things was put down in the third month, and in the seventh month the masses were complete. ^31:8And when Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw all the store of goods, they gave praise to the Lord and to his people Israel. ^31:9Then Hezekiah put questions to the priests and Levites about the store of goods. ^31:10And Azariah, the chief priest, of the family of Zadok, said in answer, From the time when the people first came with their offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had food enough, and more than enough: for the blessing of the Lord is on his people; and there is this great store which has not been used. ^31:11Then Hezekiah said that store-rooms were to be made ready in the house of the Lord; and this was done. ^31:12And in them they put all the offerings and the tenths and the holy things, keeping nothing back, and over them was Conaniah the Levite, with Shimei his brother second to him. ^31:13And Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah were overseers, under the directions of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the order of Hezekiah the king and Azariah, the ruler of the house of God. ^31:14And Kore, the son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the east door, had control of the offerings freely given to God, and the distribution of the offerings of the Lord and the most holy things. ^31:15And under him were Eden and Miniamin and Jeshua and Shemaiah and Amariah and Shecaniah, in the towns of the priests, who were made responsible for giving it to all their brothers, by divisions, to small and great: ^31:16As well as to all the males, of three years old and over, listed by their families, who went into the house of the Lord to do what was needed day by day, for their special work with their divisions. ^31:17And the families of the priests were listed by their fathers' names, but the Levites, of twenty years old and over, were listed in relation to their work in their divisions; ^31:18And in the lists were all their little ones and their wives and their sons and daughters, through all the people: they made themselves holy in the positions which they were given. ^31:19And as for the sons of Aaron, the priests, living in the country on the outskirts of their towns, every different town there were men, marked out by name, to give their part of the goods to all the males among the priests, and to all who were listed among the Levites. ^31:20This Hezekiah did through all Judah; he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. ^31:21And for everything he undertook, in connection with the work of the house of God and his law and orders, he got directions from God and did it with serious purpose; and things went well for him.

^32:1Now after these things and this true-hearted work, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came into Judah, and put his army in position before the walled towns of Judah, designing to make his way into them by force. ^32:2And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come for the purpose of fighting against Jerusalem, ^32:3He took up with his rulers and men of war the question of stopping up the water-springs outside the town; and they gave him their support. ^32:4So they got together a great number of people, and had all the water-springs and the stream flowing through the land stopped up, saying, Why let the kings of Assyria come and have much water? ^32:5Then he took heart, building up the wall where it was broken down, and making its towers higher, and building another wall outside; and he made strong the Millo in the town of David, and got together a great store of all sorts of instruments of war. ^32:6And he put war chiefs over the people, and sent for them all to come together to him in the wide place at the doorway into the town, and to give them heart he said to them, ^32:7Be strong and take heart; have no fear, and do not be troubled on account of the king of Assyria and all the great army with him: for there is a greater with us. ^32:8With him is an arm of flesh; but we have the Lord our God, helping us and fighting for us. And the people put their faith in what Hezekiah, king of Judah, said. ^32:9After this, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem (at that time he was stationed with all his army in front of Lachish), to say to Hezekiah and all the men of Judah in Jerusalem, ^32:10Sennacherib, king of Assyria, says, In what are you placing your hope, waiting here in the walled town of Jerusalem? ^32:11Is it not Hezekiah who has got you to do it, causing your death from need of food and water, by saying, The Lord our God will give us salvation out of the hands of the king of Assyria? ^32:12Has not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, Give worship before one altar only, burning offerings on it? ^32:13Have you no knowledge of what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of every land? were the gods of the nations of those lands able to keep their land from falling into my hands? ^32:14Who was there among all the gods of those nations, which my fathers put to destruction, who was able to keep his people safe from my hands? and is it possible that your God will keep you safe from my hands? ^32:15So do not be tricked by Hezekiah or let him get you to do this, and do not put any faith in what he says: for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to keep his people safe from my hands, or the hands of my fathers: how much less will your God keep you safe from my hands! ^32:16And his servants said even more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. ^32:17And he sent letters, in addition, to put shame on the Lord, the God of Israel, and to say evil against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not been able to keep their people safe from my hands, no more will the God of Hezekiah keep his people safe from my hands. ^32:18These things they said, crying out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, with the purpose of troubling them and putting fear into them, so that they might take the town; ^32:19Talking of the God of Jerusalem as if he was like the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men's hands. ^32:20And Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, made prayer because of this, crying out to heaven. ^32:21And the Lord sent an angel who put to death all the men of war and the chiefs and the captains in the army of the king of Assyria. So he went back to his country in shame. And when he came into the house of his god, his sons, the offspring of his body, put him to death there with the sword. ^32:22So the Lord gave Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem salvation from the power of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and from all others, giving them rest on every side. ^32:23And great numbers came to Jerusalem with offerings for the Lord, and things of great price for Hezekiah, king of Judah: so that he was honoured among all nations from that time. ^32:24In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death; and he made prayer to the Lord, and the Lord in answer gave him a sign. ^32:25But Hezekiah did not do as had been done to him; for his heart was lifted up in pride; and so wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. ^32:26But then, Hezekiah, in sorrow for what he had done, put away his pride; and he and all Jerusalem made themselves low, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come on them in Hezekiah's life-time. ^32:27And Hezekiah had very great wealth and honour; and he made himself store-houses for his gold and silver and jewels and spices, and for body-covers and all sorts of beautiful vessels. ^32:28And store-houses for the produce of grain and wine and oil; and buildings for all sorts of beasts and flocks. ^32:29And he made towns for himself, and got together much property in flocks and herds: for God had given him great wealth. ^32:30It was Hezekiah who had the higher spring of the water of Gihon stopped, and the water taken down on the west side of the town of David. In everything he undertook, Hezekiah did well. ^32:31However, in the business of the representatives sent by the rulers of Babylon to get news of the wonder which had taken place in the land, God gave up guiding him, testing him to see what was in his heart. ^32:32Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and the good he did, are recorded in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ^32:33So Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the higher part of the resting-places of the sons of David: and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave him honour at his death. And Manasseh his son became king in his place.

^33:1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was ruling for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ^33:2He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before the children of Israel. ^33:3For he put up again the high places which had been pulled down by his father Hezekiah; and he made altars for the Baals, and pillars of wood, and was a worshipper and servant of all the stars of heaven; ^33:4And he made altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will my name be for ever. ^33:5And he made altars for all the stars of heaven in the two outer squares of the house of the Lord. ^33:6More than this, he made his children go through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he made use of secret arts, and signs for reading the future, and unnatural powers, and gave positions to those who had control of spirits and to wonder-workers: he did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath. ^33:7And he put the image he had made in the house of God, the house of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: ^33:8And never again will I let the feet of Israel be moved out of the land which I have given to their fathers; if only they will take care to do all my orders, even all the law and the orders and the rules given to them by Moses. ^33:9And Manasseh made Judah and the people of Jerusalem go out of the true way, so that they did more evil than those nations whom the Lord gave up to destruction before the children of Israel. ^33:10And the word of the Lord came to Manasseh and his people, but they gave no attention. ^33:11So the Lord sent against them the captains of the army of Assyria, who made Manasseh a prisoner and took him away in chains to Babylon. ^33:12And crying out to the Lord his God in his trouble, he made himself low before the God of his fathers, ^33:13And made prayer to him; and in answer to his prayer God let him come back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh was certain that the Lord was God. ^33:14After this he made an outer wall for the town of David, on the west side of Gihon in the valley, as far as the way into the town by the fish doorway; and he put a very high wall round the Ophel; and he put captains of the army in all the walled towns of Judah. ^33:15He took away the strange gods and the image out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars he had put up on the hill of the Lord's house and in Jerusalem, and put them out of the town. ^33:16And he put the altar of the Lord in order, offering peace-offerings and praise-offerings on it, and said that all Judah were to be servants of the Lord, the God of Israel. ^33:17However, the people still made offerings in the high places, but only to the Lord their God. ^33:18Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words which the seers said to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are recorded among the acts of the kings of Israel. ^33:19And the prayer which he made to God, and how God gave him an answer, and all his sin and his wrongdoing, and the places where he made high places and put up pillars of wood and images, before he put away his pride, are recorded in the history of the seers. ^33:20So Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body to rest in his house, and Amon his son became king in his place. ^33:21Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king; and he was ruling for two years in Jerusalem. ^33:22He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done; and Amon made offerings to all the images which his father Manasseh had made, and was their servant. ^33:23He did not make himself low before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done, but went on sinning more and more. ^33:24And his servants made a secret design against him, and put him to death in his house. ^33:25But the people of the land put to death all those who had taken part in the design against King Amon, and made his son Josiah king in his place.

^34:1Josiah was eight years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. ^34:2And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, walking in the ways of his father David, without turning to the right hand or to the left. ^34:3In the eighth year of his rule, while he was still young, his heart was first turned to the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he undertook the clearing away of all the high places and the pillars and the images of wood and metal from Judah and Jerusalem. ^34:4He had the altars of the Baals broken down, while he himself was present; and the sun-images which were placed on high over them he had cut down; and the pillars of wood and the metal images he had broken up and crushed to dust, dropping the dust over the resting-places of the dead who had made offerings to them. ^34:5And he had the bones of the priests burned on their altars, and so he made Judah and Jerusalem clean. ^34:6And in all the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon as far as Naphtali, he made waste their houses round about. ^34:7He had the altars and the pillars of wood pulled down and the images crushed to dust, and all the sun-images cut down, through all the land of Israel, and then he went back to Jerusalem. ^34:8Now in the eighteenth year of his rule, when the land and the house had been made clean, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah, the ruler of the town, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to make good what was damaged in the house of the Lord his God. ^34:9And they came to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and gave him all the money which had been taken into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the door, had got from Manasseh and Ephraim and those of Israel who had not been taken away as prisoners, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the people of Jerusalem. ^34:10And they gave it to the overseers of the work of the Lord's house, and the overseers gave it to the workmen working in the house, for building it up and making good what was damaged; ^34:11Even to the woodworkers and builders to get cut stone and wood for joining the structure together and for making boards for the houses which the kings of Judah had given up to destruction. ^34:12And the men did the work well; and those who had authority over them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, who were to be responsible for seeing that the work was done; and others of the Levites, who were expert with instruments of music, ^34:13Had authority over the transport workers, giving directions to all who were doing any sort of work; and among the Levites there were scribes and overseers and door-keepers. ^34:14Now when they were taking out the money which had come into the Lord's house, Hilkiah the priest came across the book of the law of the Lord, which he had given by the mouth of Moses. ^34:15Then Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, I have made discovery of the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. ^34:16And Shaphan took the book to the king; and he gave him an account of what had been done, saying, Your servants are doing all they have been given to do; ^34:17They have taken out all the money which was in the Lord's house and have given it to the overseers and to the workmen. ^34:18Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book; and he made a start at reading some of it to the king. ^34:19And the king, hearing the words of the law, took his robe in his hands, violently parting it as a sign of his grief. ^34:20And he gave orders to Hilkiah and to Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah, the king's servant, saying, ^34:21Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for those who are still in Israel and for Judah, about the words of this book which has come to light; for great is the wrath of the Lord which has been let loose on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord or done what is recorded in this book. ^34:22So Hilkiah, and those whom the king sent, went to Huldah the woman prophet, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the robes (now she was living in Jerusalem, in the second part of the town); and they had talk with her about this thing. ^34:23And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Say to the man who sent you to me, ^34:24These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on this place and on its people, even all the curses in the book which they have been reading before the king of Judah; ^34:25Because they have given me up, burning offerings to other gods and moving me to wrath by all the works of their hands; so my wrath is let loose on this place and will not be put out. ^34:26But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said: Because you have given ear to my words, ^34:27And your heart was soft, and you made yourself low before God, on hearing his words about this place and its people, and with weeping and signs of grief have made yourself low before me, I have given ear to you, says the Lord God. ^34:28See, I will let you go to your fathers, and be put in your last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will send on this place and on its people. So they took this news back to the king. ^34:29Then the king sent and got together all the responsible men of Judah and of Jerusalem. ^34:30And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites and all the people, small and great; and they were present at his reading of the book of the law which had come to light in the house of the Lord. ^34:31Then the king, taking his place by the pillar, made an agreement before the Lord, to go in the way of the Lord, and to keep his orders and his decisions and his rules with all his heart and with all his soul, and to keep the words of the agreement recorded in this book. ^34:32And he made all the people in Jerusalem and Benjamin give their word to keep it. And the people of Jerusalem kept the agreement of God, the God of their fathers. ^34:33Josiah took away all the disgusting things out of all the lands of the children of Israel, and made all who were in Israel servants of the Lord their God. And as long as he was living they were true to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

^35:1And Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; on the fourteenth day of the first month they put the Passover lamb to death. ^35:2And he gave the priests their places, making them strong for the work of the house of God. ^35:3And he said to the Levites, the teachers of all Israel, who were holy to the Lord, See, the holy ark is in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, made; it will no longer have to be transported on your backs: now be the servants of the Lord your God and his people Israel, ^35:4And make yourselves ready in your divisions, by your families, as it is ordered in the writings of David, king of Israel, and of Solomon his son; ^35:5And take your positions in the holy place, grouped in the families of your brothers, the children of the people, and for every division let there be a part of a family of the Levites. ^35:6And put the Passover lamb to death, and make yourselves holy, and make it ready for your brothers, so that the orders given by the Lord through Moses may be done. ^35:7And Josiah gave lambs and goats from the flock as Passover offerings for all the people who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand oxen: these were from the king's private property. ^35:8And his captains freely gave an offering to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand, six hundred small cattle and three hundred oxen. ^35:9And Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small cattle and five hundred oxen. ^35:10So everything was made ready and the priests took their places with the Levites in their divisions, as the king had said. ^35:11And they put the Passover lambs to death, the blood being drained out by the priests when it was given to them, and the Levites did the skinning. ^35:12And they took away the burned offerings, so that they might give them to be offered to the Lord for the divisions of the families of the people, as it is recorded in the book of Moses. And they did the same with the oxen. ^35:13And the Passover lamb was cooked over the fire, as it says in the law; and the holy offerings were cooked in pots and basins and vessels, and taken quickly to all the people. ^35:14And after that, they made ready for themselves and for the priests; for the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burned offerings and the fat till night; so the Levites made ready what was needed for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. ^35:15And the sons of Asaph, the makers of melody, were in their places, as ordered by David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king's seer; and the door-keepers were stationed at every door: there was no need for them to go away from their places, for their brothers the Levites made ready for them. ^35:16So everything needed for the worship of the Lord was made ready that same day, for the keeping of the Passover and the offering of burned offerings on the altar of the Lord, as King Josiah had given orders. ^35:17And all the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread at that time for seven days. ^35:18No Passover like it had been kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; and not one of the kings of Israel had ever kept a Passover like the one kept by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all those of Judah and Israel who were present, and the people of Jerusalem. ^35:19In the eighteenth year of the rule of Josiah this Passover was kept. ^35:20After all this, and after Josiah had put the house in order, Neco, king of Egypt, went up to make war at Carchemish by the river Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him. ^35:21But he sent representatives to him, saying, What have I to do with you, O king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against those with whom I am at war; and God has given me orders to go forward quickly: keep out of God's way, for he is with me, or he will send destruction on you. ^35:22However, Josiah would not go back; but keeping to his purpose of fighting against him, and giving no attention to the words of Neco, which came from God, he went forward to the fight in the valley of Megiddo. ^35:23And the bowmen sent their arrows at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am badly wounded. ^35:24So his servants took him out of the line of war-carriages, and put him in his second carriage and took him to Jerusalem, where he came to his end, and they put his body in the resting-place of his fathers. And in all Judah and Jerusalem there was great weeping for Josiah. ^35:25And Jeremiah made a song of grief for Josiah; and to this day Josiah is named by all the makers of melody, men and women, in their songs of grief; they made it a rule in Israel; and the songs are recorded among the songs of grief. ^35:26Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and the good he did, in keeping with what is recorded in the law of the Lord, ^35:27And all his acts, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

^36:1Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father. ^36:2Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months. ^36:3Then the king of Egypt took the kingdom from him in Jerusalem, and put on the land a tax of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ^36:4And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, changing his name to Jehoiakim. And Neco took his brother Jehoahaz away to Egypt. ^36:5Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God. ^36:6Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him, and took him away in chains to Babylon. ^36:7And Nebuchadnezzar took away some of the vessels of the Lord's house, and put them in the house of his god in Babylon. ^36:8Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and the disgusting things he did, and all there is to be said against him, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah; and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place. ^36:9Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months and ten days, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. ^36:10In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and took him away to Babylon, with the beautiful vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah, his father's brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem. ^36:11Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years. ^36:12He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did not make himself low before Jeremiah the prophet who gave him the word of the Lord. ^36:13And he took up arms against King Nebuchadnezzar, though he had made him take an oath by God; but he made his neck stiff and his heart hard, turning away from the Lord, the God of Israel. ^36:14And more than this, all the great men of Judah and the priests and the people made their sin great, turning to all the disgusting ways of the nations; and they made unclean the house of the Lord which he had made holy in Jerusalem. ^36:15And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them by his servants, sending early and frequently, because he had pity on his people and on his living-place; ^36:16But they put shame on the servants of God, making sport of his words and laughing at his prophets, till the wrath of God was moved against his people, till there was no help. ^36:17So he sent against them the king of the Chaldaeans, who put their young men to death with the sword in the house of their holy place, and had no pity for any, young man or virgin, old man or white-haired: God gave them all into his hands. ^36:18And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the stored wealth of the Lord's house and the wealth of the king and his chiefs, he took away to Babylon. ^36:19And the house of God was burned and the wall of Jerusalem broken down; all its great houses were burned with fire and all its beautiful vessels given up to destruction. ^36:20And all who had not come to death by the sword he took away prisoners to Babylon; and they became servants to him and to his sons till the kingdom of Persia came to power: ^36:21So that the words of the Lord, which he said by the mouth of Jeremiah, might come true, till the land had had pleasure in her Sabbaths; for as long as she was waste the land kept the Sabbath, till seventy years were complete. ^36:22Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order that the words which the Lord had said by the mouth of Jeremiah might come true, the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, was moved by the Lord, and he made a public statement and had it given out through all his kingdom and put in writing, saying, ^36:23Cyrus, king of Persia, has said, All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord, the God of heaven; and he has made me responsible for building a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up.

Ezra

^1:1Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order that the word of the Lord given by the mouth of Jeremiah might come true, the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, was moved by the Lord, so that he made a public statement through all his kingdom, and put it in writing, saying, ^1:2These are the words of Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has made me responsible for building a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ^1:3Whoever there is among you of his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and take in hand the building of the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; he is the God who is in Jerusalem. ^1:4And whoever there may be of the rest of Israel, living in any place, let the men of that place give him help with offerings of silver and gold and goods and beasts, in addition to the offering freely given for the house of God in Jerusalem. ^1:5Then the heads of families of Judah and Benjamin, with the priests and the Levites, got ready, even all those whose spirits were moved by God to go up and take in hand the building of the Lord's house in Jerusalem. ^1:6And all their neighbours gave them help with offerings of vessels of silver and gold and goods and beasts and things of great value, in addition to what was freely offered. ^1:7And Cyrus the king got out the vessels of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods; ^1:8Even these Cyrus made Mithredath, the keeper of his wealth, get out, and he gave them, after numbering them, to Sheshbazzar, the ruler of Judah. ^1:9And this is the number of them: there were thirty gold plates, a thousand silver plates, twenty-nine knives, ^1:10Thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins, and a thousand other vessels. ^1:11There were five thousand, four hundred gold and silver vessels. All these were taken back by Sheshbazzar, when those who had been taken prisoner went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

^2:1Now these are the people of the divisions of the kingdom, among those who had been made prisoners by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and taken away to Babylon, who went back to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his town; ^2:2Who went with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah, The number of the men of the people of Israel: ^2:3The children of Parosh, two thousand, one hundred and seventy-two. ^2:4The children of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two. ^2:5The children of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five. ^2:6The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand, eight hundred and twelve. ^2:7The children of Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four. ^2:8The children of Zattu, nine hundred and forty-five. ^2:9The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty. ^2:10The children of Bani, six hundred and forty-two. ^2:11The children of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-three. ^2:12The children of Azgad, a thousand, two hundred and twenty-two. ^2:13The children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six. ^2:14The children of Bigvai, two thousand and fifty-six. ^2:15The children of Adin, four hundred and fifty-four. ^2:16The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight. ^2:17The children of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-three. ^2:18The children of Jorah, a hundred and twelve. ^2:19The children of Hashum, two hundred and twenty-three. ^2:20The children of Gibbar, ninety-five. ^2:21The children of Beth-lehem, a hundred and twenty-three. ^2:22The men of Netophah, fifty-six. ^2:23The men of Anathoth, a hundred and twenty-eight. ^2:24The children of Azmaveth, forty-two. ^2:25The children of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three. ^2:26The children of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one. ^2:27The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two. ^2:28The men of Beth-el and Ai, two hundred and twenty-three. ^2:29The children of Nebo, fifty-two. ^2:30The children of Magbish, a hundred and fifty-six. ^2:31The children of the other Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four. ^2:32The children of Harim, three hundred and twenty. ^2:33The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-five. ^2:34The children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five. ^2:35The children of Senaah, three thousand, six hundred and thirty. ^2:36The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three. ^2:37The children of Immer, a thousand and fifty-two. ^2:38The children of Pashhur, a thousand, two hundred and forty-seven. ^2:39The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen. ^2:40The Levites: the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the children of Hodaviah, seventy-four. ^2:41The music-makers: the children of Asaph, a hundred and twenty-eight ^2:42The children of the door-keepers: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, a hundred and thirty-nine. ^2:43The Nethinim: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth, ^2:44The children of Keros, the children of Siaha, the children of Padon, ^2:45The children of Lebanah, the children of Hagabah, the children of Akkub, ^2:46The children of Hagab, the children of Shamlai, the children of Hanan, ^2:47The children of Giddel, the children of Gahar, the children of Reaiah, ^2:48The children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda, the children of Gazzam, ^2:49The children of Uzza, the children of Paseah, the children of Besai, ^2:50The children of Asnah, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephisim, ^2:51The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur, ^2:52The children of Bazluth, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha, ^2:53The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Temah, ^2:54The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha. ^2:55The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Hassophereth, the children of Peruda, ^2:56The children of Jaalah, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel, ^2:57The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Ami. ^2:58All the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants, were three hundred and ninety-two. ^2:59And these were the people who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer. But having no knowledge of their fathers' families or offspring, it was not certain that they were Israelites; ^2:60The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred and fifty-two. ^2:61And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who was married to one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and took their name. ^2:62They made search for their record among the lists of families, but their names were nowhere to be seen; so they were looked on as unclean and no longer priests. ^2:63And the Tirshatha said that they were not to have the most holy things for their food, till a priest came to give decision by Urim and Thummim. ^2:64The number of all the people together was forty-two thousand, three hundred and sixty, ^2:65As well as their men-servants and their women-servants, of whom there were seven thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven: and they had two hundred men and women to make music. ^2:66They had seven hundred and thirty-six horses, two hundred and forty-five transport beasts, ^2:67Four hundred and thirty-five camels, six thousand, seven hundred and twenty asses. ^2:68And some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, gave freely of their wealth for the building up of the house of God in its place: ^2:69Every one, as he was able, gave for the work sixty-one thousand darics of gold, five thousand pounds of silver and a hundred priests' robes. ^2:70So the priests and the Levites and the people and the music-makers and the door-keepers and the Nethinim, took up their places in their towns; even all Israel in their towns.

^3:1And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people came together like one man to Jerusalem. ^3:2Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, with his brothers, got up and made the altar of the God of Israel for burned offerings as is recorded in the law of Moses, the man of God. ^3:3They put the altar on its base; for fear was on them because of the people of the countries: and they made burned offerings on it to the Lord, even burned offerings morning and evening. ^3:4And they kept the feast of tents, as it is recorded, making the regular burned offerings every day by number, as it is ordered; for every day what was needed. ^3:5And after that, the regular burned offering and the offerings for the new moons and all the fixed feasts of the Lord which had been made holy, and the offering of everyone who freely gave his offering to the Lord. ^3:6From the first day of the seventh month they made a start with the burned offerings, but the base of the Temple of the Lord had still not been put in its place. ^3:7And they gave money to the stoneworkers and woodworkers; and meat and drink and oil to the people of Zidon and of Tyre, for the transport of cedar-trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, as Cyrus, king of Persia, had given them authority to do. ^3:8Now in the second year of their coming into the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, the work was taken in hand by Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come from the land where they were prisoners to Jerusalem: and they made the Levites, of twenty years old and over, responsible for overseeing the work of the house of the Lord. ^3:9Then Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, the sons of Hodaviah, together took up the work of overseeing the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad with their sons and their brothers, the Levites. ^3:10And when the builders put in position the base of the Temple of the Lord, the priests, dressed in their robes, took their places with horns, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with brass instruments, to give praise to the Lord in the way ordered by David, king of Israel. ^3:11And they gave praise to the Lord, answering one another in their songs and saying, For he is good, for his mercy to Israel is eternal. And all the people gave a great cry of joy, when they gave praise to the Lord, because the base of the Lord's house was put in place. ^3:12But a number of the priests and Levites and the heads of families, old men who had seen the first house, when the base of this house was put down before their eyes, were overcome with weeping; and a number were crying out with joy: ^3:13So that in the ears of the people the cry of joy was mixed with the sound of weeping; for the cries of the people were loud and came to the ears of those who were a long way off.

^4:1Now news came to the haters of Judah and Benjamin that the people who had come back were building a Temple to the Lord, the God of Israel; ^4:2Then they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of families, and said to them, Let us take part in the building with you; for we are servants of your God, even as you are; and we have been making offerings to him from the days of Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, who put us here. ^4:3But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, You have no part with us in the building of a house for our God; we ourselves will do the work together for the Lord, the God of Israel, as Cyrus, king of Persia, has given us orders. ^4:4Then the people of the land made the hands of the people of Judah feeble, troubling them with fear in their building; ^4:5And they gave payment to men who made designs against them and kept them from effecting their purpose, all through the time of Cyrus, king of Persia, till Darius became king. ^4:6And in the time of Ahasuerus, when he first became king, they put on record a statement against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. ^4:7And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his friends, sent a letter to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, writing it in the Aramaean writing and language. ^4:8Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, sent a letter against Jerusalem, to Artaxerxes the king; ^4:9The letter was sent by Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe and their friends; the Dinaites and the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites, ^4:10And the rest of the nations which the great and noble Osnappar took over and put in Samaria and the rest of the country over the river: ^4:11This is a copy of the letter which they sent to Artaxerxes the king: Your servants living across the river send these words: ^4:12We give news to the king that the Jews who came from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are building up again that uncontrolled and evil town; the walls are complete and they are joining up the bases. ^4:13The king may be certain that when the building of this town and its walls is complete, they will give no tax or payment in goods or forced payments, and in the end it will be a cause of loss to the kings. ^4:14Now because we are responsible to the king, and it is not right for us to see the king's honour damaged, we have sent to give the king word of these things, ^4:15So that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers: and you will see in the book of the records that this town has been uncontrolled, and a cause of trouble to kings and countries, and that there were outbursts against authority there in the past: for which reason the town was made waste. ^4:16We give you word, that if the building of this town and its walls is made complete, there will be an end of your power in the country across the river. ^4:17Then the king sent an answer to Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, and their friends living in Samaria, and to the rest of those across the river, saying, Peace to you: ^4:18And now the sense of the letter which you sent to us has been made clear to me, ^4:19And I gave orders for a search to be made, and it is certain that in the past this town has made trouble for kings, and that outbursts against authority have taken place there. ^4:20Further, there have been great kings in Jerusalem, ruling over all the country across the river, to whom they gave taxes and payments in goods and forced payments. ^4:21Give an order now, that these men are to do nothing more, and that the building of the town is to be stopped, till I give an order. ^4:22Be certain to do this with all care: do not let trouble be increased to the king's damage. ^4:23Then, after reading the king's letter, Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their friends went quickly to Jerusalem, to the Jews, and had them stopped by force. ^4:24So the work of the house of God at Jerusalem came to an end; so it was stopped, till the second year of the rule of Darius, king of Persia.

^5:1Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, were preaching to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel. ^5:2Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, got up and made a start at building the house of God at Jerusalem: and the prophets of God were with them, helping them. ^5:3At the same time, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai, and their men, came to them and said, Who gave you orders to go on building this house and this wall? ^5:4Then they said these words to them: What are the names of the men who are at work on this building? ^5:5But the eye of their God was on the chiefs of the Jews, and they did not make them give up working till the question had been put before Darius and an answer had come by letter about it. ^5:6This is a copy of the letter which Tattenai, the ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and his friends the Apharsachites, living across the river, sent to Darius the king: ^5:7They sent him a letter saying, To Darius the king, all peace: ^5:8This is to give the king word that we went into the land of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is made of great stones, and has its walls supported with wood, and the work is going on with industry, and they are doing it well. ^5:9Then we said to the men responsible, who gave you authority for the building of this house and these walls? ^5:10And we made request for their names, so that we might send you word, and give you the names of the men at the head of them. ^5:11And they made answer to us, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building the house which was put up in times long past and was designed and made complete by a great king of Israel. ^5:12But when the God of heaven was moved to wrath by our fathers, he gave them up into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldaean, who sent destruction on this house and took the people away into Babylon. ^5:13But in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babylon, Cyrus the king gave an order for the building of this house of God; ^5:14And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple which was in Jerusalem, and put into the house of his god in Babylon, these Cyrus the king took from the house of his god in Babylon, and gave to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made ruler; ^5:15And he said to him, Go, take these vessels, and put them in the Temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be put up again in its place. ^5:16Then this same Sheshbazzar came and put the house of God in Jerusalem on its bases: and from that time till now the building has been going on, but it is still not complete. ^5:17So now, if it seems good to the king, let search be made in the king's store-house at Babylon, to see if it is true that an order was given by Cyrus the king for the building of this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send us word of his pleasure in connection with this business.

^6:1Then Darius the king gave an order and a search was made in the house of the records, where the things of value were stored up in Babylon. ^6:2And at Achmetha, in the great house of the king in the land of Media, they came across a roll, in which this statement was put on record: ^6:3In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made an order: In connection with the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be put up, the place where they make offerings, and let the earth for the bases be put in place; let it be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide; ^6:4With three lines of great stones and one line of new wood supports; and let the necessary money be given out of the king's store-house; ^6:5And let the gold and silver vessels from the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple at Jerusalem to Babylon, be given back and taken again to the Temple at Jerusalem, every one in its place, and put them in the house of God. ^6:6So now, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and your people the Apharsachites across the river, keep far from that place: ^6:7Let the work of this house of God go on; let the ruler of the Jews and their responsible men put up this house of God in its place. ^6:8Further, I give orders as to what you are to do for the responsible men of the Jews in connection with the building of this house of God: that from the king's wealth, that is, from the taxes got together in the land over the river, the money needed is to be given to these men readily, so that their work may not be stopped. ^6:9And whatever they have need of, young oxen and sheep and lambs, for burned offerings to the God of heaven, grain, salt, wine, and oil, whatever the priests in Jerusalem say is necessary, is to be given to them day by day regularly: ^6:10So that they may make offerings of a sweet smell to the God of heaven, with prayers for the life of the king and of his sons. ^6:11And I have given orders that if anyone makes any change in this word, one of the supports is to be pulled out of his house, and he is to be lifted up and fixed to it; and his house is to be made waste for this; ^6:12And may the God who has made it a resting-place for his name send destruction on all kings and peoples whose hands are outstretched to make any change in this or to do damage to this house of God at Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given this order, let it be done with all care. ^6:13Then Tattenai, the ruler across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and their people, because of the order given by King Darius, did as he had said with all care. ^6:14And the responsible men of the Jews went on with their building, and did well, helped by the teaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. They went on building till it was complete, in keeping with the word of the God of Israel, and the orders given by Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia. ^6:15And the building of this house was complete on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the rule of Darius the king. ^6:16And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of those who had come back, kept the feast of the opening of this house of God with joy. ^6:17And they gave as offerings at the opening of this house of God a hundred oxen, two hundred sheep, four hundred lambs; and for a sin-offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats, being the number of the tribes of Israel. ^6:18And they put the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their order, for the worship of God at Jerusalem; as it is recorded in the book of Moses. ^6:19And the children of Israel who had come back kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. ^6:20For the priests and the Levites had made themselves clean together; they were all clean: and they put the Passover lamb to death for all those who had come back, and for their brothers the priests and for themselves. ^6:21And the children of Israel, who had come back, and all those who were joined to them, after separating themselves from the evil ways of the people of the land to become the servants of the Lord, the God of Israel, took food together, ^6:22And kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them full of joy, by turning the heart of the king of Assyria to them to give them help in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.