2 Kings 17–18

Chapter 17

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 18

In the third year of Osee, the son of Ela, king of Israel, reigned Ezechias, the son of Achaz, king of Juda.

²He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Abi, the daughter of Zacharias.

³And he did that which was good before the Lord, according to all that David, his father, had done

⁴He destroyed the high places, and broke the statues in pieces, and cut down the groves, and broke the brazen serpent, which Moses had made: for till that time the children of Israel burnt incense to it: and he called its name Nohestan.

⁵He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel: so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Juda, nor any of them that were before him:

⁶And he stuck to the Lord, and departed not from his steps, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses.

⁷Wherefore the Lord also was with him, and in all things, to which he went forth, he behaved himself wisely. And he rebelled against the king of the Assyrians, and served him not.

⁸He smote the Philistines as far as Gaza, and all their borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.

⁹In the fourth year of king Ezechias, which was the seventh year of Osee, the son of Ela, king of Israel, Salmanasar, king of the Assyrians, came up to Samaria, and besieged it,

¹⁰And took it. For after three years, in the sixth year of Ezechias, that is, in the ninth year of Osee, king of Israel, Samaria was taken:

¹¹And the king of the Assyrians carried away Israel into Assyria, and placed them in Hala, and in Habor, by the rivers of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes.

¹²Because they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord, their God, but transgressed his covenant: all that Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded, they would not hear, nor do.

¹³In the fourteenth year of king Ezechias, Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, came up against the fenced cities of Juda, and took them.

¹⁴Then Ezechias, king of Juda, sent messengers to the king of the Assyrians, to Lachis, saying: I have offended, depart from me: and all that thou shalt put upon me, I will bear. And the king of the Assyrians put a tax upon Ezechias, king of Juda, of three hundred talents of silver, and thirty talents of gold.

¹⁵And Ezechias gave all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the king’s treasures.

¹⁶At that time Ezechias broke the doors of the temple of the Lord, and the plates of gold which he had fastened on them, and gave them to the king of the Assyrians.

¹⁷And the king of the Assyrians sent Tharthan, and Rabsaris, and Rabsaces, from Lachis, to king Ezechias, with a strong army, to Jerusalem: and they went up and came to Jerusalem, and they stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the way of the fuller’s field.

¹⁸And they called for the king: and there went out to them Eliacim, the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna, the scribe, and Joahe, the son of Asaph, the recorder.

¹⁹And Rabsaces said to them: Speak to Ezechias: Thus saith…