2 Kings 23–24

Chapter 23

Josiah’s Covenant

^1aThen the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

²The king went up to the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and ^ahe read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant ^bwhich was found in the house of the Lord.

^3aThe king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, ^bto walk after the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people ¹entered into the covenant.

Reforms under Josiah

⁴Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and ^athe priests of the second order and the ¹doorkeepers, ^bto bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, for ²Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and ^che burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

⁵He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the ^ahost of heaven.

⁶He brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ^aground it to dust, and ^bthrew its dust on the graves of the ¹common people.

⁷He also broke down the houses of the ^amale cult prostitutes which were in the house of the Lord, where ^bthe women were weaving ¹hangings for the Asherah.

⁸Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from ^aGeba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate.

⁹Nevertheless ^athe priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

^10aHe also defiled ¹Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, ^bthat no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for ^cMolech.

¹¹He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the ^asun, at the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

^12aThe altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and ^bthe altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down; and he ¹smashed them there and ^cthrew their dust into the brook Kidron.

¹³The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of ^athe mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for ^bAshtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for ^cChemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.

^14aHe broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and ^bfilled their places with human bones.

¹⁵Furthermore, ^athe altar that was at Bethel and the ^bhigh place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down. Then he ^1cdemolished its stones, ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah.

¹⁶Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it ^aaccording to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.

¹⁷Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “^aIt is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.”

¹⁸He said, “Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones.” So they ¹left his bones undisturbed ^awith the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

¹⁹Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were ^ain the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking ¹the Lord; and he did to them ²just as he had done in Bethel.

²⁰All the priests of the high places who were there ^ahe slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.

Passover Reinstituted

²¹Then the king commanded all the people saying, “^aCelebrate the Passover to the Lord your God ^bas it is written in this book of the covenant.”

^22aSurely such a Passover had not been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.

²³But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed to the Lord in Jerusalem.

²⁴Moreover, Josiah ¹removed ^athe mediums and the spiritists and the ^bteraphim and ^cthe idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, ^dthat he might ²confirm the words of the law which were written ^ein the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.

²⁵Before him there was no king ^alike him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.

²⁶However, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath with which His anger burned against Judah, ^abecause of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.

²⁷The Lord said, “I will remove Judah also from My sight, ^aas I have removed Israel. And ^bI will cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the ¹temple of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’ ”

Jehoahaz Succeeds Josiah

²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

^29aIn his days ^bPharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he killed him at ^cMegiddo.

^30aHis servants drove ¹his body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. ^bThen the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

^31aJehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ^bHamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

³²He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^aaccording to all that his fathers had done.

^33aPharaoh Neco imprisoned him at ^bRiblah in the land of ^cHamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

Jehoiakim Made King by Pharaoh

³⁴Pharaoh Neco made ^aEliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and ^bchanged his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and ^1cbrought him to Egypt, and he died there.

³⁵So Jehoiakim ^agave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land in order to give the money at the ¹command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, each according to his valuation, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

^36aJehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

³⁷He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^aaccording to all that his fathers had done.

Chapter 24

Babylon Controls Jehoiakim

^1aIn his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.

²The Lord sent against him ^abands of Chaldeans, ^bbands of Arameans, ^cbands of Moabites, and bands of Ammonites. So He sent them against Judah to destroy it, ^daccording to the word of the Lord which He had spoken through His servants the prophets.

^3aSurely at the ¹command of the Lord it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight ^bbecause of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,

⁴and ^aalso for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not forgive.

⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

Jehoiachin Reigns

⁶So ^aJehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.

^7aThe king of Egypt did not come out of his land again, ^bfor the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from ^cthe brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates.

^8aJehoiachin was ^beighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

⁹He did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^aaccording to all that his father had done.

Deportation to Babylon

¹⁰At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.

¹¹And Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it.

^12aJehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his captains and his officials. So ^bthe king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign.

^13aHe carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house, and ^bcut in pieces all the vessels of gold ^cwhich Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, just as the Lord had said.

¹⁴Then ^ahe led away into exile all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ^bten thousand captives, and ^call the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained ^dexcept the poorest people of the land.

¹⁵So ^ahe led Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon;…