Chapter 15

Series of Kings: Azariah (Uzziah) over Judah

1 aIn the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah became king.

2 He was asixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was 1Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

3 He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.

4 Only athe high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

5 aThe Lord struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death. And he blived in a separate house, 1while Jotham the king’s son was over the household, judging the people of the land.

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

7 And Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Jotham his son became king in his place.

Zechariah over Israel

8 aIn the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in Samaria for six months.

9 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

10 Then Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him and astruck him before the people and 1killed him, and reigned in his place.

11 Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

12 This is athe word of the Lord which He spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” And so it was.

13 Shallum son of Jabesh became king in the athirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned one month in bSamaria.

14 Then Menahem son of Gadi went up from aTirzah and came to Samaria, and struck Shallum son of Jabesh in Samaria, and killed him and became king in his place.

15 Now the rest of the acts of Shallum and his conspiracy which he made, behold they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

16 Then Menahem struck Tiphsah and all who were in it and its borders from Tirzah, because they did not open to him; therefore he struck it and ripped up aall its women who were with child.

Menahem over Israel

17 In the athirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem son of Gadi became king over Israel and reigned ten years in Samaria.

18 He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

19 aPul, king of Assyria, came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that his hand might be with him to bstrengthen the kingdom 1under his rule.

20 Then Menahem exacted the money from Israel, even from all the mighty men of wealth, from each man fifty shekels of silver to pay the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria returned and did not remain there in the land.

21 Now the rest of the acts of Menahem and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

22 And Menahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahiah his son became king in his place.

Pekahiah over Israel

23 In athe fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah son of Menahem became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years.

24 He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

25 Then Pekah son of Remaliah, his officer, conspired against him and struck him in Samaria, in athe castle of the king’s house with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites, and he killed him and became king in his place.

26 Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah and all that he did, behold they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

Pekah over Israel

27 In athe fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, bPekah son of Remaliah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years.

28 He did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he made Israel sin.

29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel, 1aTiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and 2captured Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and bhe carried them captive to Assyria.

30 And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck him and put him to death and became king in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.

31 Now the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

Jotham over Judah

32 In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham the son of 1Uzziah king of Judah became king.

33 aHe was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok.

34 aHe did what was right in the sight of the Lord; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done.

35 Only athe high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. bHe built the upper gate of the house of the Lord.

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

37 In those days athe Lord began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah.

38 And Jotham slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Ahaz his son became king in his place.

Chapter 16

Ahaz Reigns over Judah

1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, aAhaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king.

2 aAhaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done.

3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, aand even made his son pass through the fire, baccording to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had 1driven out from before the sons of Israel.

4 He asacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

5 Then aRezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, bbut could not 1overcome him.

6 At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered aElath for Aram, and cleared the Judeans out of 1Elath entirely; and the 2Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day.

Ahaz Seeks Help of Aram

7 aSo Ahaz sent messengers to bTiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the 1hand of the king of Aram and from the 1hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.”

8 aAhaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria.

9 aSo the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and bcaptured it, and carried the people of it away into exile to cKir, and put Rezin to death.

Damascus Falls

10 Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet aTiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to bUrijah the priest the 1pattern of the altar and its model, according to all its workmanship.

11 So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, thus Urijah the priest made it, 1before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus.

12 When the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar; then athe king approached the altar and 1went up to it,

13 and 1burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.

14 aThe bronze altar, which was before the Lord, 1he brought from the front of the house, from between bhis altar and the house of the Lord, and he put it on the north side of his altar.

15 Then King Ahaz 1commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “Upon the great altar 2burn athe morning burnt offering and the evening meal offering and the king’s burnt offering and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their meal offering and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But bthe bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.”

16 So Urijah the priest did according to all that King Ahaz commanded.

17 Then King Ahaz acut off the borders of the stands, and removed the laver from them; he also btook down the sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone.

18 The covered way for the sabbath which they had built in the house, and the outer entry of the king, he removed from the house of the Lord because of the king of Assyria.

Hezekiah Reigns over Judah

19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written ain the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

20 So aAhaz slept with his fathers, and bwas buried with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.

Chapter 17

Hoshea Reigns over Israel

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, aHoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned nine years.

2 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, only not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

3 aShalmaneser king of Assyria came up bagainst him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute.

4 But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; so the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.

5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to aSamaria and besieged it three years.

Israel Captive

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, athe king of Assyria captured Samaria and bcarried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and csettled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of dGozan, and ein the cities of the Medes.

Why Israel Fell

7 Now athis came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, bwho had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, cand they had 1feared other gods

8 and awalked in the 1customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs bof the kings of Israel which they had 2introduced.

9 The sons of Israel 1did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from awatchtower to fortified city.

10 aThey set for themselves sacred pillars and 1bAsherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

11 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the Lord.

12 They served idols, aconcerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”

13 Yet the aLord warned Israel and Judah bthrough all His prophets and cevery seer, saying, “dTurn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.”

14 However, they did not listen, but astiffened their neck 1like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

15 aThey rejected His statutes and bHis covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And cthey followed vanity and dbecame vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the eLord had commanded them not to do like them.

16 They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even atwo calves, and bmade an 1Asherah and cworshiped all the host of heaven and dserved Baal.

17 Then athey made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and bpracticed divination and enchantments, and csold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him.

18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel and aremoved them from His 1sight; bnone was left except the tribe of Judah.

19 Also aJudah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but bwalked in the 1customs 2which Israel had 3introduced.

20 The Lord rejected all the 1descendants of Israel and afflicted them and agave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them 2out of His sight.

21 When aHe had torn Israel from the house of David, bthey made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then cJeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them 1commit a great sin.

22 The sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them

23 auntil the Lord removed Israel from His sight, bas He spoke through all His servants the prophets. aSo Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.

Cities of Israel Filled with Strangers

24 aThe king of Assyria brought men from Babylon and from Cuthah and from 1bAvva and from cHamath and Sephar-vaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.

25 At the beginning of their living there, they adid not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them.

26 So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have carried away into exile in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so he has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them because they do not know the custom of the god of the land.”

27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Take there one of the priests whom you carried away into 1exile and let 2him go and live there; and let him teach them the custom of the god of the land.”

28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away into exile from Samaria came and lived at Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them ain the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.

30 aThe men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,

31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and athe Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to bAdrammelech and Anammelech the gods of cSepharvaim.

32 aThey also feared the Lord and 1bappointed from among themselves priests of the high places, who acted for them in the houses of the high places.

33 They feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried away into exile.

34 To this day they do according to the earlier customs: they do not fear the Lord, nor do they 1follow their statutes or their ordinances or the law, or the commandments which the Lord commanded the sons of Jacob, awhom He named Israel;

35 with whom the Lord made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “aYou shall not fear other gods, nor bbow down yourselves to them nor cserve them nor sacrifice to them.

36 “But the Lord, awho brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with ban outstretched arm, cHim you shall fear, and to Him you shall bow yourselves down, and to Him you shall sacrifice.

37 “The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote for you, ayou shall observe to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods.

38 “The covenant that I have made with you, ayou shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods.

39 “But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”

40 However, they did not listen, but they did according to their earlier custom.

41 aSo while these nations feared the Lord, they also served their 1idols; their children likewise and their grandchildren, as their fathers did, so they do to this day.