2 Kings 23 Cross References - LEB

¹ So the king sent word, and all of the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him. ² Then the king went up to the temple of Yahweh, and all of the men of Judah and all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem were with him, including the priests, the prophets, and all of the people from smallest to greatest; and in their _⌊hearing_⌋* he read all of the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been found in the temple of Yahweh. ³ Then the king stood by the pillar, and he _⌊made_⌋* a covenant before Yahweh, to go after Yahweh and to keep his commands and his warnings and his statutes, with all of his heart and with his all of his soul, to keep the words of this covenant written on this scroll. Then all of the people _⌊joined_⌋* in the covenant. ⁴ Then the _⌊king_⌋* commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the second priests, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all of the objects made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and then he carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He removed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem and who offered incense to, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ He brought out the Asherah image from the temple of Yahweh outside of Jerusalem to the Wadi of the Kidron and burnt it _⌊there_⌋;* then he pulverized it to dust and threw its dust upon the tombs of the children of the people. ⁷ He tore down the shrines of the male shrine prostitutes which were in the temple of Yahweh, where the women were weaving shrines for the Asherah. ⁸ Then he brought all of the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests from Geba up to Beersheba burned incense. He tore 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 the left of each gate of the city. ⁹ However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread in the midst of their relatives. ¹⁰ He defiled the Topheth which is in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, _⌊to prevent_⌋* anyone causing his sons or his daughters to pass through the fire for Molech. ¹¹ He kept the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun from coming to the temple of Yawheh at the side room of Nathan-Melech the eunuch, which was in the court; and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire. ¹² The altars which were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh, the king tore down and ran from there and threw their ashes into the Wadi Kidron. ¹³ The high places which were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mountain of Destruction which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the detestable thing of the _⌊Ammonites_⌋,* the king defiled. ¹⁴ He also broke into pieces the stone pillars and cut down the Asherah poles and covered their sites with human bones. ¹⁵ Moreover, the altar which was in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin, had built, even that altar and the high place, Josiah tore down. Then he burned down the high place and crushed the pole of Asherah worship to dust and burned it with fire. ¹⁶ When Josiah turned and saw the tombs which were there on the hill, he sent and took the bones from the tombs and burned them on the altar. Thus he defiled them according to the word of Yahweh that the man of God had proclaimed who had proclaimed these things. ¹⁷ Then he said, "What is this gravestone that I am seeing?" The men of the city said to him, "This is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel." ¹⁸ So Josiah said, "Let him rest and let no man move his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria. ¹⁹ Moreover, all of the shrines of the high places which were in the towns of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Yahweh, Josiah removed, and he did to them like all of the deeds he had done in Bethel. ²⁰ Then he slaughtered all of the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and he burned the bones of the humans on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem. ²¹ Then the king commanded all of the people, saying, "Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as has been written on the scroll of this covenant." ²² For they had not kept this Passover from the days of the judges who had judged over Israel _⌊or_⌋* during the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept for Yahweh in Jerusalem. ²⁴ Moreover, the mediums and the spiritists, the household gods and the idols, and all of the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah removed in order to establish the words of the law written on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the temple of Yahweh. ²⁵ There was not a king like him before him, who turned to Yahweh with all of his heart and with all of his soul and with all of his might according to the law* of Moses, nor did one arise like him afterwards. ²⁶ However, Yahweh did not turn from the fierceness of his great anger which was kindled against Judah because of all of the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. ²⁷ Yahweh had said, "Even Judah I will remove from my face, as I have removed Israel; I will reject this city that I have chosen, even Jerusalem and the house of which I said, 'My name shall be there'!" ²⁸ The remainder of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? ²⁹ In his days, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to meet him, and he* killed him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him. ³⁰ So his servants drove him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, and they brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father. ³¹ Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. ³² He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh according to all his ancestors* had done. ³³ Then Pharaoh Neco confined him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, from reigning in Jerusalem, and imposed a levy on the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴ Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father, and he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Then he took Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt, and he died there. ³⁵ The silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh; however, he taxed the land to give the silver _⌊to meet the demands of Pharaoh_⌋.* Each according to assessment, he exacted payment of the silver and the gold from the people of the land to give to Pharaoh Neco. ³⁶ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Zebudah,* the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah. ³⁷ He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that his ancestors* had done.

²⁸ Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may speak in their ears these words, and that I may call as witness against them heaven and earth.

¹ David again gathered all the chosen men in Israel, thirty thousand.

²⁰ Then King Hezekiah rose early and gathered the officials of the city, and he went up to the house of Yahweh.

² Now the king and his princes, and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to make the Passover feast in the second month—

²⁹ Then they sent word to the king, and he gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ And the king went up to the house of Yahweh with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with the priests and the Levites—all the people from great to small—and they read in their ears all the words of the scroll of the covenant that was found in the house of Yahweh. ³¹ And the king stood at his position. And he made the covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh and to keep his commands and statutes and regulations with all his heart and with all his soul, to do the words of the covenant that were written on this scroll. ³² Then he obligated* all who were found in Jerusalem and in Benjamin, that the inhabitants of Jerusalem would do according to the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.* ³³ And Josiah removed all the detestable things from the whole land that belonged to the _⌊Israelites_⌋* and obligated* all who were found in Israel to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they did not turn aside from following* Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.*

¹¹ And the men who were at the entrance of the house they struck with blindness, both small and great, and they were unable to find the entrance.

¹⁰ Then Moses commanded them, _⌊saying_⌋,* "At the end of seven years, in the time of the year for canceling debts during the Feast of Booths, ¹¹ _⌊when all Israel comes to appear before_⌋* Yahweh their God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel _⌊in their hearing_⌋.* ¹² Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little children and your aliens that are in your _⌊towns_⌋,* so that they may hear and so that they may learn and they may revere Yahweh your God, and _⌊they shall diligently observe_⌋* all the words of this law. ¹³ And then their children,* who have not known, they too may hear, and they may learn to revere Yahweh their God all the days _⌊that you live_⌋* on the land that you are crossing the Jordan _⌊to get there_⌋* to take possession of it."

²⁶ "Take the scroll of this law and put it at the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, and it will be there as a witness against you.

⁹ After they moved it, the hand of Yahweh was against the city, causing a very great confusion, and he struck the men of the city _⌊from the youngest to the oldest_⌋,* causing tumors* to break out on them.

² They took captive the women* who were in it, _⌊from the youngest to the oldest_⌋.* They did not kill anyone, but carried them off and went on their way.

⁹ There was not anything in the ark _⌊except_⌋* the two tablets of stone which Moses had placed there at Horeb, where Yahweh _⌊made_⌋* a covenant with the _⌊Israelites_⌋* after they went out from the land of Egypt.

⁸ Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the scroll of the Torah in the temple of Yahweh," and Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it.

¹³ but all who will not seek Yahweh the God of Israel should be killed, from young to old, from men to women.

⁹ And they taught in Judah, and the scroll of the law of Yahweh was with them when they went around in all the cities of Judah, and they taught the people.

¹ All of the people gathered as one to the public square before the Water Gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law* of Moses that Yahweh had commanded Israel. ² So Ezra the priest brought the law* before the assembly for each man and woman to hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. ³ He read from it facing the public square before the Water Gate from dawn until noon that day, opposite the men, women, and those with understanding. The ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law.* ⁴ Then Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden podium that had been made for the occasion. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right. On his left was Pedaiah, Mishael, Malkijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. ⁵ Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, because he was above all of the people. When he opened it all the people stood up. ⁶ Then Ezra blessed Yahweh the great God, and all of the people answered, "Amen! Amen!" while lifting their hands. Then they bowed down and worshiped Yahweh with their noses to the ground. ⁷ And Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites were teaching the people from the law* while the people were in their places. ⁸ So they read the book from the law* of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that they could understand the reading.

³ They stood up in their place and read from the book of the law* of Yahweh their God for a fourth part of the day, and for a fourth they were confessing and worshiping Yahweh their God.

¹ On that day the book of Moses was read in the hearing of the people and it was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God

⁵ And when those days were completed, the king gave for all the people that were present at the citadel of Susa, both great and small, a banquet in the courtyard of the king's palace garden that lasted seven days.

¹⁹ The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his masters.*

¹³ He will bless those who fear Yahweh, the small with the great.

²² Therefore I have experienced help from God until this day, and* I stand here testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except what both the prophets and Moses have said were going to happen,

¹² And I saw the dead—the great and the small—standing before the throne, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds.

³ And Moses came, and he told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the regulations. And all the people answered with one voice, and they said, "All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do."

⁷ And he took the scroll of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will listen."* ⁸ And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and he said, "Look, the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words."

⁴⁵ these are the legal provisions and the rules and the regulations that Moses spoke to the _⌊Israelites_⌋* _⌊when they left Egypt_⌋,*

¹ And then Moses summoned all of Israel and said to them, "Hear, Israel, the rules and the regulations that I am speaking in your ears _⌊today_⌋,* and you shall learn them, and _⌊you must observe them diligently_⌋.* ² Yahweh our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. ³ It was not with our ancestors* that Yahweh made this covenant, but with these of us who are here alive today.

¹ "Now this is the commandment, the rules and the regulations, that Yahweh your God charged to teach to you for you _⌊to observe_⌋* in the land that you are about to cross over into* to take possession of it,

⁵ And you shall love Yahweh your God with all of your heart* and with all of your soul* and with all of your might.

¹⁹ And it will happen that if you indeed forget Yahweh your God and you go after other gods and you serve them and you bow down before them, I warn you today that you will surely perish.

¹² And now, Israel, what is Yahweh your God asking* from you, except* to revere Yahweh your God, to go* in all his ways and to love him and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,*

¹³ "And it will happen that if you listen carefully to my commandments that I am commanding you _⌊today_⌋,* to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all of your heart and with all of your soul,*

⁴ You shall go after Yahweh your God, and him you shall revere, and his commandment you shall keep, and to his voice you shall listen, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.

¹ * These are the words of the covenant that Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the _⌊Israelites_⌋* in the land of Moab _⌊besides_⌋* the covenant that he made with them at Horeb.

¹⁰ "You are standing _⌊today_⌋,* all of you, _⌊before_⌋* Yahweh your God, your leaders, your tribes, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your little children, your women and your aliens* who are in the midst of your camp, from the choppers* of your wood to the drawers* of your water, ¹² _⌊in order for you to enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God_⌋,* and into* his oath that Yahweh your God is _⌊making with you_⌋* _⌊today_⌋,* ¹³ in order to establish you _⌊today_⌋* _⌊to himself_⌋* as a people and so that he may be for you as God, just as he _⌊promised_⌋* to you and _⌊just as_⌋* he swore to your ancestors,* to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ¹⁴ "Now I am not _⌊making this covenant_⌋* and this oath _⌊with you alone_⌋.* ¹⁵ But with _⌊whoever is standing here_⌋* with us _⌊today_⌋* _⌊before_⌋* Yahweh our God, and with _⌊whoever is not standing here_⌋* with us _⌊today_⌋.*

²⁴ And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve Yahweh our God, and we will listen to his voice." ²⁵ So Joshua _⌊made a covenant_⌋* with the people on that day, and he established for them a statute and a judgment at Shechem.

¹⁴ She looked, and there was the king standing by the pillar according to the custom. The commanders and the trumpeters were by the king, and all of the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing on the trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and she called, "Treason, treason!"

¹⁷ Then Jehoiada _⌊made_⌋* a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that the people should be as a people for Yahweh, and also a covenant between the king and the people.

¹² And they entered into a covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their ancestors,* with all their heart and with all their inmost being,* ¹³ but all who will not seek Yahweh the God of Israel should be killed, from young to old, from men to women. ¹⁴ And they took an oath to Yahweh with a great voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with horns.

¹³ And she looked and, behold, the king was standing by his column at the entrance, and the commanders and trumpeters beside the king, along with all the people of the land, rejoicing and blowing with trumpets, and the singers with the instruments of song leading the praise. And Athaliah tore her garments and cried, "Conspiracy! Conspiracy!"

¹⁶ And Jehoiada _⌊made_⌋* a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they should be Yahweh's people.

¹⁰ Now _⌊it is in my heart_⌋* to _⌊make_⌋* a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger might turn away from him.

³ So now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all of these women and their offspring, according to the advice of my lord and those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law.

³⁸ * "Now because of all of this we make a binding written agreement and are writing on the sealed documents the names of our commanders, our Levites, and our priests."

²⁸ "The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to observe the law* of God—their wives, their sons, their daughters, and all who know and understand— ²⁹ are helping their brothers, their nobles, and entering into a solemn oath to walk in the law* of God which was given by the hand of Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all of the commandments of Yahweh our Lord and his judgments and regulations. ³⁰ We will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land nor take their daughters for our sons. ³¹ And the peoples of the land who bring merchandise and any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not accept it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. We will forego the crops of the seventh year and cancel every debt. ³² "We put on ourselves the commandment upon us to yearly give a third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: ³³ for the rows of bread, the offering of the daily sacrifice, the continual burnt sacrifice, the Sabbaths, the new moon festivals, the appointed festival times, the holy objects, the sin offerings that make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. ³⁴ And we have cast lots for the contributions of the wood offering of the priests, the Levites, and the people to bring it to the house of our God, by our fathers' houses, at designated times, year by year, to burn on the altar of Yahweh our God—as it is written in the law.* ³⁵ We also bring the first fruits of our soil and the first fruits of all the fruit trees, year by year, for the house of Yahweh. ³⁶ And the firstborn of our sons and beasts—as it is written in the law*—and the firstborn of our cattle and sheep, to bring to the house of our God and to the priests serving in the house of our God. ³⁷ And we bring the best of our dough, our offerings, the fruit of every tree, new wine, and olive oil to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and to bring the tithe of our soil to the Levites, for the Levites receive the tithes in all of our rural towns. ³⁸ And the priest, the descendant* of Aaron, will be with the Levites during the tithe the Levites receive. The Levites will bring up a tithe of the tithes for the house of our God to the chambers of the storehouse. ³⁹ For the _⌊Israelites_⌋* and the _⌊Levites_⌋* will bring to the storerooms the offering of grain, new wine, and olive oil. These are the objects of the sanctuary and the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and singers. We will not neglect the house of our God."

⁷ The law of Yahweh is perfect, reviving life.* The testimony of Yahweh is firm, making wise the simple. ⁸ The precepts of Yahweh are right, making the heart rejoice. The command of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. ⁹ The fear of Yahweh is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of Yahweh are true; they are righteous altogether,

² Keep the command of the king* _⌊because of your oath to God_⌋.*

² and you swear, '_⌊As Yahweh lives_⌋,'* in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations will be blessed by him, and in him they will boast."

⁵ They will ask the way to Zion, turning their faces there. They will come and join themselves to Yahweh by _⌊an everlasting covenant_⌋* that will not be forgotten.

³⁶ "Teacher, which commandment is greatest in the law?" ³⁷ And he said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'*

⁸ For in finding fault with them he says,
"Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ⁹ not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day I took hold of them by my hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord. ¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will decree with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I am putting my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be _⌊their_⌋* God and they will be _⌊my_⌋* people. ¹¹ And they will not teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. ¹² For I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings, and I will not remember their sins any longer." ¹³ In calling it new, he has declared the former to be old. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is near to disappearing.

²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and _⌊to the sprinkled blood_⌋* that speaks better than Abel's does.

²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

¹³ They abandoned Yahweh, and they served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

²³ All of the land was weeping with a loud voice as all the people were passing by and the king was crossing through the Wadi Kidron, and all the people were passing _⌊on the road to the wilderness_⌋.*

²⁹ He put one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

³¹ _⌊If it wasn't enough that he went_⌋* after the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he also took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal the king of the Sidonians. He went and served Baal and bowed down to him.

¹⁹ So then, send word and assemble all of Israel to me on Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at the table of Jezebel."

²⁶ So they took the bull that he allowed to them, prepared it, and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, "O Baal, answer us!" But there was no voice and there was no answer, so they limped* about the altar which they had made.

⁴⁰ Then Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal; don't let any man of them escape!" So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the wadi* of Kishon and killed them there.

¹⁸ I will leave in Israel seven thousand, all of the knees that have not bowed down to Baal and all of the mouths that have not kissed him."

¹⁶ They abandoned all the commands of Yahweh their God and made for themselves two molten calf-shaped idols; they made a pole of Asherah worship and bowed down to the army of the heavens and served Baal.

³ He returned and rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He erected altars for Baal and made a pole of Asherah worship just as Ahab king of Israel had made, and he bowed down to all of the host of heaven and served them.

⁷ He put the image of the Asherah that he had made in the temple which Yahweh had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this temple and in Jerusalem which I have chosen from all of the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

⁴ "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and let them count the money being brought to the temple of Yahweh which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people,

¹⁵ Moreover, the altar which was in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin, had built, even that altar and the high place, Josiah tore down. Then he burned down the high place and crushed the pole of Asherah worship to dust and burned it with fire.

¹⁸ Then the commander of the imperial guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and three of the threshold keepers.

⁴ And more sons of Eleazar were found as heads of the men than the sons of Ithamar, so they divided them to the sons of Eleazar to be sixteen heads over the house of the fathers, and to the sons of Ithamar over the house of the fathers were eight heads. ⁵ They divided them by lot _⌊all alike_⌋,* for they were commanders of the sanctuary and commanders of God from among the sons of Eleazar and the sons of Ithamar. ⁶ And Shemaiah the son of Nethanel, the scribe, from the Levites, recorded them before the king, the princes, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the _⌊families_⌋* of the priests and Levites, one father's house drawn by Lot for Eleazar and one drawn by lot for Ithamar. ⁷ And the first lot went out to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah, ⁸ the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim, ⁹ the fifth to Malkijah, the sixth to Mijamin, ¹⁰ the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah, ¹¹ the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shekaniah, ¹² the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim, ¹³ the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab, ¹⁴ the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer, ¹⁵ the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Ha-Pizzez, ¹⁶ the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Ezekiel, ¹⁷ the twenty-first to Jakin, the twenty-second to Gamul, ¹⁸ the twenty-third to Delaiah, the twenty-fourth to Maaziah. ¹⁹ These were their appointments for their service to come into the house of Yahweh according to their custom by the hand of Aaron their father, as Yahweh the God of Israel had commanded him.

¹ As for the working groups of the gatekeepers: of the Korahites, Meshelemiah the son of Kore, from the sons of Asaph. ² And Meshelemiah had sons: Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth, ³ Elam the fifth, Jehohana the sixth, Eliehoenai the seventh. ⁴ And Obed-Edom had sons: Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, Sachar the fourth, Nethanel the fifth, ⁵ Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peullethai the eighth; for God blessed him. ⁶ And to Shemaiah his son were sons born who were rulers in the house of their father, for they were mighty warriors of ability. ⁷ The sons of Shemaiah: Othni, Rephael, Obed, and Elzabad, whose brothers were sons of ability, Elihu and Semakiah. ⁸ All these from the sons of Obed-Edom, they and their sons, and their brothers were men of ability with strength for service; sixty-two of Obed-Edom. ⁹ And Meshelemiah had sons and brothers, sons of ability, eighteen. ¹⁰ And Hosah, from the sons of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief (though he was not firstborn, his father appointed him as chief), ¹¹ Hilkiah the second, Tabaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: all the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen. ¹² These working groups of gatekeepers, corresponding to the chief men, had responsibilities like their brothers to serve in the house of Yahweh. ¹³ And they cast lots, small and great alike, by their fathers' houses, _⌊for their gates_⌋.* ¹⁴ And the lot fell to the east to Shelemiah. As for Zechariah his son, _⌊a wise counselor_⌋,* they cast lots. And his lot came out for the north. ¹⁵ To Obed-Edom went out the south, and to his sons, the storehouses. ¹⁶ For Shuppim and Hosah it went out for the west, at the gate of Shalleketh, on the road that goes up, guard for guard. ¹⁷ To the east, six Levites; to the north, four daily; to the south, four daily; and at the storerooms, two by two. ¹⁸ For the court to the west, four at the road, two at the court. ¹⁹ These were the working groups of the gatekeepers among the sons of the Korahites and among the sons of Merari.

³ And _⌊he rebuilt_⌋* the high places that Hezekiah his father broke down, and he set up altars for the Baals, made Asherahs, and bowed down to the host of heaven and served them.

⁷ And he placed the carved image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

³ In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began to seek the God of David his ancestor.* And in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherahs, the idols, and the images. ⁴ And he destroyed before him the altars for the Baals, and he cut down the incense stands above them. And the Asherahs, the idols, and the images he smashed. And he ground them to powder and sprinkled the dust over the burial sites of those who sacrificed to them.

⁹ Therefore by this he will make atonement for the guilt of Jacob, and this will be all of the fruit of the removal of his sin: _⌊when he makes_⌋* all the stones of the altar like crushed stones of chalk, no poles of Asherah worship or incense altars will stand.

⁹ Will you steal? Will you murder? And will you commit adultery? And will you swear _⌊falsely_⌋?* And will you make a smoke offering to the Baal? And will you go after other gods whom you have not known?

²⁴ Then the captain of the guard* took Seraiah _⌊the chief priest_⌋,* and Zephaniah _⌊the second priest_⌋,* and three keepers of the threshold.

¹⁵ Even though you, O Israel, are playing the whore, do not let Judah become guilty; do not enter Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven; and do not swear, "_⌊As Yahweh lives_⌋!"*

⁴ "Come to Bethel and transgress; to Gilgal and _⌊multiply transgression_⌋!* Bring your sacrifices in the morning and your tithes on the _⌊third day_⌋.*

³ Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas,

¹ Now when it* was early morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus in order to put him to death.

¹ When* Jesus had said these things, he went out with his disciples to the other side of the ravine of the Kidron, where there was a garden into which he and his disciples entered.

³ He returned and rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He erected altars for Baal and made a pole of Asherah worship just as Ahab king of Israel had made, and he bowed down to all of the host of heaven and served them. ⁴ He built altars in the temple of Yahweh about which Yahweh had said, "I will put my name in Jerusalem."

¹ "At that time," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its officials, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Judah from their graves. ² And they shall spread them out before the sun, and before the moon, and before all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and which they have gone after, and which they have inquired about, and to which they have bowed in worship. They shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground.

¹⁷ But certainly we will do _⌊everything_⌋* that went out from our mouths,* to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors,* our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then _⌊we had enough to eat_⌋,* and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster. ¹⁸ But _⌊since_⌋* we stopped making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything, and by the sword and by the famine we have perished. ¹⁹ And indeed, when we were making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and _⌊pouring out_⌋* to her libations, was it not _⌊with the consent of_⌋* our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes _⌊marked with her image_⌋,* and we poured out to her libations?"

⁵ The inhabitants* of Samaria tremble for the calf* of Beth-aven. Indeed, his people will mourn for it, and his idolatrous priests will wail* over it— over its glory because it has departed from it.

²⁰ And he took the bull calf that they had made, and he burned it with the fire, and he crushed it until it became fine, and he scattered it on the surface of the water, and he made the _⌊Israelites_⌋* drink.

²⁵ You shall burn the images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, and so you take it for yourself, so that you are not ensnared by it, for it is a detestable thing to Yahweh your God.

²¹ And your sinful thing that you had made, the molten calf, I took and I burned it with fire, and I crushed it, grinding it thoroughly until it was crushed to dust, and I threw its dust into _⌊the stream that flowed down the mountain_⌋.*

⁷ The _⌊Israelites_⌋* did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. They forgot Yahweh their God, and they served the Baals and the Asheroth.*

²³ They also built for themselves high places and stone pillars and sacred poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

³³ Ahab also made the sacred pole, and _⌊he continued to provoke_⌋* Yahweh the God of Israel more than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

²⁷ So they broke down the stone pillars of Baal and destroyed the temple of Baal and made it into a latrine until this day.

⁴ And he destroyed before him the altars for the Baals, and he cut down the incense stands above them. And the Asherahs, the idols, and the images he smashed. And he ground them to powder and sprinkled the dust over the burial sites of those who sacrificed to them.

² As the remembering of their children, so is the remembering of their altars and their poles of Asherah worship beside the leafy trees* on the high hills.

⁴ Before they laid down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people _⌊to the last man_⌋,* surrounded the house. ⁵ And they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know* them."

²⁵ And every woman who was skilled of heart with her hands they spun, and they brought yarn—the blue and the purple, the crimson and the fine linen. ²⁶ And all the women whose heart lifted them with skill spun the goat hair.

²⁴ There were also male shrine prostitutes in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh had driven out from before the _⌊Israelites_⌋.*

¹² He put away the male shrine prostitutes from the land, and he removed all of the idols that his ancestors* made.

⁴⁶ The remainder of the male shrine prostitutes who were left over in the days of Asa his father he exterminated from the land.

³³ And Josiah removed all the detestable things from the whole land that belonged to the _⌊Israelites_⌋* and obligated* all who were found in Israel to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they did not turn aside from following* Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.*

¹⁴ And he brought me to the doorway of the gate of the house of Yahweh that is toward the north, and look! There were the women sitting weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁶ And you took from your clothes and you made for yourself colorful* shrines, and you prostituted on them; _⌊this had not happened before_⌋,* and it _⌊will not continue to happen_⌋.*

¹³ _⌊I will punish her_⌋* for the days of the Baals, to whom she burns incense, and she decked herself with her ornamental ring and jewelry, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me —a declaration of Yahweh.

²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to degrading passions, for their females exchanged the natural relations for those contrary to nature, ²⁷ and likewise also the males, abandoning the natural relations with the female, were inflamed in their desire toward one another, males with males committing the shameless deed, and receiving in themselves the penalty that was necessary for their error.

³¹ Therefore that place is called Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.

²³ And from there he went up to Beersheba.

¹⁷ From the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon and its pasturelands, Geba and its pasturelands,

¹ All the _⌊Israelites_⌋* went out, from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead, and they gathered as one body* to Yahweh at Mizpah.

²² Then King Asa proclaimed among all of Israel that there was no one free from obligation, so they carried the stones of Ramah and its wood with which Baasha had built, and King Asa rebuilt Geba in Benjamin with them, and the Mizpah.

³ Then he became afraid,* got up, and _⌊fled for his life_⌋.* He came to Beersheba which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there.

⁶⁰ And from the tribe of Benjamin, Geba with its pasturelands, Alemeth with its pasturelands, and Anathoth with its pasturelands. All their cities were thirteen cities throughout their clans.

²⁹ They crossed over the pass; Geba is a place of overnight lodging for us. Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

¹⁰ All the land will be transformed into a desert plateau* from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But it* will rise up high and it will stay* in its place from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, up to the Corner Gate and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.

³⁶ All the remainder of your household will come to bow down _⌊before_⌋* him for a bit of silver or a loaf of bread and will say, "Please assign me to one of the _⌊priestly offices_⌋* so that I can eat a morsel of bread." '"

¹⁰ _⌊But_⌋* the Levites who removed themselves from me _⌊at the going astray of Israel_⌋,* who went astray from me and went after their idols, as a result they will bear their guilt. ¹¹ Then they will be* in my sanctuary, those serving in my sanctuary, as sentries* at the gates of the temple* and as those serving the temple;* they will slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they will stand _⌊before them_⌋* to serve them, ¹² _⌊because_⌋* they used to serve them _⌊before_⌋* their idols and they were for the house of Israel like a stumbling block of iniquity. Therefore _⌊I swore_⌋* concerning them," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, "that they will bear their iniquity. ¹³ And they shall not approach me to serve as a priest for me and to come near to all of* my holy objects, _⌊to the most holy objects_⌋, * and they will bear their disgrace and the results of their detestable things they have done. ¹⁴ And I will appoint them as the keepers of the responsibility of* the temple, for all of its work* and _⌊everything_⌋ *which will be done in it.

²⁹ The grain offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering, they themselves may eat them, and also all the consecrated possessions* in Israel will be theirs. ³⁰ And also what is first of all of the firstfruits of everything, and of all of the contribution of everything from all of your contributions, to the priest _⌊it belongs_⌋,* and what is first of your dough you shall give to the priest, so that a blessing may rest on your house. ³¹ Any dead body or mangled carcass from the birds* or from the animals,* the priests shall not eat."

⁸ But you, you have turned from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction;* you have ruined the covenant of Levi," says Yahweh of hosts. ⁹ "And in turn I have made you despised and humbled before all the people, inasmuch as you are not keeping* my way, but are _⌊favoring your own instruction_⌋."*

²¹ " 'And you shall not give _⌊any of_⌋* your offspring* in order to sacrifice them to Molech, nor* shall you profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh.

¹⁰ There shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or _⌊one who practices divination_⌋,* or an interpreter of signs,* or an augur,* or sorcerer,

⁸ Then the border goes up by the Valley of Ben Hinnom* to the slope of the Jebusites* from the south (that is, Jerusalem); and the border goes up to the top of the mountain that lies opposite the valley of Hinnom to the west, which is at the end of the valley of Rephaim to the north;

⁷ At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the mountain which _⌊faces_⌋* Jerusalem and for Molech, the abomination of the _⌊Ammonites_⌋.*

³ He walked in the way of the kings of Israel; he even let his son pass through the fire according to the detestable things of the nations which Yahweh drove out from before the _⌊Israelites_⌋.*

¹⁷ They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, they practiced divination and read omens, and they sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him.

⁶ He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He increased the doing of evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him.

³ And he himself burned incense in the valley of Ben-Hinnom and burned his sons in the fire, according to the detestable practices of the nations whom Yahweh drove out before the Israelites.

⁶ And he himself burned his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. And he practiced sorcery and divination, and he engaged in witchcraft and dealt with mediums and spiritists. And he did much evil in the eyes of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.

³³ For Topheth has been prepared from yesterday; indeed, it is made ready for the king. He makes its pile of wood deep and wide; he makes fire and wood _⌊abundant_⌋.* The breath of Yahweh burns in it like a stream of sulfur.

³¹ And they built the high place of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I have not commanded, and it did not come into my mind.* ³² Therefore look, days are about to come," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "and it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter, and they will bury in Topheth _⌊until there is no more place_⌋.*

² and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the Gate of the Potsherd, and proclaim there the words that I speak to you.

⁶ "_⌊Therefore_⌋* look, days are about to come," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, _⌊but_⌋* the Valley of the Slaughter.

¹¹ And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "So I will break this people and this city as one breaks the vessel of the potter, so that it is not able to be repaired again. And in Topheth they will bury _⌊until there is no room to bury_⌋.* ¹² Thus will I do to this place," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "and to its inhabitants, to make this city like Topheth. ¹³ And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean like the place of Topheth, all the houses where they made smoke offerings upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and where they poured out libations to other gods." '"

³⁵ And they built the high places of Baal that are in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to present as offerings their sons and their daughters to Molech, which I had not commanded them, and it had not come to my _⌊mind_⌋* to do this detestable thing in order to cause Judah to sin."

²¹ And you slaughtered my children, and you gave them _⌊to be sacrificed to them_⌋.*

²⁶ And I defiled them through their gifts in sacrificing all of the first offspring of the womb, in order that* I will cause them to be stunned, so that they will know that I am Yahweh.

³¹ And _⌊when you lift up your gifts, sacrificing your children_⌋* through the fire, you are defiling yourself through all of your idols until _⌊today_⌋,* and will I let myself* be consulted by you, house of Israel?" ' _⌊As I live_⌋,"* _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh, "I will not let myself* be consulted by you!

³⁷ For they committed adultery, and blood is on their hands, and they committed adultery with their idols, and even their children that they had borne for me—they sacrificed them as food! ³⁸ Also they did this to me: they defiled my sanctuary on that day, and they profaned my Sabbaths, ³⁹ and when they slaughtered their children for their idols, they came to my sanctuary on that day to profane it. And look, _⌊this is what they did in my house_⌋!*

²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry at his brother will be subject to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Stupid fool!'* will be subject to the council, and whoever says, 'Obstinate fool!'* will be subject to fiery hell.

¹⁹ _⌊And do this so that you do not lift_⌋* your eyes toward heaven and _⌊observe_⌋* the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of the heaven, and be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that Yahweh your God has allotted to all of the peoples under all of the heaven.

⁵ He removed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem and who offered incense to, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

⁵ And he removed the high places and the incense stands from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom had rest under* him.

¹⁶ And he brought me to the inner courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and look, at the doorway of the temple of Yahweh, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing down toward the east before the sun.

⁸ "When you build a new house then* you shall make a parapet wall* for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house _⌊if anyone should fall from it_⌋.*

⁵ He built an altar to all of the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh.

²¹ He walked in all of the way which his father had walked, and he served the idols which his father had served and bowed down to them. ²² He abandoned Yahweh the God of his ancestors* and did not walk in the way of Yahweh.

⁴ Then the _⌊king_⌋* commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the second priests, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all of the objects made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and then he carried their ashes to Bethel.

⁶ He brought out the Asherah image from the temple of Yahweh outside of Jerusalem to the Wadi of the Kidron and burnt it _⌊there_⌋;* then he pulverized it to dust and threw its dust upon the tombs of the children of the people.

⁵ And he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of Yahweh.

¹⁵ And he removed the foreign gods and the carved image from the house of Yahweh and all the altars which he built on the mountain of the house of Yahweh and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city.

¹³ And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean like the place of Topheth, all the houses where they made smoke offerings upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and where they poured out libations to other gods." '"

⁵ and those who bow down on the rooftops to the host of heaven, and those who bow down, swearing to Yahweh but also swearing by Milkom,*

²⁹ Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, people of Chemosh. He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to the king of the Amorites,* Sihon.

⁶ And again, the _⌊Israelites_⌋* did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. They served the Baals, the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, and the gods of the _⌊Ammonites_⌋* and Philistines; they abandoned Yahweh and did not serve him.

²⁴ Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gave you to possess? Whoever Yahweh our God has driven out before us, we will possess it.

⁴ So the _⌊Israelites_⌋* removed the Baals* and the Ashtoreths, and they served Yahweh alone.

¹⁰ So they cried out to Yahweh and said, 'We have sinned, because we have forsaken Yahweh and have served the Baals* and the Ashtoreths.* But now deliver us from the hand of our enemies and we will serve you!'

⁵ Solomon went after Ashtoreth the god of the Sidonians and after Molech the abhorrence of the Ammonites.

³³ because he has forsaken me, and they bowed down to Ashtoreth, the god of the Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Molech, the god of the _⌊Ammonites_⌋.* They did not walk in my ways to do right in my eyes, my ordinances, or my judgments, as did David his father.

²⁶ Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in this way? And among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet the foreign women made even him sin.

⁷ For because of your trusting in your works and in your treasures, even you yourselves will be taken, and Chemosh will go out into the exile, his priests and his officials together.

¹³ Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel were ashamed of Bethel, their trust.

¹⁶ "The disaster of Moab is near to come, and his disaster _⌊approaches very quickly_⌋.*

²⁴ " 'You will not bow to their gods, and you will not serve them, and you will not act according to their actions, because you will utterly demolish them, and you will utterly break their stone pillars.

¹⁶ Anyone _⌊in the open field_⌋* who touches _⌊one who has been slain_⌋,* or a corpse, or a bone of a person, or a burial site, he will be unclean for seven days.

¹⁸ A clean person will take hyssop and dip it into the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the objects and persons who were there, and on one who touched the bone, or the one slain, or the dead, or the burial site.

⁵² you will drive out the inhabitants of the land from your presence, and you will destroy all their idols and all the images of their molten idols, and you will demolish all their high places;

⁵ But this is what you must do to them: you shall break down their altars, and their stone pillars you shall smash, and their Asherah poles you shall hew down, and you shall burn their idols with fire.

²⁵ You shall burn the images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, and so you take it for yourself, so that you are not ensnared by it, for it is a detestable thing to Yahweh your God. ²⁶ And you must not bring a detestable thing into your house, or you will become a thing devoted to destruction like it; you must utterly detest it, and you must utterly abhor it, for it is an object devoted to destruction.

¹⁶ When Josiah turned and saw the tombs which were there on the hill, he sent and took the bones from the tombs and burned them on the altar. Thus he defiled them according to the word of Yahweh that the man of God had proclaimed who had proclaimed these things.

¹² And the house of Israel will bury them for seven months to cleanse the land. ¹³ All of the people of the land will bury them, and it will be an honor for them on the day when I appear," ' _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh. ¹⁴ ʻ"And they will set apart _⌊men to continually_⌋* go through the land burying the travelers,* the ones left over on the surface of the land to cleanse it; _⌊for the whole of_⌋* seven months they will explore it. ¹⁵ And the ones going through, they will go through within the land, and if anyone sees the bones of a person, then he will build beside it a sign to remain until the buriers have buried him in the Valley of Hamon-Gog.* ¹⁶ And furthermore the name of the city there is Hamonah,* and thus they will cleanse the land." '

⁷ Then all her idols will be broken in pieces, and all her prostitution wages will be burned in the fire, and all her idols I will make a desolation, For from the wage of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the wage of a prostitute they will return.

²⁷ "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean! ²⁸ In the same way, on the outside you also appear righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

²⁸ And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them,* "_⌊You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough_⌋;* here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

¹⁶ He will give up Israel because of the sin of Jeroboam which he sinned and which he caused Israel to sin."

³⁰ because of the sins of Jeroboam that he had committed and that he had caused Israel to commit and because of his anger with which he had provoked Yahweh the God of Israel.

²² I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, _⌊because you made me angry_⌋* and have caused Israel to sin.'

³¹ But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of Yahweh God of Israel with all his heart; he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam by which he caused Israel to sin.

¹ Suddenly a man of God from Judah came to Bethel, by the word of Yahweh, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to offer incense. ² Then he proclaimed against the altar by the word of Yahweh and said, "O altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: 'Look, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall burn on you.'"

³² For surely, the thing which he proclaimed by the word of Yahweh against the altar which is in Bethel will happen, as it will against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria."

³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³⁵ If he called them 'gods' to whom the word of God came—and the scripture cannot be broken—

¹ Suddenly a man of God from Judah came to Bethel, by the word of Yahweh, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to offer incense.

³⁰ He put his corpse in his tomb, and they mourned over him, "Alas, my brother!" ³¹ It happened after he buried him that he said to his sons, "When I die, you shall bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; you shall lay my bones beside his bones.

¹ Suddenly a man of God from Judah came to Bethel, by the word of Yahweh, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to offer incense. ² Then he proclaimed against the altar by the word of Yahweh and said, "O altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: 'Look, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall burn on you.'" ³ He gave a sign on that day, saying, "This is the sign that Yahweh has predetermined: Look, this altar will be torn apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out." ⁴ It happened at the moment the king heard the word of the man of God that he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him!" But his hand which he stretched out to him was paralyzed, and he was not able to draw it back to himself. ⁵ Then the altar was torn apart and the ashes from the altar poured out according to the sign which the man of God had announced by the word of Yahweh. ⁶ Then the king responded and said to the man of God, "Please entreat the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me that my hand may return to me." So the man of God entreated the face of Yahweh, and the hand of the king returned to him, as it was in the beginning. ⁷ Then the king spoke to the man of God, "Come with me to the house and refresh yourself, that I may give you a gift." ⁸ Then the man of God said to the king, "Even if you give to me half of your house I will not come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place, ⁹ for the word of Yahweh has commanded me, saying, 'You shall not eat bread nor drink water, and you shall not return on the way that you came.'" ¹⁰ So he went another way, and he did not return by the way on which he had come to Bethel. ¹¹ Now a certain older prophet was living in Bethel, and his son came and recounted to him all of the things that the man of God had done that day in Bethel and the words he had spoken to the king, and they told them to their father. ¹² Then their father asked them, "_⌊Which way did he go_⌋?"* His sons had seen the way which the man of God who had come from Judah had taken. ¹³ Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it ¹⁴ and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under the oak and said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He said, "I am." ¹⁵ Then he said to him, "Come with me to the house and eat some food." ¹⁶ Then he said, "I am not able to return with you or to go with you. I will not eat food nor will I drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷ For a word came to me by the word of Yahweh, 'You shall not eat food, nor shall you drink water there. You shall not return to go by the way that you came.'" ¹⁸ Then he said, "I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, 'Let him return with you to your house that he may eat food and drink water.'" He lied to him. ¹⁹ So he returned with him and ate food in his house and drank water. ²⁰ Now it happened that they were sitting at the table, and the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who brought him back. ²¹ He proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have disobeyed the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command which Yahweh your God commanded you, ²² but you have returned and have eaten food and drank water in the place which he ordered you not to eat food nor to drink water, then your dead body shall not return to the tomb of your ancestors.'"*

³¹ It happened after he buried him that he said to his sons, "When I die, you shall bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; you shall lay my bones beside his bones.

³¹ Then he built the houses on the high places, and he appointed priests _⌊from all walks of life_⌋* who were not from the sons of Levi.

¹⁸ He walked in the way of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab became his wife, and he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh.

⁹ The _⌊Israelites_⌋* secretly did things which were not right, against Yahweh their God; they built high places for themselves in all their towns, from the watchtower up to the fortified city.

¹⁶ They abandoned all the commands of Yahweh their God and made for themselves two molten calf-shaped idols; they made a pole of Asherah worship and bowed down to the army of the heavens and served Baal. ¹⁷ They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, they practiced divination and read omens, and they sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him. ¹⁸ So Yahweh was very angry with Israel and he removed them from his presence; none remained except the tribe of Judah alone.

⁶ And the runners went with the letter from the hand of the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah according to the command of the king, saying, "O sons of Israel, return to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. ⁷ Do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who acted unfaithfully before Yahweh, the God of their ancestors,* so that he made them as a desolation, as you see. ⁸ Now, do not stiffen your neck as your fathers,* but give a hand to Yahweh and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve Yahweh your God that his fierce anger may turn away from you. ⁹ For when you return to Yahweh, your brothers and your children will find compassion before their captors and return to this land, for Yahweh your God is gracious and compassionate, and he will not turn away his face from you if you return to him." ¹⁰ And it happened that the runners were passing from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and up to Zebulun, but they were laughing at them and mocking them. ¹¹ Only men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

¹ And when all this was finished, all Israel who were found in the cities of Judah went out and shattered the stone pillars, cut down the Asherahs, and destroyed the high places and the altars from all Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh _⌊to the very last one_⌋.* Then all the Israelites returned, each to his own property and to their cities.

⁶ And in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around, ⁷ he broke down the altars and the Asherahs and crushed the idols, grinding them to dust, and he cut down all the incense stands in all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and made him jealous with their images.

¹⁸ The children are gathering wood, and the fathers are kindling the fire, and the women are kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods for the sake of provoking me to anger. ¹⁹ Are they provoking me to anger? " _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "Is it not themselves they hurt, for the sake of the shame of their faces?"

¹⁷ And he said to me, "Have you seen, son of man?* _⌊Was it too small a thing_⌋* for the house of Judah _⌊to do_⌋* the detestable things that they did here? For they filled up the land with violence, and _⌊they provoked me to anger again_⌋,* and look! They are putting the branch to their nose. ¹⁸ And so I will act in rage, and my eye will not take pity, and I will not have compassion, and they will cry in my ear with a loud voice, and I will not hear them."

¹⁶ For you have observed the regulations of Omri and all the works of the house of Ahab. And you have walked in their counsels, so that I am making you a desolation and your inhabitants an object of scorn. So you will bear the scorn of my people.

²⁰ " 'Whoever sacrifices to the gods—not to Yahweh, to him alone—will be destroyed.

⁵ But that prophet or the dreamer of that dream shall be executed, for he spoke falsely about Yahweh your God, the one bringing you out from the land of Egypt and the one redeeming you from the house of slavery, in order to seduce you from the way that Yahweh your God commanded you to go in it; so in this way you shall purge the evil from your midst.

² Then he proclaimed against the altar by the word of Yahweh and said, "O altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: 'Look, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall burn on you.'"

²⁵ It happened that when he finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the royal guard and to the officers, "Come and kill them; let no man go free!" So _⌊they put them to the sword_⌋,* and the royal guard and the officers threw them out, then they went up to the citadel of the temple of Baal.

¹⁸ Then all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down, and its altars and its images they broke completely into pieces. Mattan the priest of Baal they killed in front of the altars. Then the priest put guards over the house of Yahweh.

⁵ And he burned the bones of the priests on the altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ _⌊Yahweh has a sword_⌋;*
it is full of blood. It is covered with* fat, with* the blood of lambs and goats, with* the fat of the kidneys of rams, for _⌊Yahweh has a sacrifice_⌋* in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

² _⌊And then_⌋,* on that day,' _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh of hosts, 'I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I will banish from the land. ³ _⌊And then_⌋,* if anyone prophesies again, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of Yahweh!" And his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through when he prophesies.

³ Speak to all the community of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month, they will each take for themselves _⌊a lamb for the family_⌋,* a lamb for the household. ⁴ And if the household is too small for a lamb, he and the neighbor nearest to his house will take one according to the number of persons;* you will count out portions of the lamb _⌊according to how much each one can eat_⌋.* ⁵ The lamb for you must be a male, without defect, in its first year; you will take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ "_⌊You will keep it_⌋* until the fourteenth day of this month, and all the assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter it _⌊at twilight_⌋.* ⁷ And they will take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel on the houses in which they eat it. ⁸ And they will eat the meat on this night; they will eat it fire-roasted and with unleavened bread on _⌊bitter herbs_⌋.* ⁹ You must not eat any of it raw or boiled, boiled in the water, but rather roasted with fire, its head with its legs and with its inner parts. ¹⁰ And you must not leave any of it until morning; anything left from it until morning you must burn in the fire. ¹¹ And this is how you will eat it—with your waists fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you will eat it in haste. It is Yahweh's Passover. ¹² "And I will go through the land of Egypt during this night, and I will strike all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human to animal, and I will do punishments among all of the gods of Egypt. I am Yahweh. ¹³ And the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and I will see the blood, and I will pass over you, and there will not be a destructive plague among you when I strike the land of Egypt. ¹⁴ "And this day will become a memorial for you, and you will celebrate it as a religious feast for Yahweh throughout your generations; you will celebrate it as a lasting statute. ¹⁵ You will eat unleavened bread for seven days. Surely on the first day you shall remove yeast from your houses, because anyone who eats food with yeast from the first day until the seventh day—that person will be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ It will be for you on the first day a holy assembly* and on the seventh day a holy assembly;* no work will be done on them; only what is eaten by every person, it alone will be prepared for you. ¹⁷ "And you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought out your divisions from the land of Egypt, and you will keep this day for your generations as a lasting statute. ¹⁸ On the first day, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you will eat unleavened bread until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. ¹⁹ For seven days yeast must not be found in your houses, because _⌊anyone eating food with yeast_⌋* will be cut off from the community of Israel—whether an alien or a native of the land. ²⁰ You will eat no food with yeast; in all of your dwellings you will eat unleavened bread."

⁵ In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month at the evening is Yahweh's Passover. ⁶ And on the fifteenth day of this month is Yahweh's Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷ On the first day there shall be a holy assembly for you; you shall not do _⌊any regular work_⌋.* ⁸ And you shall present an offering for Yahweh made by fire for seven days; on the seventh day there shall be a holy assembly; you shall not do _⌊any regular work_⌋.'"*

² "Let the _⌊Israelites_⌋* observe the Passover at its appointed time. ³ On the fourteenth day of this month _⌊at twilight_⌋* you will perform it at its appointed time according to all its decrees; and according to all its stipulations you will observe it." ⁴ So Moses spoke to the _⌊Israelites_⌋* to observe the Passover. ⁵ And they observed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month _⌊at twilight_⌋* in the desert of Sinai. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, thus the _⌊Israelites_⌋* did.

¹⁶ " 'On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover for Yahweh. ¹⁷ On the fifteenth day of this month is a religious feast, unleavened bread must be eaten for seven days. ¹⁸ On the first day there will be a holy convocation; _⌊you will not do any regular work_⌋.* ¹⁹ You will present an offering by fire, a burnt offering for Yahweh: two bulls and one ram and seven male lambs _⌊in their first year_⌋;* they will be for you without defect. ²⁰ For their grain offering, you will offer finely milled flour mixed with oil: three-tenths for the bull and two-tenths for the ram. ²¹ You will offer a tenth for each of the seven male lambs; ²² and a goat for one sin offering to make atonement for you. ²³ You will offer these besides the burnt offering of the morning, which is for the continual burnt offering. ²⁴ Like this you will offer daily, for seven days, the food of the offering made by fire, a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh; it will be offered in addition to the continual burnt offering and its libation. ²⁵ On the seventh day you will have a holy convocation; _⌊you will not do any regular work_⌋.*

¹ "Observe the month of Abib, and you shall keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out from Egypt by night. ² And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to Yahweh your God from among your flock and herd at the place that Yahweh will choose, to let his name dwell there. ³ You shall not eat _⌊with it_⌋* anything leavened; seven days you shall eat _⌊with it_⌋* unleavened bread of affliction, because in haste you went out from the land of Egypt, so that you will remember the day of your going out from the land of Egypt all the days of your life. ⁴ And leaven shall not be seen with* you in any of your territory* for seven days, and none of the meat that you will slaughter on the evening on the first day shall remain overnight until morning. ⁵ You are not allowed to offer the Passover sacrifice in one of your _⌊towns_⌋* that Yahweh your God is giving to you, ⁶ but only at the place that Yahweh your God will choose, to let his name dwell there; you shall offer the Passover sacrifice _⌊in the evening at sunset_⌋,* at the designated time* of your going out from Egypt. ⁷ And you shall cook, and you shall eat it at the place that Yahweh your God will choose; and you may turn in the morning and go to your tents. ⁸ Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be an assembly for Yahweh your God; you shall not do work.

¹ Josiah kept* the Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem. And they slaughtered the Passover sacrifice on the fourteenth day of the first month. ² And he set the priests at their posts and encouraged them in the service of the house of Yahweh. ³ And he said to the Levites who were teaching all Israel, who were sanctified to Yahweh, "Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. There is no need to carry it on your shoulders. Now serve Yahweh your God and his people Israel. ⁴ And prepare yourselves according to _⌊your families_⌋,* according to your working groups, according to the decree* of David king of Israel and according to the decree* of Solomon his son. ⁵ And stand in the sanctuary according to the clans of _⌊your families_⌋* for your brothers, the _⌊lay people_⌋,* and a part of the _⌊family_⌋* of the Levites. ⁶ And slaughter the Passover lamb and consecrate yourself and prepare for your brothers to do according to the word of Yahweh by the hand of Moses. ⁷ Then Josiah provided for the _⌊lay people_⌋* sheep, lambs, and young goats, all for the Passover for all who were found there, to the sum of thirty thousand, along with three thousand bulls. These were the possession of the king. ⁸ And his officials contributed a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, commanders of the house of God, gave to the priests two thousand six hundred Passover lambs and three hundred bulls. ⁹ Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jehozabad, commanders of the Levites, contributed to the Levites five thousand Passover lambs and five hundred bulls. ¹⁰ And when the work had been completed, the priests stood at their positions and the Levites in their working groups according to the command of the king. ¹¹ And they slaughtered the Passover lamb, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hand, and the Levites flayed the sacrifices. ¹² And they set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the clans of the _⌊families_⌋* for the _⌊lay people_⌋,* to offer to Yahweh according to what is written in the scroll of Moses. And thus they did with the bulls. ¹³ Then they roasted the Passover lamb in the fire according to the ordinance. And they boiled the holy offerings in pots, in kettles, and in dishes and brought it quickly to the _⌊lay people_⌋.* ¹⁴ And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, since the priests, the descendants* of Aaron, were busy with offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night. So the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the descendants* of Aaron. ¹⁵ And the singers, the descendants* of Asaph, were at their stations according to the decree* of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the seer of the king. And the gatekeepers were at _⌊each gate_⌋.* They did not need to depart from their service, for their brothers the Levites had made preparations for them. ¹⁶ So all the service of Yahweh was prepared on that day to keep* the Passover and to sacrifice burnt offerings on the altar of Yahweh, according to the command of King Josiah. ¹⁷ And the Israelites who were present kept* the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days. ¹⁸ And there was no Passover like it kept* in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. And none of the kings of Israel kept* a Passover like that which Josiah and the priests and the Levites, and all of Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, kept.* ¹⁹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.*

¹ Then Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, to come to the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem to make a Passover feast to Yahweh the God of Israel. ² Now the king and his princes, and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to make the Passover feast in the second month— ³ but they were not able to make it at that time, for the priests had not consecrated themselves _⌊in sufficient numbers_⌋,* and the people had not been assembled in Jerusalem—

¹³ So many people gathered in Jerusalem to hold the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month; it was a very great assembly. ¹⁴ And they rose up and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem. And they removed all the incense altars and threw them away in the Wadi* Kidron. ¹⁵ And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were disgraced, so they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of Yahweh. ¹⁶ Then they stood at their positions according to custom, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests were sprinkling the blood from the hand of the Levites. ¹⁷ For there were many in the assembly who did not consecrate themselves, so the Levites were over the killing of the Passover sacrifices for all who were not clean, to consecrate them to Yahweh. ¹⁸ For a majority of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves. But they ate the Passover sacrifice _⌊otherwise than prescribed_⌋,* but Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, "May the good Yahweh make atonement unto ¹⁹ everyone whose heart is set to seek God, Yahweh the God of his ancestors,* though not according to the cleansing for the sanctuary." ²⁰ And Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and he healed the people.

¹⁹ Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the idols* that belonged to her father.

³¹ " 'You* shall not turn to the mediums and to the soothsayers; you* shall not seek them to become unclean with them; I am Yahweh your* God.

²⁷ " 'And a man or a woman, if a spirit of the dead or a spirit of divination is in them, they shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones*—their blood is on them.'"

¹⁰ There shall not be found among you one who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or _⌊one who practices divination_⌋,* or an interpreter of signs,* or an augur,* or sorcerer, ¹¹ or one who casts magic spells, or one who consults a spirit of the dead,* or spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead.* ¹² For everyone doing these things is detestable to Yahweh, and because of these detestable things Yahweh your God is driving them out from _⌊before you_⌋.*

⁵ The man Micah had for himself _⌊a shrine_⌋,* and he made an ephod and teraphim, and _⌊he appointed one of his sons_⌋* who became a priest for him.

¹⁷ And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and they entered there and took the carved divine image, ephod, teraphim, and the molten image. The priest was standing at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with the weapons of war. ¹⁸ When these went to Micah's house, they took the divine carved image, ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, and the priest asked them, "What are you doing?"

³ (Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him, and they had buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had expelled the mediums* and the soothsayers from the land.) ⁴ Then the Philistines assembled and came and encamped at Shunem, so Saul assembled all Israel, and they encamped at Gilboa. ⁵ When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. ⁶ And Saul inquired of Yahweh, but Yahweh did not answer him, not by dreams or by the Urim* or by the prophets. ⁷ So Saul said to his servants, "Search for me _⌊a woman who is a medium_⌋* so that I may go to her and inquire of her." His servants said to him, "Look there is a woman who is a medium in Endor."

¹¹ "Because Manasseh the king of Judah committed these detestable things and did evil more than the Amorites did who were before him and caused even Judah to sin with his idols,

²¹ He walked in all of the way which his father had walked, and he served the idols which his father had served and bowed down to them.

⁸ Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the scroll of the Torah in the temple of Yahweh," and Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it. ⁹ Shaphan the secretary came to the king and returned the king a word, and he said, "Your servant poured out the money found in the temple, and they have given it into the hand of the doers of the work appointed over the temple of Yahweh." ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king saying, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll." Then Shaphan read before the king. ¹¹ When the king heard the words of the scroll of the Torah, he tore his clothes. ¹² Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Acbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the servant of the king, saying, ¹³ "Go, inquire of Yahweh for me and for the people and for all of Judah concerning the words of this scroll that was found. For the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us is great because our ancestors* did not listen to the words of this scroll to do according to all that is written concerning us!"

¹⁴ And when they brought out the money that had been brought to the house of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priest found a scroll of the law of Yahweh by the hand of Moses. ¹⁵ And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found a scroll of the law in the house of Yahweh!" Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan. ¹⁶ And Shaphan brought the scroll to the king and _⌊also informed_⌋* the king, saying, "All that was put into the hand of your servants they are doing. ¹⁷ They have dispensed* the money which was found in the house of Yahweh and have put it into the hand of the overseers and those doing the work." ¹⁸ Then Shaphan the scribe reported to the king, "Hilkiah the priest gave to me a scroll." Then Shaphan read from it before the king. ¹⁹ And when the king heard the words of the law, he tore his garments,

¹⁹ Now if they tell you, "Consult the ghosts and the spirits, those who chirp and those who mutter. Should not a people consult its gods, the dead on behalf of the living, ²⁰ for teaching and for testimony?" _⌊surely they who speak like this have no dawn_⌋.*

³ And the spirit of _⌊the Egyptians_⌋* will be disturbed in his midst, and I will _⌊confuse_⌋* his plans,* and they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, and the ghosts and the spiritists.

⁴ The children of Israel will remain for many days without a king and prince, without sacrifice and stone pillar, ephod and teraphim.

¹⁶ And it happened that as* we were going to the place of prayer, a certain female slave who had a spirit of divination* met us, who was bringing a large profit to her owners by* fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and us and* was crying out, saying, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation!" ¹⁸ And she was doing this for many days. But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed and turning around, said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out _⌊immediately_⌋.*

²⁰ For by the works of the law _⌊no person will be declared righteous_⌋* before him, for through the law comes knowledge of sin.

²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues to do it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer who acts, this one will be blessed _⌊in what he does_⌋*.

¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral people and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and who practices falsehood.

²⁹ But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God and will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.*

⁴ so that Yahweh may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your sons take heed of their way, to walk before me in faithfulness, with all their heart and with all their soul, no man of yours will be cut off from the throne of Israel.'"

⁴⁸ if they return to you with all of their heart and with all of their soul in the land of their enemies who took them captive and they pray to you toward their land which you gave to their ancestors,* the city that you have chosen and the house that you* built for your name,

⁵ because David did right in the eyes of Yahweh and he didn't turn aside from all that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

⁵ He trusted in Yahweh the God of Israel; there was no one like him, before or after, among all the kings of Judah.

³ Then the king stood by the pillar, and he _⌊made_⌋* a covenant before Yahweh, to go after Yahweh and to keep his commands and his warnings and his statutes, with all of his heart and with his all of his soul, to keep the words of this covenant written on this scroll. Then all of the people _⌊joined_⌋* in the covenant.

²⁹ are helping their brothers, their nobles, and entering into a solemn oath to walk in the law* of God which was given by the hand of Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all of the commandments of Yahweh our Lord and his judgments and regulations.

¹³ When you search for me, then you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart.

⁴ "Remember the instruction* of my servant Moses, which I commanded him at Horeb to all Israel, the rules and regulations.

¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law, and none of you carries out the law? Why do you seek to kill me?"

¹¹ "Because Manasseh the king of Judah committed these detestable things and did evil more than the Amorites did who were before him and caused even Judah to sin with his idols, ¹² therefore, thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, 'Look, I am bringing disaster upon Jerusalem and Judah about which the two ears of all who hear it will tingle. ¹³ I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes the dish; he wipes it and turns it on its face.

¹⁶ "Thus says Yahweh, 'Look I am bringing evil to this place and upon its inhabitants, according to all of the words of that scroll that the king of Judah has read ¹⁷ because they have abandoned me and they have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to anger with all of the works of their hands. My wrath shall be kindled against this place and not be quenched.'"

² So Yahweh sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, raiding bands of Aram, raiding bands of Moab, and raiding bands of the _⌊Ammonites_⌋.* He had sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahweh that he had spoken by the hand of his servants the prophets.

⁴ Also, for the blood of the innocent that he had shed—and he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood—Yahweh was not willing to forgive.

¹⁶ But they were mocking the messengers of God and despising his words and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of Yahweh rose against his people until there was no remedy.

⁷ And I thought, 'After her doing all these things to me she will return,' but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.* ⁸ And I saw that _⌊for this very reason, that_⌋* on account of apostate* Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted herself also. ⁹ And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree. ¹⁰ Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, _⌊but only_⌋* in pretense,"* _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh.

¹ Then Yahweh said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood _⌊before me_⌋,* my heart would not be to this people. Send them away from my _⌊sight_⌋,* and let them go out. ² _⌊And then_⌋* if they say to you, 'Where shall we go?' Then you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh,
"Those who are destined for the plague, to the plague, and those who are destined for the sword, to the sword, and those who are destined for the famine, to the famine, and those who are destined for the captivity, to the captivity." ' ³ "And I will summon* over them four types of calamity," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh, "the sword to kill, and the dogs to drag away, and the birds* of the air and the wild animals* of the earth to devour and to destroy. ⁴ And I will make them a terror to all of the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.

²⁷ So _⌊the anger of Yahweh was kindled_⌋* against that land to bring upon it all the curses written in this scroll, ²⁸ and Yahweh uprooted them from their land in anger and in wrath and in great fury, and he cast them into another land, _⌊just as it is today_⌋.'*

²⁹ so that your eyes will be open to this house night and day, to the place which you said, 'My name will be there,' to hear the prayer that your servant prays toward this place.

³ Yahweh said to him, "I have heard your prayer and your plea which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house which you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

¹⁸ So Yahweh was very angry with Israel and he removed them from his presence; none remained except the tribe of Judah alone.

²⁰ so Yahweh rejected all the offspring of Israel and punished them, and he gave them into the hand of the plunderers until he banished them from his presence.

¹¹ Then the king of Assyria deported Israel to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Habor, in the river regions of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,

⁴ He built altars in the temple of Yahweh about which Yahweh had said, "I will put my name in Jerusalem."

¹³ I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes the dish; he wipes it and turns it on its face.

³ Surely, it was _⌊on the command_⌋* of Yahweh against Judah to remove them from his sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done.

¹¹ The remainder of the people left in the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the remainder of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard deported.

¹¹ Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

³⁷ Thus says Yahweh, "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, also I will reject all the offspring of Israel because of all that they have done," _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh.

²⁴ "Have you not seen how these people speak, _⌊saying_⌋,* 'The two clans* whom Yahweh chose, he has also rejected them'? Thus they spurn my people from being a nation _⌊before them_⌋* any longer.

⁷ The Lord has rejected his altar; he has rejected his sanctuary; he has delivered into the hands of the enemy the walls of its citadel fortresses.* They have cried out in the house of Yahweh like a day of an appointed feast.

³² Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "You will drink the deep and wide* cup of your sister; you will be as laughter and as scorn; _⌊the cup holds so much_⌋!* ³³ You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, for a cup of horror and desolation is the cup of your sister, Samaria. ³⁴ And you will drink it, and you will drain it, and its potsherds you will gnaw, and you will tear out your breasts, for _⌊I myself_⌋* spoke," _⌊declares_⌋* the Lord Yahweh. ³⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because you have forgotten me, and you threw me behind your back, now in turn* you bear your obscene conduct and your whorings."

²⁰ Now the remainder of the acts of Hezekiah, all of his powerful deeds, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought the water into the city, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

¹¹ In Issachar and Asher, Manasseh had Beth-shean and its villages, Ibleam and its villages, the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, the inhabitants of En-dor and its villages, the inhabitants of Taanach and its villages, the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; the third is Napheth.

²⁷ Manasseh did not drive out Beth-Sean and its towns, or Taanach and its towns, or the inhabitants* of Dor and its towns, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; the Canaanites* were determined to live in this land.

¹⁹ "The kings came, they fought; then the kings of Canaan fought; at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo, they got no plunder in silver.

¹² Baanah the son of Ahilud was in Taanach and Megiddo and all Beth-Shean which is beside Zarethan below Jezreel, of Beth-Shean up to Abel-Meholah up to the other side of Jokmeam.

²⁷ When Ahaziah king of Judah saw, he fled the way of Beth-Haggen. Jehu pursued after him and said, "Shoot him also, in the chariot." They shot him at the ascent of Gur which is in Ibleam, and he fled to Megiddo, but he died there.

⁸ Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu king of Israel, saying, "Come let us meet _⌊face-to-face_⌋."*

¹¹ But Amaziah would not listen, so Jehoash king of Israel went up and they met face-to-face, he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Beth-Shemesh which belongs to Judah.

²⁰ Therefore look, I am gathering you to your ancestors,* and you shall be gathered to your tombs in peace. Your eyes will not see all of the disaster that I am bringing onto this place.'" '" Then they _⌊reported the word_⌋* to the king.

³³ Then Pharaoh Neco confined him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, from reigning in Jerusalem, and imposed a levy on the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ³⁴ Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father, and he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Then he took Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt, and he died there. ³⁵ The silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh; however, he taxed the land to give the silver _⌊to meet the demands of Pharaoh_⌋.* Each according to assessment, he exacted payment of the silver and the gold from the people of the land to give to Pharaoh Neco.

⁷ The king of Egypt did not again come out from his land, for the king of Babylon had taken territory from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

²⁰ After all of this that Josiah had prepared for the temple,* Neco the king of Egypt went up to make war at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went up to meet him. ²¹ And he* sent messengers to him, saying, "_⌊What is there between us_⌋,* O king of Judah? I am not against you yourself this day, but against the house making war against me. And God has commanded me to make haste. Stop opposing God, who is with me that he will not destroy you." ²² But Josiah did not turn his face from him, but he disguised himself to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and he went out to fight in the plain of Megiddo. ²³ And the archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am badly wounded." ²⁴ So his servants took him out of the chariot and transported him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the burial sites of his ancestors.* And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned over Josiah.

¹⁴ There is a vanity that happens on earth: sometimes the righteous suffer what the wicked deserve, and sometimes the wicked receive what the righteous deserve. I said, "This also is vanity!"

¹ So all this I laid to my heart, and I concluded* that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in the hand of God. So no one knows anything that will come to them, whether it will be love or hatred. ² The same fate comes to everyone:
to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the wicked,* to the clean and to the unclean, to those who sacrifice and to those who do not sacrifice. As with the good man, so also to the sinner; as with those who swear an oath, so also those who fear oaths.

¹ The righteous one perishes, and there is no one who takes* it to heart. And men of faithfulness are gathered, while there is no one who understands, for the righteous is gathered from the presence of wickedness. ² he enters into peace; they will rest on their beds, walking straight ahead of him.

² Concerning Egypt: Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, which was by the Euphrates River at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah.

¹¹ On that day the wailing will be great in Jerusalem, like the wailing for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how incomprehensible are his ways!

¹⁶ And he gathered them to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon.

³³ When the chariot commanders saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned away from him. ³⁴ But another man drew his bow fully and struck the king of Israel between the armor scales and the breastplate; so he said to his chariot driver, "Turn _⌊the chariot_⌋* and bring me out from the camp, for I am wounded." ³⁵ The battle intensified on that day, and the king was being propped up in the chariot opposite Aram, but he died in the evening, and the blood of the wound ran out to the floor of the chariot. ³⁶ Then the shout passed through the camp about sunset, saying, "Each man to his city and each to his land!" ³⁷ So the king died, and _⌊they brought him_⌋* to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria. ³⁸ They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked his blood (now, the prostitutes washed themselves there) according to the word of Yahweh which he had spoken.

²⁸ Then his officers carried him to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his tomb with his ancestors* in the city of David.

²¹ All of the people of Judah took sixteen-year-old Azariah and made him king in place of this father Amaziah.

²⁴ But the people of the land killed all who conspired against the king and made Josiah his son king in his place.

²⁴ So his servants took him out of the chariot and transported him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the burial sites of his ancestors.* And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned over Josiah.

¹ And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and made him king in place of his father in Jerusalem. ² Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. ³ Then the king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and laid a tribute upon the land of one hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold. ⁴ And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and he changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz his brother and brought him to Egypt.

¹⁸ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

¹⁵ And the sons of Josiah: Johanan the firstborn, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum.

¹¹ For thus says Yahweh concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned as king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: "He will not return here again.

² He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to the detestable things of the nations that Yahweh had driven out from the presence of the _⌊Israelites_⌋.* ³ He returned and rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. He erected altars for Baal and made a pole of Asherah worship just as Ahab king of Israel had made, and he bowed down to all of the host of heaven and served them. ⁴ He built altars in the temple of Yahweh about which Yahweh had said, "I will put my name in Jerusalem." ⁵ He built an altar to all of the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh. ⁶ He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He increased the doing of evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him. ⁷ He put the image of the Asherah that he had made in the temple which Yahweh had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this temple and in Jerusalem which I have chosen from all of the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

²² " 'And if men fight and they injure a pregnant woman, and her children go out and there is not serious injury, he will surely be fined as the woman's husband demands concerning him _⌊and as the judges determine_⌋.*

²¹ So they went up and explored the land from the desert of Zin until Rehob, at Lebo Hamath.*

¹¹ the boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah from the east side of Ain, and the boundary will go down and border on the eastern side of the Sea of Kinnereth.

⁶⁵ Solomon held the festival at that time and all of Israel with him, a great assembly from Lebo Hamath up to the wadi* of Egypt before Yahweh our God, for seven days and seven days, a total of fourteen days.

¹⁴ So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me. What you impose on me I will bear." So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

²⁹ In his days, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to meet him, and he* killed him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him.

⁶ So they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and _⌊they passed sentence on him_⌋.*

¹⁹ A hot-tempered person pays a penalty; if you rescue him, you will do it yet again.

⁵ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he pronounced _⌊sentence_⌋* on him. ⁶ And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes. The king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.

⁹ Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and _⌊he passed sentence on him_⌋.* ¹⁰ And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.

²⁶ Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard* took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷ And the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah left from its land.

³ And she raised up one from her cubs; he became a fierce lion, and he learned to tear prey; he ate* humans.* ⁴ And nations heard about him; in their pit he was caught, and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

⁴⁵ And Pharaoh called the name of Joseph Zaphenath-paneah and gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as a wife. And Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.

¹⁸ It passes on to the slope opposite the Arabah* to the north, and it goes down to the Arabah.*

¹⁷ Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his uncle king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.

¹¹ For thus says Yahweh concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned as king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: "He will not return here again. ¹² But in the place where they have deported him, there he will die, and he will not see this land again.

⁷ And the commander of the court officials gave them names, and he called Daniel, Belteshazzar; and Hananiah, Shadrach; and Mishael, Meshach; and Azariah, Abednego.

¹⁹ Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, so Menahem gave a thousand talents of silver to Pul so that his hand would be with him _⌊to strengthen his hold on the kingdom_⌋.* ²⁰ Menahem exacted the money from Israel, from all _⌊the very rich_⌋,* to give to the king of Assyria fifty shekels of silver for each one. Then the king of Assyria returned and did not stay there in the land.

³³ Then Pharaoh Neco confined him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, from reigning in Jerusalem, and imposed a levy on the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh his God.

³ It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

¹ At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came from Yahweh, _⌊saying_⌋,*

³² He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh according to all his ancestors* had done.

²² And in the time of his distress, King Ahaz continued to act unfaithfully against Yahweh. ²³ He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, "Because the gods of the king of Aram* helped them, I will sacrifice to them so that they will help me." But they were _⌊a disaster_⌋* to him and to all Israel. ²⁴ Then Ahaz gathered the objects of the house of God, and he cut the objects of the house of God to pieces. And he shut the doors of the house of Yahweh and made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵ And _⌊in every city_⌋* of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and he provoked Yahweh, the God of his ancestors,* to anger.

⁴ And he built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh had said, "In Jerusalem my name shall be forever." ⁵ And he built altars to all the host of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of Yahweh. ⁶ And he himself burned his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. And he practiced sorcery and divination, and he engaged in witchcraft and dealt with mediums and spiritists. And he did much evil in the eyes of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger. ⁷ And he placed the carved image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. ⁸ And I will _⌊never_⌋* remove the foot of Israel from upon the land that I appointed to your ancestors,* if only you will take care to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the regulations, and the judgments by the hand of Moses." ⁹ And Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do evil more than the nations that Yahweh destroyed before the _⌊Israelites_⌋.* ¹⁰ And Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not listen.

²² And he did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh as Manasseh his father had done. And Amon sacrificed to all the idols that Manasseh his father had made, and he served them. ²³ And he did not humble himself before Yahweh, as Manasseh his father humbled himself, but Amon himself multiplied his guilt.

¹³ Woe to the one who builds his house without righteousness, and his upper rooms without justice. His fellow countryman, he works for nothing, and he does not give to him his wages.* ¹⁴ Who says 'I will build for myself a spacious house with large upper rooms,' and he cuts windows for it, and it is* paneled with cedar, and he paints it* with vermilion. ¹⁵ Do you reign as king because you are competing in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and he did justice and righteousness, then it was well with him? ¹⁶ He judged the legal cause of the needy and the poor, and then it was well. _⌊Is that not what it means to know me_⌋?*" _⌊declares_⌋* Yahweh. ¹⁷ "But there is nothing in your eyes and your heart _⌊except_⌋* your unlawful gain, and on shedding the blood of the innocent, and on committing oppression and extortion."

²⁰ Indeed, there also was a man prophesying in the name of Yahweh, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-Jearim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land like all the words of Jeremiah. ²¹ And when King Jehoiakim, and all his warriors, and all the officials heard his words, then the king sought to put him to death. But Uriah heard, and he was afraid, and he fled and went to Egypt. ²² Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt. Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and men with him went to Egypt. ²³ And they brought out Uriah from Egypt and they brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with the sword, and he threw his dead body into the burial sites of the sons of the people.

²³ _⌊And then_⌋,* as Jehudi read three or four columns, he would cut it up in pieces with the knife of the scribe, and he would throw it* into the fire that was in the fire-pot until the whole of the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire-pot. ²⁴ And the king and any of his servants who heard all these words were not startled, and they did not tear their garments. ²⁵ And even when Elnathan, and Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. ²⁶ And the king commanded Jerahmeel, the son of the king, and Seraiah, the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, the son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but Yahweh hid them.

³¹ And I will punish him, and his offspring, and his servants for their guilt, and I will bring on them, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the people of Judah all the disaster with which I have threatened them, but they would not listen." '"

⁵ And she saw* that she was waiting in vain; her hope was destroyed, and she took one from her cubs, and she made him a fierce lion. ⁶ And he walked about in the midst of lions; he became a fierce lion, and he learned to tear prey; he ate* humans.* ⁷ And he knew their widows,* and he devastated their cities, and the land was appalled, and _⌊everyone in it_⌋* at the sound of his roar. ⁸ And nations set out against him _⌊from the surrounding provinces_⌋,* and they spread their net over him, and he was caught in their pit. ⁹ And they put him in a collar with hooks, and they brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into* a prison, so that his voice would not be heard _⌊any longer_⌋* on the mountains of Israel.