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2 Kings 16 |
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In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the
son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign; and he reigned
sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he didn’t do that which was
right in the eyes of Yahweh his God, like David his father.
But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yes, and made
his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations
of the nations, whom Yahweh cast out from before the children of
Israel.
He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the
hills, and under every green tree.
Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of
Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but
could not overcome him.
At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and
drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath, and
lived there, to this day.
So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria,
saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up, and save me
out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the
king of Israel, who rise up against me.”
Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of
Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it
for a present to the king of Assyria.
The king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria
went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people
of it captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.
King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath Pileser king of
Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz
sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and its
pattern, according to all its workmanship.
Urijah the priest built an altar: according to all that king
Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so did Urijah the priest make it
against the coming of king Ahaz from Damascus.
When the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar:
and the king drew near to the altar, and offered thereon.
He burnt his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured
his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace
offerings, on the altar.
The bronze altar, which was before Yahweh, he brought from the
forefront of the house, from between his altar and the house of
Yahweh, and put it on the north side of his altar.
King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the great
altar burn the 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 the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.”
Urijah the priest did so, according to all that king Ahaz
commanded.
King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin
from off them, and took down the sea from off the bronze oxen
that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone.
The covered way for the Sabbath that they had built in the
house, and the king’s entry outside, turned he to the house of
Yahweh, because of the king of Assyria.
Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, aren’t they
written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in
the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. |
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2 Kings 17 |
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In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son
of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel, and reigned nine
years.
He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, yet not as
the kings of Israel who were before him.
Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea
became his servant, and brought him tribute.
The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent
messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the
king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king
of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and
went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria,
and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah,
and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the
Medes.
It was so, because the children of Israel had sinned against
Yahweh their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt
from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared
other gods,
and walked in the statutes of the nations, whom Yahweh cast out
from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel,
which they made.
The children of Israel did secretly things that were not right
against Yahweh their God: and they built them high places in all
their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified
city;
and they set them up pillars and Asherim on every high hill, and
under every green tree;
and there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the
nations whom Yahweh carried away before them; and they worked
wicked things to provoke Yahweh to anger;
and they served idols, of which Yahweh had said to them, “You
shall not do this thing.”
Yet Yahweh testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet,
and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep my
commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I
commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants
the prophets.”
Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck,
like the neck of their fathers, who didn’t believe in Yahweh
their God.
They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with
their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them;
and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after
the nations that were around them, concerning whom Yahweh had
commanded them that they should not do like them.
They forsook all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made
them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and
worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal.
They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the
fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves
to do that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him
to anger.
Therefore Yahweh was very angry with Israel, and removed them
out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah
only.
Also Judah didn’t keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, but
walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
Yahweh rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and
delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them
out of his sight.
For he tore Israel from the house of David; and they made
Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drove Israel from
following Yahweh, and made them sin a great sin.
The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which
he did; they didn’t depart from them;
until Yahweh removed Israel out of his sight, as he spoke by all
his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of
their own land to Assyria to this day.
The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah,
and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them
in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and
they possessed Samaria, and lived in the cities of it.
So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they
didn’t fear Yahweh: therefore Yahweh sent lions among them,
which killed some of them.
Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The
nations which you have carried away, and placed in the cities of
Samaria, don’t know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he
has sent lions among them, and behold, they kill them, because
they don’t know the law of the god of the land.”
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Carry there one of
the priests whom you brought from there; and let them go and
dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the god of the
land.”
So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria
came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear
Yahweh.
However every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the
houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every
nation in their cities in which they lived.
The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, and the men of Cuth made
Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites
burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech,
the gods of Sepharvaim.
So they feared Yahweh, and made to them from among themselves
priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the
houses of the high places.
They feared Yahweh, and served their own gods, after the ways of
the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
To this day they do what they did before: they don’t fear
Yahweh, neither do they follow their statutes, or their
ordinances, or the law or the commandment which Yahweh commanded
the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
with whom Yahweh had made a covenant, and commanded them,
saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to
them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;
but you shall fear Yahweh, who brought you up out of the land of
Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you
shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him.
The statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the
commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do
forevermore. You shall not fear other gods.
You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you;
neither shall you fear other gods.
But you shall fear Yahweh your God; and he will deliver you out
of the hand of all your enemies.”
However they did not listen, but they did what they did before.
So these nations feared Yahweh, and served their engraved
images. Their children likewise, and their children’s children,
as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
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2 Kings 18 |
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Now it happened in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of
Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to
reign.
He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name
was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to
all that David his father had done.
He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down
the Asherah: and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that
Moses had made; for to those days the children of Israel did
burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.
He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; so that after him was
none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them
that were before him.
For he joined with Yahweh; he didn’t depart from following him,
but kept his commandments, which Yahweh commanded Moses.
Yahweh was with him; wherever he went forth he prospered: and he
rebelled against the king of Assyria, and didn’t serve him.
He struck the Philistines to Gaza and its borders, from the
tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.
It happened in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the
seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that
Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and
besieged it.
At the end of three years they took it: in the sixth year of
Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel,
Samaria was taken.
The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them
in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the
cities of the Medes,
because they didn’t obey the voice of Yahweh their God, but
transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of
Yahweh commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it.
Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king
of Assyria come up against all the fortified cities of Judah,
and took them.
Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish,
saying, “I have offended; return from me. That which you put on
me, I will bear.” The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king
of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of
gold.
Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the
house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king’s house.
At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors
of the temple of Yahweh, and from the pillars which
Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of
Assyria.
The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from
Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They
went up and came to Jerusalem. When they were come up, they came
and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the
highway of the fuller’s field.
When they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim
the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the
scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the
great king, the king of Assyria, “What confidence is this in
which you trust?
You say (but they are but vain words), ‘There is counsel and
strength for war.’ Now on whom do you trust, that you have
rebelled against me?
Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even
in Egypt. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand, and
pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him.
But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God;’ isn’t that he
whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and
has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before
this altar in Jerusalem?’
Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of
Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are
able on your part to set riders on them.
How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least
of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for
chariots and for horsemen?
Have I now come up without Yahweh against this place to destroy
it? Yahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy
it.’”’”
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, said to
Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Syrian
language; for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Jews’
language, in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”
But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to your
master, and to you, to speak these words? Hasn’t he sent me to
the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink
their own water with you?”
Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’
language, and spoke, saying, “Hear the word of the great king,
the king of Assyria.
Thus says the king, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will
not be able to deliver you out of his hand.
Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh
will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into
the hand of the king of Assyria.”
Don’t listen to Hezekiah.’ For thus says the king of Assyria,
‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone of
you eat of his vine, and everyone of his fig tree, and everyone
drink the waters of his own cistern;
until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a
land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a
land of olive trees and of honey, that you may live, and not
die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying,
“Yahweh will deliver us.”
Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out
of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where are the gods
of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria
out of my hand?
Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have
delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should
deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word;
for the king’s commandment was, “Don’t answer him.”
Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household,
came with Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the
recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the
words of Rabshakeh.
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2 Kings 19 |
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It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his
clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the
house of Yahweh.
He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the
scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth,
to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of
trouble, of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come
to the point of birth, and there is no strength to deliver them.
It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh,
whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living
God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard.
Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall tell your master, ‘Thus
says Yahweh, “Don’t be afraid of the words that you have heard,
with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed
me.
Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he will hear news, and
will return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the
sword in his own land.”’”
So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring
against Libnah; for he had heard that he had departed from
Lachish.
When he heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Behold, he
has come out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to
Hezekiah, saying,
‘Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, “Don’t
let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem
will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to
all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered?
Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers
have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children
of Eden that were in Telassar?
Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king
of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?”’”
Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers,
and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the house of Yahweh, and
spread it before Yahweh.
Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh, the God of
Israel, who sit above the cherubim, you are the God, even
you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made
heaven and earth.
Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and
see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, with which he has sent to
defy the living God.
Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations
and their lands,
and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods,
but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have
destroyed them.
Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us, I beg you, out of his
hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you,
Yahweh, are God alone.”
Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says
Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Whereas you have prayed to me
against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.
This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: “The
virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The
daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you
exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the
Holy One of Israel.
By your messengers you have defied the Lord, and have said,
‘With the multitude of my chariots, I have come up to the height
of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will
cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir trees; and I will
enter into his farthest lodging place, the forest of his
fruitful field.
I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my
feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.’
Haven’t you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of
ancient times? Now have I brought it to pass, that it should be
yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power. They were
dismayed and confounded. They were like the grass of the field,
and like the green herb, like the grass on the housetops, and
like grain blasted before it has grown up.
But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your
coming in, and your raging against me.
Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance
has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your
nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by
the way by which you came.”
“‘This shall be the sign to you: You shall eat this year that
which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs
of the same; and in the third year sow, and reap, and plant
vineyards, and eat its fruit.
The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again
take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and out of Mount
Zion those who shall escape. The zeal of Yahweh will perform
this.’
“Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He
shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither
shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against
it.
By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he
shall not come to this city,’ says Yahweh.
‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and
for my servant David’s sake.’”
It happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went out, and
struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the
Assyrians. When men arose early in the morning, behold, these
were all dead bodies.
So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned,
and lived at Nineveh.
It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his
god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword;
and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son
reigned in his place.
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2 Kings 20 |
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In those days was Hezekiah sick to death. Isaiah the prophet the
son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, “Thus says Yahweh,
‘Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live.’”
Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh,
saying,
“Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you
in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is
good in your sight.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.
It happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle part of
the city, that the word of Yahweh came to him, saying,
“Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the prince of my people, ‘Thus
says Yahweh, the God of David your father, “I have heard your
prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the
third day, you shall go up to the house of Yahweh.
I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and
this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend
this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.”’”
Isaiah said, “Take a cake of figs.”
They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.
Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What shall be the sign that Yahweh
will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh the
third day?”
Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that
Yahweh will do the thing that he has spoken: shall the shadow go
forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?”
Hezekiah answered, “It is a light thing for the shadow to go
forward ten steps. Nay, but let the shadow return backward ten
steps.”
Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh; and he brought the shadow
ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of
Ahaz.
At that time Berodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of
Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had
heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the house of his
precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and
the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was
found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in
all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them.
Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and said to him,
“What did these men say? From where did they come to you?”
Hezekiah said, “They are come from a far country, even from
Babylon.”
He said, “What have they seen in your house?”
Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house.
There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”
Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh.
‘Behold, the days come, that all that is in your house, and that
which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, shall be
carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left,’ says Yahweh.
‘Of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you shall father,
shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of
the king of Babylon.’”
Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of Yahweh which you have
spoken is good.” He said moreover, “Isn’t it so, if peace and
truth shall be in my days?”
Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how
he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the
city, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the
kings of Judah?
Hezekiah slept with his fathers; and Manasseh his son reigned in
his place.
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