- Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hephzibah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards; he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. And he set an engraved image of the grove that he had made in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever. Neither will I make the feet of Israel move anymore out of the land which I gave their fathers, only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them. But they listened not, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.
- And the Lord spoke by his servants the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.
- Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another — besides his sin by which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
- Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh did. And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them. And he forsook the Lord God of his fathers and walked not in the way of the Lord. And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house. And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead. Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And he was buried in his sepulcher in the garden of Uzza; and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.
- Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the Lord which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people, and let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work that have the oversight of the house of the Lord. And let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the Lord, to repair the breaches of the house — unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. Nevertheless, there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand because they dealt faithfully.
- And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again and said, Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work that have the oversight of the house of the Lord. And Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
- And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, a servant of the king’s, saying, Go inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not listened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
- So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe — now she dwelled in Jerusalem, in the college — and they spoke with her. And she said unto them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Tell the man that sent you to me, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched. But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: As touching the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender, and you have humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have rent your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. Behold, therefore I will gather you unto your fathers, and you shall be gathered into your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.
- And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
- And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el. And he put down the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. And he broke down the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and broke down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun at the entering in of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech the chamberlain which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord did the king beat down, and broke them down from there, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. And he broke in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
- Moreover, the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchers that were there in the mount, and sent and took the bones out of the sepulchers, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed who proclaimed these words. Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulcher of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Beth-el. And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el. And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
- And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. Surely there was not held such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah, but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah wherein this passover was held to the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
- Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath with which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him with. And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his days, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up alongside the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates, and king Josiah went against him, and he slew him at Megiddo when he had seen him. And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.
- Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. And Pharaoh Necho put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. And Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king, in the place of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of everyone according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh Necho.
- Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.
Chapter 7