¹ After these things, and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and thought to win them for himself.

² When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem,

³ he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the springs which were outside of the city; and they helped him.

⁴ So many people gathered together, and they stopped all the springs, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, "Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?"

⁵ He took courage, and built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised [it] up to the towers, and the other wall outside, and strengthened Millo [in] the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance.

⁶ He set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the broad place at the gate of the city, and spoke comfortably to them, saying,

⁷ "Be strong and courageous, don't be afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude who is with him; for there is a greater with us than with him.

⁸ With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is Yahweh our God to help us, and to fight our battles." The people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

⁹ After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (now he was before Lachish, and all his power with him), to Hezekiah king of Judah, and to all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying,

¹⁰ Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, "In whom do you trust, that you remain under siege in Jerusalem?

¹¹ Doesn't Hezekiah persuade you, to give you over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, 'Yahweh our God will deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria?'

¹² Hasn't the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, 'You shall worship before one altar, and on it you shall burn incense?'

¹³ Don't you know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands in any way able to deliver their land out of my hand?

¹⁴ Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand?

¹⁵ Now therefore don't let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way, neither believe him; for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your god deliver you out of my hand?"

¹⁶ His servants spoke yet more against Yahweh God, and against his servant Hezekiah.

¹⁷ He also wrote letters insulting Yahweh, the God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, "As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the God of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand."

¹⁸ They cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them, and to trouble them; that they might take the city.

¹⁹ They spoke of the God of Jerusalem, as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men's hands.

²⁰ Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, prayed because of this, and cried to heaven.

²¹ Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. When he had come into the house of his god, those who came forth from his own bowels killed him there with the sword.

²² Thus Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all [others], and guided them on every side.

²³ Many brought gifts to Yahweh to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from thenceforth.

²⁴ In those days Hezekiah was sick even to death: and he prayed to Yahweh; and he spoke to him, and gave him a sign.

²⁵ But Hezekiah didn't render again according to the benefit done to him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath on him, and on Judah and Jerusalem.

²⁶ Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Yahweh didn't come on them in the days of Hezekiah.

²⁷ Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor: and he provided him treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all kinds of goodly vessels;

²⁸ storehouses also for the increase of grain and new wine and oil; and stalls for all kinds of animals, and flocks in folds.

²⁹ Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him very much substance.

³⁰ This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down on the west side of the city of David. Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

³¹ However in [the business of] the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.

³² Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

³³ Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the ascent of the tombs of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

² He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.

³ For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them.

⁴ He built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh said, "My name shall be in Jerusalem forever."

⁵ He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of the house of Yahweh.

⁶ He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he practiced sorcery, and used enchantments, and practiced sorcery, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he worked much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.

⁷ He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever:

⁸ neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances given by Moses."

⁹ Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did evil more than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel.

¹⁰ Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they gave no heed.

¹¹ Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

¹² When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

¹³ He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.

¹⁴ Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate; and he encircled Ophel [with it], and raised it up to a very great height: and he put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵ He took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of the house of Yahweh, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the house of Yahweh, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.

¹⁶ He built up the altar of Yahweh, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹⁷ Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, but only to Yahweh their God.

¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel.

¹⁹ His prayer also, and how [God] was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherim and the engraved images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.

²⁰ So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his place.

²¹ Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

²² He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them.

²³ He didn't humble himself before Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more.

²⁴ His servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house.

²⁵ But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

¹ Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

² He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in the ways of David his father, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

³ For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images.

⁴ They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the incense altars that were on high above them he cut down; and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it on the graves [of those] who had sacrificed to them.

⁵ He burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.

⁶ [So did he] in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali, around in their ruins.

⁷ He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.

⁸ Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of Yahweh his God.

⁹ They came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰ They delivered it into the hand of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of Yahweh; and the workmen who labored in the house of Yahweh gave it to mend and repair the house;

¹¹ even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy cut stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.

¹² The men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and [others of] the Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music.

¹³ Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all who did the work in every kind of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.

¹⁴ When they brought out the money that was brought into the house of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of Yahweh [given] by Moses.

¹⁵ Hilkiah answered Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh." Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.

¹⁶ Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought back word to the king, saying, "All that was committed to your servants, they are doing.

¹⁷ They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of Yahweh, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen."

¹⁸ Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, "Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book." Shaphan read therein before the king.

¹⁹ It happened, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he tore his clothes.

²⁰ The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

²¹ "Go inquire of Yahweh for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of Yahweh, to do according to all that is written in this book."

²² So Hilkiah, and they whom the king [had commanded], went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter;) and they spoke to her to that effect.

²³ She said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Tell the man who sent you to me,

²⁴ "Thus says Yahweh, 'Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.

²⁵ Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.'"'

²⁶ But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus you shall tell him, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "As touching the words which you have heard,

²⁷ because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against its inhabitants, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you," says Yahweh.

²⁸ "Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil that I will bring on this place, and on its inhabitants."'" They brought back word to the king.

²⁹ Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰ The king went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of Yahweh.

³¹ The king stood in his place, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.

³² He caused all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand [to it]. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³ Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they didn't depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

¹ Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem: and they killed the Passover on the fourteenth [day] of the first month.

² He set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Yahweh.

³ He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to Yahweh, "Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built. There shall no more be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve Yahweh your God, and his people Israel.

⁴ Prepare yourselves after your fathers' houses by your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.

⁵ Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of your brothers the children of the people, and [let there be for each] a portion of a fathers' house of the Levites.

⁶ Kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of Yahweh by Moses."

⁷ Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and young goats, all of them for the Passover offerings, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls: these were of the king's substance.

⁸ His princes gave for a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand and six hundred [small livestock], and three hundred head of cattle.

⁹ Conaniah also, 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 livestock], and five hundred head of cattle.

¹⁰ So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the king's commandment.

¹¹ They killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled [the blood which they received] of their hand, and the Levites flayed them.

¹² They removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the children of the people, to offer to Yahweh, as it is written in the book of Moses. So did they with the cattle.

¹³ They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance: and the holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.

¹⁴ Afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests, because the priests the sons of Aaron [were busied] in offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵ The singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters were at every gate: they didn't need to depart from their service; for their brothers the Levites prepared for them.

¹⁶ So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of Yahweh, according to the commandment of king Josiah.

¹⁷ The children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.

¹⁸ There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept.

²⁰ After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

²¹ But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you this day, but against the house with which I have war. God has commanded me to make haste. Beware that it is God who is with me, that he not destroy you."

²² Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and didn't listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

²³ The archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, because I am seriously wounded!"

²⁴ So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵ Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and behold, they are written in the lamentations.

²⁶ Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Yahweh,

²⁷ and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

¹ Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's place in Jerusalem.

² Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

³ The king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem, and fined the land one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

⁴ The king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took Joahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.

⁵ Jehoiakim was Twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God.

⁶ Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.

⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of Yahweh to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.

⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

⁹ Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

¹⁰ At the return of the year king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of Yahweh, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem:

¹² and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God; he didn't humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet [speaking] from the mouth of Yahweh.

¹³ He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹⁴ Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Yahweh which he had made holy in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place:

¹⁶ but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

¹⁷ Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray-headed: he gave them all into his hand.

¹⁸ All the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.

¹⁹ They burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels of it.

²⁰ He carried those who had escaped from the sword away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

²¹ to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths: [for] as long as it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

²² Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and [put it] also in writing, saying,

²³ "Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, 'Yahweh, the God of heaven, has given all the kingdoms of the earth to me; and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, Yahweh his God be with him, and let him go up.'"