2 SUPPLEMENTS

1 And Salomon son of Dauid prevailed over his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and magnified him highly.

2 And Salomon spoke to all Israel, to the officers of thousands and the officers of hundreds and the judges and all the rulers before Israel, to the rulers of the paternal families. ³And Salomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high ground that is in Gabaon, there where God’s tent of witness was, which Moyses, servant of the Lord, had made in the wilderness. ⁴But Dauid had carried God’s ark up from the city of Kariathiarim, for he had prepared a tent for it in Ierousalem. ⁵And the bronze altar, which Besaleel son of Ourias son of Hor had made, was there before the Lord’s tent, and Salomon and the assembly sought it out. ⁶And there Salomon offered on the bronze altar in the tent before the Lord and offered on it a thousand whole burnt offerings.

7 In that night God appeared to Salomon and said to him, “Ask what I should give you.” ⁸And Salomon said to God, “You have done great mercy with Dauid my father and have made me king in his stead. ⁹And now, Lord God, let your name be confirmed over Dauid my father, because it is you who have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰Now grant me wisdom and understanding, and I will go out and will go in before this people, because who will judge this great people of yours?” ¹¹And God said to Salomon, “Since this was in your heart and you have not asked for wealth of possessions nor glory, nor have you asked for the life of your opponents and for many days, and you have asked for wisdom and understanding for yourself in order to judge my people, those over whom I have made you king, ¹²I grant you wisdom and understanding, and I will give you both wealth and possessions and glory, as there has been none like you among the kings before you, and after you it shall not be so.” ¹³And Salomon came from Bama in Gabaon to Ierousalem from before the tent of witness and ruled over Israel.

14 And Salomon gathered together chariots and horsemen, and he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. And he stationed them in the chariot cities, and the people were with the king in Ierousalem. ¹⁵And the king placed gold and silver in Ierousalem like stones and the cedars in Judea, like mulberry trees that are in the plain in abundance. ¹⁶And the export of Salomon’s horses was from Egypt, and the price of the king’s merchants; they would buy to trade. ¹⁷And they would go up and bring back from Egypt one chariot for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for one hundred and fifty. And thus they would bring for all the kings of the Chettites and kings of Syria by their hands. ^18(2.1)And Salomon said that he would build a house for the Lord’s name and a house for his reign.

2 ⁽²⁾And Salomon gathered seventy thousand men and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country, and the supervisors over them were three thousand six hundred.

2(3) And Salomon sent to Chiram, king of Tyre, saying, “As you dealt with my father Dauid and dispatched to him cedars to build a house for him to dwell in, ³⁽⁴⁾behold, I, his son, also am building a house for the name of the Lord, my God, to dedicate it to him to offer incense before him and presentation^a always and to present whole burnt offerings always, in the morning and evening and on sabbaths and on new moons and on the feasts of the Lord, our God; this is upon Israel forever. ⁴⁽⁵⁾And the house, which I am building, is great, for great is our God compared with all the gods. ⁵⁽⁶⁾And who will be able to build him a house?—because the sky and the sky of the sky cannot bear his glory. And who am I to build him a house?—except to offer incense before him. ⁶⁽⁷⁾And now send me a skilled man and one who knows how to work in gold and in silver and in bronze and in iron and in purple and in scarlet and in blue, one who understands to engrave engraving, with the skilled men who are with me in Ioudas and in Ierousalem, whom my father Dauid provided. ⁷⁽⁸⁾And send me cedar wood and juniper and pine from Lebanon, for I know how your slaves know about cutting wood from Lebanon. See, your servants will be with my servants. ⁸⁽⁹⁾They will go to prepare me timber in abundance, for the house I am about to build will be great and glorious. ⁹⁽¹⁰⁾And see, I have given the workmen, those cutting wood, grain as food in payment to your servants twenty thousand kors^b, even twenty thousand kors^b of barley and twenty thousand measures of wine and twenty thousand measures of oil.”

10(11) And Chiram, king of Tyre, said in writing and dispatched to Salomon, “In his love for his people the Lord has granted you as king over them.” ¹¹⁽¹²⁾And Chiram said, “Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, who made the sky and the earth, who gave King Dauid a wise son and one who understands discretion and understanding, who will build a house to the Lord and a house for his reign.

12(13) “Now I have sent you a skilled man and one endowed with understanding, Chiram my father—¹³⁽¹⁴⁾his mother was of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a Tyrian man—since he knows how to work in gold and in silver and in bronze and in iron, in stone and wood and to weave in purple and in blue and in linen and in scarlet and to engrave engravings and to visualize any design, whatever you give him, together with your skilled men and the skilled men of Dauid my lord, your father. ¹⁴⁽¹⁵⁾And now, let him send to his servants the grain and the barley and the oil and the wine of which my lord spoke. ¹⁵⁽¹⁶⁾And we on our part shall cut wood from Lebanon to meet your entire need and will transport it on rafts to the sea of Joppe, and you will transport it to Ierousalem.” ¹⁶⁽¹⁷⁾And Salomon gathered all the men, the guests, in the land of Israel after the census, which his father Dauid had conducted of them, and they were found to be one hundred and fifty-three thousand and six hundred.

17(18) And of them he made seventy thousand into porters and eighty thousand into stonecutters and three thousand six hundred taskmasters over the people.

3 And Salomon began building the Lord’s house in Ierousalem, on the mountain of Hamoria, where the Lord had appeared to Dauid, his father, in the place that Dauid had prepared in the threshing floor of Orna the Iebousite. ²And he began building in the second month of the fourth year of his reign. ³And this is how Salomon began building the house of God. The length in cubits, ^athe original measure^a, was sixty cubits and the width twenty cubits. ⁴And there was an ailam^b in front of the house, the length ^con face of^c the width of the house was twenty cubits, and its height was one hundred and twenty cubits. And he gilded it internally with pure gold. ⁵And he lined the great house outside with cedar wood and gilded it with pure gold and engraved palms on it and chains. ⁶And he adorned the house with precious stones for splendor and with gold—gold that was from Pharouaim. ⁷And he gilded the house and the walls and the gateways and the ceilings and the doorways with gold and engraved cheroubin on the walls.

8 And he made the house of the holy of holies: its length ^con face of^c width was twenty cubits, and the breadth was twenty cubits, and he gilded it with pure gold—onto^d the cheroubin—as much as six hundred talents of gold. ⁹And the weight of the nails—the weight of one was fifty shekels of gold. And he gilded the upper chamber with gold.

10 And in the house of the holy of holies he fashioned a work of two cheroubin out of wood, and he gilded them with gold. ¹¹And the cheroubin’s wings were twenty cubits in length, and the one wing was five cubits, touching the wall of the house, and the other wing was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cheroub. ¹²And the wing of the one^e cheroub was five cubits, touching the wall of the house and the other wing was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cheroub. ¹³And the wings of the cheroubin extended twenty cubits. And they stood on their feet, and their faces were toward the house. ¹⁴And he made the veil out of blue and purple and scarlet and linen and wove cheroubin into it.

15 And he made two pillars in front of the house, thirty-five cubits in height, and their tops five cubits. ¹⁶And he made serseroth^f in the dabir^g and placed them on the tops of the pillars, and he made one hundred pomegranates and set them on the chains. ¹⁷And he erected the pillars in front of the shrine, one on the right and the other on the left, and he called the name of the one on the right Uprightness and the name of the one on the left Strength.

4 And he made the bronze altar, twenty cubits in length and twenty cubits in width and ten cubits in height. ²And he made the molten sea, ten cubits in diameter, circular all round, and it was five cubits in height, and its circumference was thirty cubits. ³And under it was a representation of bull calves. They encircled it on all sides, ten cubits; they surrounded the washbasin in a circle. They cast the bull calves of two kinds in their casting ⁴by which they made them, twelve bull calves, and three faced north, and three faced west, and three faced south, and three faced east, and the sea was on top of them, and their hind quarters were toward the inside. ⁵And its thickness was a handbreadth, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, carved with lily buds; it held three thousand measures. And he completed it. ⁶And he made ten washbasins and set five of them on the right and five on the left to rinse the utensils for the whole burnt offerings in them and wash them clean in them. And the sea was for the priests to wash in it.

7 And he made the gold lampstands, ten according to their prescription, and placed them in the shrine, five on the right and five on the left. ⁸And he made ten tables and placed them in the shrine, five on the right and five on the left. And he made one hundred gold saucers. ⁹And he made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court and their doorways, overlaid with bronze. ¹⁰And he placed the sea at the corner of the house on the right, facing eastward.

11 And Chiram made the meat hooks and the fire-pans and the hearth for the altar and all its utensils. And Chiram finished producing all the work which he did for Salomon the king in the house of God, ¹²two pillars and on them golath^a for the chothareth^b on the tops of the two pillars and two lattice works to cover the tops of the chothareth^b, which were on the tops of the pillars, ¹³and four hundred golden bells on the two lattice works and two sorts of pomegranates on one of the lattice works to cover the two golath^a of the chothareth^b, which were above the pillars. ¹⁴And he made the ten mechonoth^c, and he made the washbasins on the mechonoth^{c 15}and the one sea and the twelve bull calves beneath it ¹⁶and the tripods^d and pails and cauldrons and meat hooks and all their utensils, which Chiram had made and brought to King Salomon in the house of the Lord, of pure bronze. ¹⁷The king cast them in the neighborhood of the Jordan in the ^ethickness of the lande in the house of Sokchoth and between Sirdatha. ¹⁸And Salomon made all these utensils in great abundance, because the weight of bronze did not fail.

19 And Salomon made all the utensils of the Lord’s house and the gold altar and the tables (and on them were loaves of presentation) ²⁰and the lampstands and the lamps of light as prescribed and in front of the dabir^f, of pure gold—²¹and there were their snuffers and their lamps—and the saucers and the censers and the fire-pans, of pure gold. ²²And the inner door of the house toward the holy of holies, to the doors of the house of the shrine, of gold.

5 And all the activity was concluded, which Salomon had conducted in the house of the Lord. And Salomon brought in the holy things of his father Dauid, the silver and the gold, and he delivered the articles into the treasury of the Lord’s house.

2 Then Salomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the rulers of the tribes, the leaders of the paternal families of the sons of Israel in Ierousalem to bring up the ark of the Lord’s covenant from the city of Dauid (that is Sion). ³And they assembled—every man of Israel—before the king on the feast (it was the seventh month). ⁴And all the elders of Israel came, and all the Leuites took the ark. ⁵And they carried the ark and the tent of witness and all the holy vessels in the tent, and the priests and the Leuites carried it. ⁶And King Salomon and all the gathering of Israel and the fearers and their gathered ones were sacrificing calves and sheep in front of the ark, which shall not be numbered and which shall not be assessed because of their abundance. ⁷And the priests brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant into its place in the dabir^f of the house in the holy of holies underneath the wings of the cheroubin. ⁸And the cheroubin extended their wings over the place of the ark, and the cheroubin concealed the ark and its carrying-poles from above. ⁹And the poles projected outwards and the ends of the carrying-poles could be seen from the holy precincts in front of the dabir^f but were not visible outside. And they have been there until this day. ¹⁰There was nothing in the ark except for two tablets, which Moyses placed in Choreb, with which things the Lord made a covenant with the sons of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.

11 And it happened, when the priests exited from the holy precincts—seeing that all the priests present had sanctified themselves, they were not arranged according to their divisions, ¹²(and the Leuites, all harp-singers belonging to the sons of Asaph, to Haiman, to Idithoun and to sons of them and brothers of them, draped in linen garments with cymbals and nablas^g and cinyras^h)—as they stood facing the altar and with them one hundred and twenty priests trumpeting with their trumpets, ¹³that there was one sound in their trumpeting and in their doing harp-singing and in their acclaiming to acknowledge and praise the Lord and as they raised a sound with trumpets and cymbals and instruments of songs, and they said:

“Acknowledge the Lord, because it is good,
because his mercy is forever.”

And the house was filled with a cloud of the Lord’s glory. ¹⁴And the priests could not stand to minister from before the cloud, for the Lord’s glory had filled the house of God.

6 Then Salomon said: “The Lord said that he would encamp in thick darkness. ²And I have built a house for your name, sacred to you and ready for you to encamp in forever.”

3 And the king turned his face and blessed all the assembly of Israel, and all the assembly of Israel stood by. ⁴And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to Dauid my father and has fulfilled it with his hands, saying: ⁵‘From the day when I brought my people up out of Egypt, I did not choose for a city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house that my name be there, and I did not choose for a man to be leader over my people Israel. ⁶And I have chosen for Ierousalem for my name to be there, and I have chosen for Dauid to be over my people Israel.’⁷And it was in my father Dauid’s heart to build a house for the name of the Lord, God of Israel, ⁸and the Lord said to my father Dauid, ‘Seeing that it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you have done well that it was in your heart. ⁹Nevertheless, it is not you who will build the house, because your son, who will come from your loins, it is he who will build the house for my name.’¹⁰And the Lord established his word, which he spoke, and I have taken the place of my father Dauid and sat down on the throne of Israel, as the Lord spoke, and I have built the house for the name of the Lord, God of Israel, ¹¹and I have set there the ark in which is the Lord’s covenant, which he made with Israel.”

12 And he stood facing the Lord’s altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands—¹³because Salomon had made a bronze platform and had set it in the midst of the temple court, its length five cubits and its width five cubits and its height three cubits, and he stood on it and fell to his knees before all the assembly of Israel—and he spread out his hands heaven-ward ¹⁴and said, “Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on the earth, who keeps covenant and mercy for your servants who walk before you wholeheartedly. ¹⁵What you kept for your servant Dauid my father what you spoke to him when making utterance—you both spoke with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hands—it is as this very day. ¹⁶And now, Lord, God of Israel, keep for your servant, for my father Dauid, what you said when you told him, ‘No man sitting on the throne of Israel will fail you from before me, if only your sons keep their way to walk in my law, as you have walked before me.’

17 “And now, Lord, God of Israel, let your utterance indeed be confirmed, which you spoke to your servant Dauid—¹⁸because if a god will truly dwell with men on the earth, if the sky and the sky of the sky will not be enough for you, what then is this house, which I have built? ¹⁹And look upon the prayer of your servant and on my petition, Lord God, to hear the petition and the prayer, which your servant prays before you today, ²⁰that your eyes be open toward this house day and night, toward this place, which you said that your name would be called upon there, to hear the prayer, which your servant prays toward this place. ²¹And you will hear the petition of your servant and your people Israel, whatever they pray toward this place, and as for you, you will hear in the place of your dwelling from the sky and will hear and be merciful.

22 “If a man sins against his fellow and takes upon himself an imprecation to imprecate him and he goes and imprecates before the altar in this house, ²³you shall also hear him from the sky and act and judge your slaves to repay the unjust and repay his ways on his head, to acquit the righteous in order to repay him according to his righteousness.

24 “And if your people Israel are shattered before the enemy, if they have sinned against you and repent and acknowledge your name and pray and petition before you in this house, ²⁵you shall also hear from the sky and be compassionate on the sins of your people Israel and return them to the land, which you gave to them and their fathers.

26 “When the sky is sealed up and there is no rain because they will have sinned against you, and they will pray to this place and will praise your name and will turn from their sins, because you will have humbled them, ²⁷you will also hear from the sky and be compassionate on the sins of your servants and your people Israel, because you will make clear to them the good way in which they will walk in it, and you will grant rain on your land, which you gave to your people as an inheritance.

28 “If there is famine on the land, if there is death, blight and jaundice, grasshopper and locust larva, if the enemy oppresses them against their cities in accordance with every blow and every suffering ²⁹and if every prayer and every petition arises from every person and all your people Israel, if a person knows his infection and his infirmity and spreads out his hands to this place, ³⁰you will also hear from the sky, from your ready habitation, and you will grant expiation and will give a man according to his ways, as you know his heart, for you alone know the heart of the sons of men, ³¹that they should fear your ways all the days they are alive on the face of the land, which you gave our fathers.

32 “And every stranger, who is not of your people Israel and may come from a far off land because of your great name and your powerful hand and your arm held high, and they come and pray in this place—³³you will also hear them from the sky, from your ready habitation, and you will act according to all that the stranger calls to you so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name both to fear you, as your people Israel, and to know that your name has been called upon this house, which I have built.

34 “If your people go out to war against their enemies in the way you send them and pray to you according to the direction of this city, which you have chosen for it, and of the house, which I have built for your name, ³⁵you will also hear their petition and their prayer from the sky and act on their plea of right—³⁶because they will sin against you (for there is no person who will not sin), and you will strike them and hand them over before enemies, and their captors will take them captive into a land of enemies, to a land far or near, ³⁷and if they turn back their heart in their land, there where they have been transported, and if they do indeed repent and petition you in their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned; we have done wrong; we have acted lawlessly,’ ³⁸and they turn back toward you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captors and pray in the direction of their land, which you gave to their fathers, and of the city, which you chose, and of the house, which I have built for your name, ³⁹you will also hear their prayer and their petition from the sky, from your ready habitation, and you will make judgments and be compassionate to your sinning people. ⁴⁰Now, Lord, do let your eyes stand open and your ears alert to the petition from this place, ⁴¹and now:

“Arise, Lord God, to your repose,
you and the ark of your strength.

May your priests, Lord God, clothe
         themselves in salvation,

and let your sons be glad in good things.

⁴² Lord God, do not avert your face from your
         anointed;

remember your mercies toward Dauid
your slave.”

7 And when Salomon finished praying, the fire also descended from the sky and consumed the whole burnt offerings and the sacrifices, and the Lord’s glory filled the house. ²And the priests were unable to enter into the Lord’s house at that time, because the Lord’s glory filled the house. ³And all the sons of Israel saw the fire descend, and the glory of the Lord was on the house and they fell face down on the ground on the pavement and did obeisance and were praising the Lord.

“Because it is good;
because his mercy is forever.”

⁴ And the king and all the people were sacrificing victims before the Lord. ⁵And Salomon sacrificed the sacrifice: twenty-two thousand calves and one hundred and twenty thousand fatlings. And the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ⁶And the priests stood in their posts, and the Leuites with instruments for songs to the Lord of King Dauid to acknowledge before the Lord—because his mercy is forever—with hymns of Dauid through their hand, and the priests trumpeted with the trumpets opposite them, and all Israel stood.

7 And Salomon consecrated the middle of the court that is in the house of the Lord, because there he had made whole burnt offerings and the fatty parts of the victims for deliverance, because the bronze altar Salomon had made he could not equip to receive whole burnt offerings and the manaa^a and the fatty parts.

8 And Salomon made the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, an exceedingly large assembly from the entrance of Haimath and as far as the Wadi of Egypt. ⁹And he made a concluding ceremony on the eighth day, because he had observed for seven days the dedication of the altar as a feast. ¹⁰And on the twenty-third of the seventh month he dismissed the people to their coverts, rejoicing and with a good heart at all the bounties which the Lord had done for Dauid and for Salomon and for Israel, his people.

11 And Salomon completed the Lord’s house and the house of the king. And all that Salomon wanted in his soul to do in the Lord’s house and in his house was successful.

12 And God appeared to Salomon by night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen for this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³If I stop up the sky and there be no rain and if I command the grasshopper to consume the wood^b and if I send death among my people ¹⁴and if my people, upon whom my name is called, feel embarrassed and they pray and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I for my part will listen from the sky and will be gracious upon their sins and will heal their land. ¹⁵Now my eyes will be open and my ears alert to the prayer of this place. ¹⁶And now I have chosen and consecrated this place for my name to be there forever. And my eyes and my heart shall be there all the days. ¹⁷And if you walk before me like Dauid your father and do according to all that I have commanded you and keep my ordinances and judgments, ¹⁸I will also establish the throne of your kingdom as I appointed for Dauid your father, saying, ‘For you a man as ruler in Israel shall not be removed.’

19 “And if you turn away and abandon my ordinances and my commandments, which I have given before you, and go and serve other gods and do obeisance to them, ²⁰I will also remove you from the land that I gave them, and this house, which I consecrated for my name, I will turn it away from before me and render it an illustration and a tale among all the nations. ²¹And as for this lofty house—everyone who passes it by will be startled and say, ‘For what reason did the Lord do this to this land and this house?’ ²²And they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, God of their fathers, who led them out of the land of Egypt and adopted other gods and did obeisance to them and were subject to them, therefore he has brought upon them all this harm.’ ”

8 And it happened, after twenty years in which Salomon built the Lord’s house and his own house, ²also the cities that Chiram gave Salomon—Salomon built them and settled there the sons of Israel.

3 And Salomon went to Haimath Soba and ^cprevailed over^c it. ⁴And he built Thedmor in the wilderness and all the fortified cities, which he built in Hemath. ⁵And he built Upper Baithoron and Lower Baithoron, fortified cities—walls, gates and bolts there were—⁶and Baalath and all the fortified cities that belonged to Salomon and all the cities for his chariots and the cities for his horse-men, and all that Salomon desired according to his desire to build in Ierousalem and in Lebanon and in all his kingdom. ⁷All the people who were left from the Chettite and the Amorrite and the Pherezite and the Heuite and the Iebousite, who are not from Israel—⁸there were some of their sons who were left after them in the land, whom the sons of Israel had not utterly destroyed—and Salomon led them up for tribute until this day. ⁹And Salomon did not give any of the sons of Israel to be servants for his kingdom, because they were warriors and commanders and mighty men and commanders of chariots and horsemen. ¹⁰And these were rulers of King Salomon’s overseers, two hundred and fifty taskmasters among the people.

11 And Salomon brought Pharao’s daughter up from the city of Dauid to the house which he had built for her, because he said, “My wife shall not live in the city of Dauid, king of Israel, because there where the Lord’s ark has entered is holy.”

12 Then Salomon offered whole burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar, which he had built in front of the shrine. ¹³And according to the reckoning of ^dday by day^d to make offering according to Moyses’ commandments on the sabbaths and on the months^e and on the feasts three times a year, on the feast of unleavened bread and on the feast of weeks and on the feast of tents. ¹⁴And he appointed the priests’ divisions according to Dauid’s judgment with regard to their ministrations. And the Leuites were at their posts to praise and minister opposite the priests according to the reckoning of ^aday by day^a and the door keepers according to their divisions at ^bgate and gate^b, because thus were the commands of Dauid, man of God. ¹⁵They did not transgress the king’s commandments concerning the priests and Leuites in any matter and regarding the treasuries.

16 And all the work was accomplished from the day it was founded until Salomon completed the Lord’s house.

17 Then Salomon went to Gasiongaber and Ailath, the maritime city in the land of Idumea. ¹⁸And Chiram sent ships by the hand of his servants and servants familiar with the sea, and they went to Sophira with Salomon’s servants and brought from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and they came to King Salomon.

9 And ^cthe queen of Saba^c heard Salomon’s name and came to Ierousalem, to test Salomon with enigmas, with a very heavy retinue. And there were camels bearing spices and gold in profusion and precious stone, and she came to Salomon and spoke to him all that she had in her mind. ²And Salomon proclaimed to her all her words, and there was no issue that eluded Salomon, which he did not proclaim to her. ³And ^cthe queen of Saba^c saw Salomon’s wisdom and the house, which he had built, ⁴and the foodstuffs on the tables and the seating of his servants and the standing of his ministers and their clothing and his wine stewards and their apparel and the whole burnt offerings, which he offered in the Lord’s house. And she was beside herself.

5 And she said to the king, “The report that I heard in my land about your words and about your wisdom was true. ⁶And I did not believe the reports until I came and my eyes saw, and behold, I had not been told the half of the abundance of your wisdom. You have added to the rumor I heard. ⁷Happy are your men; happy are these, your servants, who stand beside you continually and hear your wisdom. ⁸Let the Lord, your God, be blessed, who wanted you on his throne, to give you as king for the Lord, your God. When the Lord, your God, loved Israel to confirm it forever, he set you over them as king to administer judgment and righteousness.” ⁹And she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold and spices in very great quantity and precious stone. And there were no spices like those which ^cthe queen of Saba^c gave King Salomon.

10 (And Salomon’s servants and the servants of Chiram brought Salomon gold from Souphir and pine wood and precious stone. ¹¹And the king made the pinewood into ascents for the Lord’s house and the king’s house and into lyres and nablas^d for the singers. And such things had not been seen before in the land of Ioudas).

12 And King Salomon gave ^cthe queen of Saba^c all her wants which she requested, beyond everything she had brought King Salomon. And she returned to her land.

13 And the weight of gold that was brought to Salomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, ¹⁴besides the men who were subordinates and merchants—what they would bring—and all the kings of Arabia and the satraps of the land—they would bring gold and silver to King Salomon. ¹⁵And King Salomon made two hundred oblong shields of beaten gold—six hundred^e of pure gold to one shield; six hundred^e of gold went into one shield—¹⁶and three hundred round shields of beaten gold; he allotted three hundred^e of gold to each shield. And the king gave them in the house of the Forest of Lebanon. ¹⁷And the king made a large ivory throne of teeth and gilded it with certified gold. ¹⁸And the throne had six steps, attached with gold, and there were arms on either side of the throne for sitting, and two lions standing next to the arms ¹⁹and twelve lions standing there on the six steps at either side. Nothing like that had existed in any kingdom. ²⁰And all King Salomon’s vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Forest of Lebanon were covered with gold. Nor was silver held in any account in the days of Salomon, ²¹because a ship for^f the king traveled to Tharsis with Chiram’s servants. Once every three years the boats would come from Tharsis to the king full of gold and silver and ivory teeth and apes.

22 And Salomon was magnified over all the kings both in wealth and in wisdom. ²³And all the kings of the earth would seek out the face of Salomon to hear his wisdom, which God had given in his heart. ²⁴And every one of them brought his gifts, silver vessels and gold vessels and clothing, myrrh and spices, horses and mules, year by year, ²⁵And Salomon had four thousand mares for chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he stationed them in chariot cities and with the king in Ierousalem. ²⁶And he was leader of all the kings from the River^g to the land of allophyles and to the border of Egypt. ²⁷And the king presented gold and silver like stones in Ierousalem and cedars like the sycamores that are in the flat country in profusion. ²⁸And the export of horses was from Egypt to Salomon and from all the earth.

29 And the rest of the histories of Salomon, the first and the last, behold, they are written in the Histories of Nathan the Prophet and in the Histories of Achia the Selonite and in the Visions of Ioel the Seer concerning Ieroboam son of Nabat. ³⁰And King Salomon reigned over all Israel for forty years.

³¹And Salomon slept, and they buried him in the city of Dauid his father and Roboam his son reigned in his stead.

10 And Roboam went to Sychem, because all Israel was coming to Sychem to make him king. ²And it happened, when Ieroboam son of Nabat heard—and he was in Egypt, as he had fled from before King Salomon, and Ieroboam had taken up residence in Egypt—then Ieroboam returned from Egypt. ³And they sent and called him, and Ieroboam and all the assembly of Israel came to Roboam, saying, ⁴“Your father made our yoke hard. And now lighten your father’s harsh slavery and his heavy yoke that he placed upon us, and we will be subject to you.” ⁵And he said to them, “Go forth about three days, and then come to me.” And the people went away.

6 And King Roboam gathered the elders who had stood before Salomon his father during his lifetime, saying, “How do you advise that a word should be answered to this people?” ⁷And they spoke to him, saying, “If today you are well disposed to this people and you are well pleased with them and speak kind words to them, they will be your servants all your days.” ⁸And he rejected the advice of the elders who had counseled him and took counsel with the youths who had been brought up with him, who stood before him. ⁹And he said to them, “What do you counsel and what word shall I reply to this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father imposed upon us?’ “ ¹⁰And the youths who had been brought up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to the people who spoke to you saying, ‘Your father made our yoke hard. Now remove it from us.’ Thus shall you speak, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. ¹¹And now my father trained you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ ”

12 And Ieroboam and all Israel came to Roboam on the third day, as the king had spoken, saying, “Return to me on the third day.” ¹³And the king answered harshly and King Roboam abandoned the elders’ counsel. ¹⁴And he spoke to them according to the youths’ counsel, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” ¹⁵And the king did not listen to the people, because it was a reversal from God, saying, “The Lord has established his word, which he spoke by the hand of Achia the Selonite concerning Ieroboam son of Nabat ¹⁶and all Israel,” that the king did not listen to them. And the people replied to the king, saying,

“What share do we have in Dauid,
and what inheritance in the son of Iessai?

To your coverts, O Israel.
Now look at your house, Dauid!”

And all Israel went to their coverts. ¹⁷And as for the men of Israel who were living in the cities of Ioudas—even Roboam ruled over them. ¹⁸And King Roboam sent Hadoniram, the one in charge of revenue, and the sons of Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. And King Roboam hastened to mount his chariot to flee to Ierousalem. ¹⁹And Israel has rejected the house of Dauid to this day.

11 And Roboam went to Ierousalem and assembled Ioudas and Beniamin—one hundred and eighty thousand youths doing war—and he was mobilizing against Israel to return the kingdom to Roboam. ²And a word of the Lord came to Samaias, man of God, saying: ³Say to Roboam the son of Salomon and all Ioudas and Beniamin, saying, ⁴“This is what the Lord says: You shall not go up and wage war against your brothers. Return, each one to his own home, because this thing is from me.” And they heeded the Lord’s word and turned back from advancing upon Ieroboam.

5 And Roboam resided in Ierousalem, and he built walled cities in Judea. ⁶And he built Baithleem and Aitam and Thekoe ⁷and Baithsoura and Sokchoth and Odollam ⁸and Geth and Marisa and Ziph ⁹and Adoraim and Lachis and Azeka ¹⁰and Saraa and Aialon and Chebron, walled cities, which belong to Ioudas and Beniamin. ¹¹And he fortified them with walls and set in them leaders and stores of food, oil and wine in every city, ¹²and in every city shields and spears, and he greatly strengthened them in number. And Iouda and Beniamin belonged to him.

13 And the priests and Leuites who were in all Israel converged upon him from all the regions—¹⁴because the Leuites had left the coverts of their possession and proceeded to Ierousalem in Ioudas, because Ieroboam and his sons had expelled them so as not to minister to the Lord. ¹⁵And he appointed for himself priests of the high places and for the idols and the vanities and the bull calves, which Ieroboam had made. ¹⁶And he expelled from the tribes of Israel those who had set their heart to seek the Lord, God of Israel, and they went to Ierousalem to sacrifice to the Lord, God of their fathers. ¹⁷And they strengthened the kingdom of Ioudas and strengthened Roboam the son of Salomon for three years, because he walked in the ways of Dauid and Salomon for three years.

18 And Roboam took to himself as wife Mollath daughter of Ierimouth son of Dauid and^a Abaia daughter of Eliab son of Iessai. ¹⁹And she bore him sons Iaous and Samarias and Roollam. ²⁰And after that he took to himself Maacha daughter of Abessalom, and she bore him Abia and Iethth and Ziza and Emmoth. ²¹And Roboam loved Maacha daughter of Abessalom more than all his wives and his concubines, because he had ten wives and thirty concubines. And he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. ²²And Roboam appointed Abia son of Maacha as ruler, as leader among his brothers, because he intended for him to become king. ²³And he^b was increased beyond all his sons in all the regions of Ioudas and Beniamin and in the fortified cities and he gave them^c provisions in great abundance. And he claimed an abundance of women.

12 And it happened that, as Roboam’s reign became established and as it became confirmed, he abandoned the Lord’s commandments and all Israel with him. ²And it happened in the fifth year of Roboam’s reign that Sousakim, king of Egypt, came up against Ierousalem because they had sinned against the Lord, ³with one thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand horses, and the multitude which accompanied him out of Egypt—Libyans, Troglodytes and Ethiopians—was innumerable. ⁴And they seized the fortified cities that were in Ioudas, and he came to Ierousalem. ⁵And Samaias the prophet came to Roboam and the rulers of Ioudas, who had gathered in Ierousalem from before Sousakim, and said to them, “Thus said the Lord. ‘You abandoned me, and I will abandon you to the hand of Sousakim.’ ” ⁶And the rulers of Israel and the king were ashamed and said, “The Lord is just.” ⁷And when the Lord saw that they were embarrassed, a word of the Lord came to Samaias, saying, “They have felt compunction; I will not destroy them, and I will give them ^aas a little^a for deliverance, and my wrath shall not be spread abroad in Ierousalem, ⁸because they will be as servants and will know bondage to me and bondage to earthly rule.”

9 And Sousakim, king of Egypt, went up and took the treasures that were in the Lord’s house and the treasures in the house of the king; he took everything. He also took the gold oblong shields that Salomon had made. ¹⁰And Roboam made bronze oblong shields to replace them. And Sousakim appointed over him commanders of runners, those who guard the king’s gate. ¹¹And it happened that, when the king entered the Lord’s house, the guards would go in, and the runners and those returning to meet the runners. ¹²And when he felt compunction, the Lord’s wrath turned away from him and was not completely for destruction. Indeed matters were good in Ioudas.

13 And Roboam became strong in Ierousalem, and he reigned. And Roboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Ierousalem for seventeen years in the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of the sons of Israel for his name to be called upon there. And his mother’s name was Noomma the Ammanite. ¹⁴And he did evil, because he did not direct his heart to seek out the Lord.

15 And the histories of Roboam, the first and the last, behold, are they not written in the Histories of Samaias the Prophet and Addo the Seer, as well as his acts? And Roboam waged war against Ieroboam all his days. ¹⁶And Roboam died and was buried with his fathers and was buried in the city of Dauid, and Abia his son became king in his stead.

13 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Ieroboam, Abia became king over Ioudas. ²He reigned three years in Ierousalem, and his mother’s name was Maacha daughter of Ouriel from Gabaon.

And there was war between Abia and between Ieroboam. ³And Abia prepared for war with a force: warriors of a force, four hundred thousand mighty men. And Ieroboam lined up against him a battle with eight hundred thousand; mighty warriors of power they were. ⁴And Abia got up from Mount Somoron, which is in Mount Ephraim, and said, “Listen, Ieroboam and all Israel! ⁵Is it not for you to know that the Lord, God of Israel, gave rule over Israel forever to Dauid and his sons as a covenant of salt? ⁶And Ieroboam the son of Nabat, the servant of Salomon son of Dauid, rose up and rebelled against his lord. ⁷And pestilent men, lawless sons, were gathered to him, and he rose up against Roboam the son of Salomon. Now Roboam was rather young and timid in heart and did not stand up to him.

8 “And now you say that you stand in opposition to the Lord’s kingdom through the hand of Dauid’s sons. And you are a large multitude, and with you are golden calves, which Ieroboam has made as gods for you. ⁹Have you not thrown out the Lord’s priests, the sons of Aaron and the Leuites, and made for yourselves priests from the people of the land? Anyone who approaches ^bto fill the hands^b with a calf from cattle and seven rams also becomes priest to what is no god. ¹⁰And we have not abandoned the Lord, our God, and his priests, the sons of Aaron, and the Leuites in their daily divisions minister to the Lord. ¹¹They fumi-gate^c to the Lord, in the morning and evening, whole burnt offerings and incense of integration and the presentation of loaves on the pure table. And there are the gold lampstand and the lamps for burning to ignite in the evening, because we keep the watches of the Lord, God of our fathers, and you have abandoned him. ¹²And, behold, to begin with, the Lord is with us and his priests and the signal trumpets to signal against you. You, the sons of Israel, are going to war against the Lord, God of your fathers—because it will not go well for you.”

13 And Ieroboam had turned their ambush to come from behind. And he was in front of Ioudas, and the ambush was behind. ¹⁴And Ioudas turned back, and, behold, the war loomed upon them in front and in the rear, and they called to the Lord, and the priests trumpeted with the trumpets. ¹⁵And the men of Ioudas shouted, and it happened that, when the men of Ioudas shouted, the Lord also struck Ieroboam and Israel before Abia and Ioudas. ¹⁶And the sons of Israel fled from before Iouda, and the Lord surrendered them into their hands. ¹⁷And Abia and his people struck a great blow in their midst, and five hundred thousand mighty men of Israel fell slain. ¹⁸And the sons of Israel were humbled on that day, and the sons of Ioudas prevailed, because they hoped in the Lord, God of their fathers. ¹⁹And Abia pursued after Ieroboam and seized some cities from him, Baithel and its villages and Isana and its villages and Ephron and its villages. ²⁰And Ieroboam could not regain strength all the days of Abia, and the Lord struck him, and he died. ²¹And Abia grew strong and took to himself fourteen wives and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. ²²And the rest of the histories of Abia, both his acts and his words, are written in the Book of the Prophet Addo. ^23(14.1)And Abia died with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of Dauid, and Asa his son became king in his stead.

14 In the days of Asa the land of Ioudas was quiet for ten years. ⁽²⁾And he did what was good and right before the Lord, his God. ²⁽³⁾And he removed the altars of the foreigners and the high places and smashed the steles and cut down the groves. ³⁽⁴⁾And he told Ioudas to seek out the Lord, God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandments. ⁴⁽⁵⁾And he removed from all the cities of Ioudas the altars and the idols and enjoyed peace. ⁵⁽⁶⁾Cities were walled in the land of Ioudas, because the land enjoyed peace. And he endured no war during those years because the Lord granted him repose. ⁶⁽⁷⁾And he said to Ioudas, “Let us build these cities and make walls and towers and gates and bars, by which we will control the land, because as we sought the Lord, our God, he has sought us out and granted us repose on every side, and he has made us prosper.” ⁷⁽⁸⁾And Asa had a force of three hundred thousand heavy infantry in Ioudas carrying shields and spears and two hundred and fifty thousand ^alight troops^a and archers in the land of Beniamin, all mighty warriors.

8(9) And Zare the Ethiopian came out against them with a force of a million and three hundred chariots and went as far as Marisa. ⁹⁽¹⁰⁾And Asa came out to meet him and drew up his battle line in the ravine to the north of Marisa. ¹⁰⁽¹¹⁾And Asa called out to the Lord, his God, and said, “Lord, it is not impossible with you to save with many or with few. Strengthen us, Lord, our God, because we have put our trust in you, and in your name we have come against this vast multitude. Lord, our God, let no man prevail against you.” ¹¹⁽¹²⁾And the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Ioudas, and the Ethiopians took to flight. ¹²⁽¹³⁾And Asa and his people pursued as far as Gedor, and the Ethiopians fell so that there was no preservation among them, because they were crushed before the Lord and before his force. And they took much plunder. ¹³⁽¹⁴⁾And they eradicated their villages round Gedor, because terror of the Lord had come upon them, and they plundered all their cities, because much plunder accrued to them. ¹⁴⁽¹⁵⁾Indeed tents of possessions, the Amazons, they eradicated and seized many sheep and camels and returned to Ierousalem.

15 And Azarias son of Oded—a spirit of the Lord came upon him. ²And he went out to meet Asa and all Ioudas and Beniamin and said, “Hear me, Asa, and all Ioudas and Beniamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him, and if you seek him, he will be found to you, and if you abandon him, he will abandon you. ³And for many days it has been for Israel without a true god and without a teaching priest and without law. ⁴And he will return to the Lord, God of Israel, and he will be found to them. ⁵And at that time there is no peace for the one exiting and the one entering, because terror of the Lord is upon all the inhabitants of the land. ⁶And nation will war against nation and city against city, because God has confounded them in every tribulation. ⁷And you, be strong, and let your hands not fail, for there is a reward for your work.”

8 And when he^b heard these words and the prophecy of Adad the prophet, he was both encouraged and he removed the abominations from all the land of Ioudas and Beniamin and from the cities he had gained possession of in Mount Ephraim, and he renewed the Lord’s altar that was in front of the Lord’s shrine. ⁹And he assembled Ioudas and Beniamin and the guests who were sojourning with him from Ephraim and from Manasse and from Symeon, because many from Israel had joined him when they saw that the Lord, his God, was with him. ¹⁰And they were gathered in Ierousalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. ¹¹And he sacrificed to the Lord on that day from the plunder that they had brought, seven hundred calves and seven thousand sheep. ¹²And he entered in a covenant to seek the Lord, God of their fathers, from all his heart and from all his soul. ¹³And if any one would not seek the Lord, God of Israel, he would die, from youth to elder, from man to woman. ¹⁴And they swore by the Lord with a loud voice, both with trumpets and with horns. ¹⁵And all Iouda^c was glad over the oath, because they had sworn from all their soul and had sought him with all their will, and the Lord was found to them and granted them rest all around.

16 And he^b removed his mother, so she would not be ministering to Astarte, and he cut down the idol and burned it in the Wadi Kedron. ¹⁷Yet, they did not take away the high places; they kept on existing in Israel. Nevertheless, Asa’s heart was full all his days. ¹⁸And he brought in the holy things of Dauid his father and the holy things of the house of the Lord God, silver and gold and utensils. ¹⁹And there was no war with him until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.

16 And in the thirty-eighth year of Asa’s reign, Baasa, king of Israel, went up against Ioudas and built Rama so as not to give to Asa, king of Ioudas, exit and entrance. ²And Asa took gold and silver from the treasures of the Lord’s house and the king’s house and sent them to the son of Hader, king of Syria, who resided in Damascus, saying, ³“Make a covenant between me and you and between my father and between your father. See, I have sent you gold and silver. Come, and shake off from me Baasa, king of Israel, and let him withdraw from me.” ⁴And Hader’s son heard

King Asa and dispatched the commanders of his force against the cities of Israel and struck Ion and Dan and Abelmain and all the environs of Nephthali. ⁵And it happened, when Baasa heard, he left off building Rama any longer, and his labor came to a standstill. ⁶And King Asa took all Ioudas and seized the stones of Rama and its timber, which Baasa was using for construction, and he built Gabae and Maspha with it.

7 And at that time Hanani the prophet came to Asa, king of Ioudas, and said to him, “When you trusted in the king of Syria and did not trust in the Lord, your God, the Syrian force was saved from your hands. ⁸Did not the Ethiopians and Libyans possess a force large in courage, in horsemen in great profusion? And when you trusted in the Lord, he handed them into your hands, ⁹because the Lord’s eyes range over all the earth, to put strength in every heart full toward him. You overlooked this! From now on war will be with you.” ¹⁰And Asa was furious with the prophet and cast him in prison, because he was so angry with him. And Asa inflicted indignities among the people at that time.

11 And see, the histories of Asa, the first and the last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Ioudas and Israel. ¹²And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa grew infirm in his feet. He grew gravely infirm. And in his infirmity he did not seek the Lord, but physicians. ¹³And Asa slept with his fathers and died in the thirty-ninth year of his reign. ¹⁴And they buried him in the tomb that he dug for himself in the city of Dauid, and they laid him to rest on the couch and filled it^a with spices and types of myrrh of the perfumer, and they made a very large funeral for him.

17 And Iosaphat his son became king in his stead, and Iosaphat became powerful against Israel. ²And he put a force in all the fortified cities of Ioudas and appointed leaders in all the cities of Ioudas and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had seized before. ³And the Lord was with Iosaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father and did not seek out the idols. ⁴But he sought out the Lord, God of his father, and walked in the commandments of his father and not like the deeds of Israel. ⁵And the Lord directed the kingdom by his hand, and all Iouda^b gave gifts to Iosaphat, and wealth accrued to him and much glory. ⁶And his heart was exalted in the way of the Lord, and he furthermore removed the high places and the groves from the land of Ioudas.

7 And in the third year of his reign he dispatched his leaders and the sons of the mighty, Abdias and Zacharias and Nathanael and Michaias, to teach in the cities of Ioudas. ⁸And with them were the Leuites, Samouias and Nathanias and Zabdias and Asiel and Semiramoth and Ionathan and Adonias and Tobias, the Leuites, and with them the priests Elisama and Ioram. ⁹And they taught in Ioudas and with them was a book of the Lord’s law, and they passed through in the cities of Ioudas and taught the people.

10 And terror of the Lord came upon all the kingdoms of the earth, those around Ioudas, and they did not wage war against Iosaphat. ¹¹And some of the allophyles brought Iosaphat gifts and silver and presents, and the Arabs brought him seven thousand seven hundred rams of sheep. ¹²And Iosaphat walked taller in stature and built dwellings and fortified cities in Judea. ¹³And he had many works in Judea and men, mighty warriors, holding sway in Ierousalem. ¹⁴And this is their number according to their paternal houses: for Ioudas, officers of thousands: Ednas the commander and with him three hundred thousand mighty sons of power. ¹⁵And after him was Ioanan the leader and with him two hundred and eighty thousand. ¹⁶And after him was Amasias the son of Zachri, who showed zeal for the Lord, and with him two hundred thousand mighty ones of power. ¹⁷And from Beniamin: Eliada, a mighty one of power, and with him two hundred thousand archers and ^clight troops^c. ¹⁸And after him was Iozabad and with him one hundred and eighty thousand mighty warriors. ¹⁹These were the ones who served the king, apart from those whom the king stationed in the fortified cities all over Judea.

18 And further wealth and much glory accrued to Iosaphat, and he married into the house of Achaab. ²And at the end of years he went down to Achaab in Samaria, and Achaab sacrificed sheep and many calves for him and for the people who were with him and deceived him to go up with him to Ramoth of Galaaditis. ³And Achaab, king of Israel, said to Iosaphat, king of Ioudas, “Will you go with me to Ramoth of Galaaditis?” And he said to him, “I am as you; your people, also my people, with you into war.”

4 And Iosaphat said to the king of Israel, “Do seek the Lord today.” ⁵And the king of Israel gathered the prophets, four hundred men, and said to them, “Should I go to Ramoth Galaad for war or hold back?” And they said. “Go up, and God will give it into the king’s hands.” ⁶And Iosaphat said, “Is there further no prophet of the Lord here, and we shall inquire from him?” ⁷And the king of Israel said to Iosaphat, “There is still one man by whom we can inquire of the Lord; I for my part hated him, because he is not prophesying anything good about me, because all his days are for evil. He is Michaias son of Iemla.” And Iosaphat said, “Let the king not speak like that.” ⁸And the king of Israel called one eunuch and said, “Quick. Michaias son of Iemla.” ⁹And the king of Israel and Iosaphat, king of Ioudas, each sitting on his throne and dressed in robes, sitting in the wide space at the door of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. ¹⁰And Sedekias son of Chanana made for himself iron horns and said, “This is what the Lord says: With these you will gore Syria until it is finished off.” ¹¹And all the prophets were prophesying like that, saying, “Go up to Ramoth Galaad, and you will be successful, and the Lord will give it into the king’s hands.”

12 And the messenger who had gone to call Michaias spoke to him, saying, “Look, the prophets with one mouth have spoken good things concerning the king. And do let your words be as of one of them, and you shall speak good things.” ¹³And Michaias said, “The Lord lives, because whatever God says to me, that will I speak.”

14 And he came to the king, and the king said to him, “Michaias, should I go to Ramoth Galaad for war or hold back?” And he said, “Go up, and you will be successful, and they shall be given into your hands.” ¹⁵And the king said to him, “How many times have I made you swear to speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” ¹⁶And he said, “I saw Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep who have no shepherd, and the Lord said, ‘They have no leader. Let them—each one—return to his home in peace.’ ” ¹⁷And the king of Israel said to Iosaphat, “Did I not tell you that he does not prophesy good about me, but only bad?”

18 And he said, “Not so; hear a word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing to his right and to his left. ¹⁹And the Lord said, ‘Who will deceive Achaab, king of Israel, and he will go up and fall at Ramoth Galaad?’ And this one said thus, and that one said so. ²⁰And the spirit went out and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will deceive him.’ And the Lord said, ‘In what way?’ ²¹And he said, ‘I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You shall deceive and prevail. Go, and do so.’ ²²And now, see, the Lord gave a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets, and the Lord spoke bad concerning you.”

23 And Sedekias son of Chanana approached Michaias and struck him on the jaw and said, “By what way did the Lord’s spirit pass from me to speak to you?” ²⁴And Michaias said, “Behold, you will see on that day when you enter an inner chamber from an inner chamber to hide.” ²⁵And the king of Israel said, “Take Michaias, and return him to Emer, ruler of the city, and to Ioas, a ruler, son of the king.” ²⁶And you will say, “Thus said the king, Put this man in a house of detention, and let him eat bread of affliction and water of affliction until I return in peace.” ²⁷And Michaias said, “If returning you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me. Listen, all peoples!”

28 And the king of Israel and Iosaphat, king of Ioudas, went up to Ramoth Galaad. ²⁹And the king of Israel said to Iosaphat, “I will disguise myself and enter into battle, but as for you, wear my clothes.” And the king of Israel disguised himself and entered into battle. ³⁰And the king of Syria had commanded the commanders of the chariots who were with him, saying: “Do not make war on small and great, but only on the king of Israel.” ³¹And it happened, when the commanders of the chariots saw Iosaphat, they too said, “It is the king of Israel,” and they circled round him to fight him. And Iosaphat shouted out, and the Lord saved him, and God drove them back from him. ³²And it happened, when the commanders of the chariots saw that he was not the king of Israel, they also withdrew from him. ³³And a man drew a bow with a good aim and struck the king of Israel between the lungs and between his breastplate, and he said to his driver, “Turn your hand, and take me out of the battle, because I am in trouble.” ³⁴And the battle was turned that day, and the king of Israel remained standing on his chariot facing Syria until evening and died as the sun set.

19 And Iosaphat, king of Ioudas, returned in peace to his house in Ierousalem. ²And the prophet Iou the son of Hanani went out to meet him and said to him, “King Iosaphat, were you helping a sinner, or are you acting as friend to one hated by the Lord? Because of this, wrath has come against you from the Lord. ³But good features were found in you, because you removed the groves from the land of Ioudas and directed your heart to seek out the Lord.”

4 And Iosaphat resided in Ierousalem and again went out among the people from Bersabee up to Mount Ephraim and brought them back to the Lord, God of their fathers. ⁵And he appointed judges in all the fortified cities of Ioudas, in city and city. ⁶And he told the judges, “See what you are doing, because you are judging not for man but for the Lord, and with you are words of discernment. ⁷And now let the fear of the Lord be upon you, and watch, and act, because there is no injustice with the Lord, our God, nor respect of person, nor accepting of gifts.”

8 Moreover, Iosaphat appointed some priests and Leuites and leading men of Israel in Ierousalem to adjudicate for the Lord and to judge the inhabitants of Ierousalem. ⁹And he commanded them, saying, “This is how you shall act in the fear of the Lord, in truth, and with a full heart. ¹⁰Should there be any man of your brothers who dwell in their cities with a case that leads to you, involving shedding of blood and involving an ordinance or commandment or statutes and judgments, you will then make a pronouncement for them, and they will not sin against the Lord, and no wrath will come upon you or upon your brothers. Thus you shall act, and you will not sin. ¹¹And behold, Amarias the priest, a leader over you in every matter concerning the Lord, and Zabdias son of Ismael, the leader over you regarding the house of Ioudas in every matter concerning the king, and the scribes and the Leuites before you! Be strong, and act, and the Lord will be with the good.”

20 And after this the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon and with them some of the Minites came against Iosaphat for battle. ²And they came and told Iosaphat of this, saying, “A great multitude has come against you from beyond the sea and Syria. And, see, they are in Hasasanthamar” (this is Engaddi). ³And Iosaphat was afraid and set his face to seek out the Lord and proclaimed a fast in all Ioudas. ⁴And Ioudas was gathered to seek out the Lord, and from all the cities—Ioudas—they came to seek out the Lord.

5 And Iosaphat got up in the assembly of Ioudas in Ierousalem in the house of the Lord in front of the new court. ⁶And he said, “Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven, and you govern all the kingdoms of the nations, and in your hand is the power of dominance, and there is no one able to withstand you? ⁷Are you not the Lord who utterly destroyed the inhabitants of this land from before your people Israel and gave it forever to the seed of Abraam, your beloved? ⁸And they lived in it and built in it a holy precinct to your name, saying, ⁹If harm comes upon you, sword, disaster, death or famine, we will stand before this house and before you, because your name is upon this house, and we will call out to you out of affliction, and you will hear and save. ¹⁰And now, see, sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, them through whom you did not grant Israel to pass when they came out of the land of Egypt—because they avoided them and did not utterly destroy them! ¹¹Now, see, it is they who are undertaking to come out against us to cast us from our inheritance, which you gave us. ¹²Lord, our God, are you not going to make judgment against them?—because we have no strength to withstand this great multitude that has come against us, and we do not know how to deal with them. Rather our eyes are on you.”

13 And all Ioudas stood before the Lord and their children and wives. ¹⁴And with reference to Oziel the son of Zacharias of the sons of Banaias of the sons of Eleel the son of Manthanias the Leuite of the sons of Asaph—a spirit of the Lord came upon him in the assembly ¹⁵and he said, “Listen, all Ioudas and inhabitants of Ierousalem and King Iosaphat: This is what the Lord says to you yourselves, ‘Do not be afraid of them or alarmed from before this vast throng, because the battle line is not for you but for God. ¹⁶Tomorrow descend upon them. See, they are ascending along the ascent of Hasas, and you will find them on the height of the river in the wilderness of Ieriel. ¹⁷It is not for you to make war. Understand that, and see the Lord’s deliverance with you, Ioudas and Ierousalem.’ Do not be afraid or alarmed tomorrow to go out to meet them, and the Lord will be with you.”

18 And when Iosaphat bowed with his face down, all Iouda^a also and the inhabitants of Ierousalem fell down before the Lord, to do obeisance to the Lord. ¹⁹And the Leuites of the sons of Kaath and of the sons of Kore stood up to praise the Lord, God of Israel, in a supremely loud voice.

20 And they rose next morning and went out into the wilderness of Thekoe, and when they went out, Iosaphat halted and called out and said, “Listen to me, Ioudas and inhabitants of Ierousalem! Trust in the Lord, your God, and you will be given credence. Put your faith in his prophet, and you shall succeed.” ²¹And he took counsel with the people and stationed harp-singers and singers of praise to acknowledge and praise the holy things as they went out ahead of the army and said,

“Acknowledge the Lord,
because his mercy is forever.”

²²And as they began the praise of his acknowledgement, the Lord granted that the sons of Ammon war against Moab and Mount Seir, who were coming out against Ioudas, and they were turned to flight. ²³And the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir utterly to destroy and to crush. And when they finished off the inhabitants of Mount Seir, they turned to destroy each other utterly.

24 And Ioudas went to the lookout place over the wilderness and scanned it and saw the multitude. And behold, they were all corpses fallen upon the earth; there was no survivor. ²⁵And Iosaphat and his people came to plunder their plunder, and they found many herds and baggage and plunder and desirable articles, and they plundered for themselves, and three days elapsed while they were plundering plunder, because there was much. ²⁶And on the fourth day they gathered together into the glen of the blessing, for there they blessed the Lord. That is why they called the name of that place is Valley of Blessing until today. ²⁷And every man of Ioudas returned to Ierousalem in great gladness, and Iosaphat was their leader, because the Lord had made them glad due to their enemies. ²⁸And they entered into Ierousalem with nablas^b and with cinyras^c and with trumpets into the Lord’s house. ²⁹And terror of the Lord fell upon all the kingdoms of the earth when they heard that the Lord had fought against Israel’s adversaries. ³⁰And Iosaphat’s kingdom remained peaceful, and his God gave him rest all around.

31 And Iosaphat reigned over Ioudas, being thirty-five years when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Ierousalem. And his mother’s name was Azouba daughter of Sali. ³²And he walked in the ways of his father Asa and did not turn aside from doing what was right before the Lord. ³³But the high places still existed, and the people had not yet directed their heart toward the Lord, God of their fathers.

34 And the rest of the histories of Iosaphat, both the first and the last, behold, they are written in the Histories of Iou the Son of Hanani, who wrote a book on the kings of Israel.

35 And after that Iosaphat, king of Ioudas, made common cause with Ochozia, king of Israel, (and he was lawless) ³⁶when he acted and went to him to make ships to go to Tharsis, and he made ships in Gasiongaber. ³⁷And Eliezer the son of Dodia from Marisa prophesied against Iosaphat, saying, “Since you became friends with Ochozia, the Lord has dashed your enterprise, and your ships have been wrecked, and they were not able to go to Tharsis.”

21 And Iosaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of Dauid, and his son Ioram became king in his stead. ²And he had six brothers, sons of Iosaphat, Azarias and Iiel and Zacharias and Azarias and Michael and Saphatias. All these were sons of Iosaphat, king of Ioudas. ³And their father gave them many gifts, silver and gold and arms along with walled cities in Ioudas. And the kingdom he gave to Ioram, because he was the firstborn. ⁴And Ioram rose up over his kingdom and became strong and killed all his brothers by sword and some of the rulers of Israel. ⁵When Ioram was thirty-two years old he became established over his kingdom, and he reigned eight years in Ierousalem. ⁶And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Achaab had done, because Achaab’s daughter was his wife, and he did what was evil before the Lord. ⁷And the Lord did not wish to destroy utterly the house of Dauid on account of the covenant he had made with Dauid and how he had said to him that he would give a lamp to him and his sons for all days.

8 In those days Edom revolted from Ioudas and crowned a king over themselves. ⁹And Ioram set out with his commanders, and all the cavalry with him. And it happened that Edom arose by night and struck Ioram, who was encircling him and the commanders of the chariots, and the people fled to their coverts. ¹⁰And Edom revolted from Ioudas until this day. Then Lomna revolted from his hand at that time, because he had abandoned the Lord, God of his fathers.

11 For indeed he made high places in the cities of Ioudas and prostituted the inhabitants of Ierousalem and perverted Ioudas. ¹²And a written note reached him from the prophet Elias, saying, “This is what the Lord, God of Dauid your father, says: Because you have not walked in the way of your father Iosaphat and in the ways of Asa, king of Ioudas, ¹³but have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and have prostituted Ioudas and the inhabitants of Ierousalem, as the house of Achaab prostituted, and your brothers, your father’s sons, who were nobler than you, you killed, ¹⁴behold, the Lord will strike you with a severe blow among your people and among your sons and among your wives and all your belongings. ¹⁵And you will be in grave infirmity with a sickness of the belly until your belly comes out with the infirmity from days^a to days^a.”

16 And the Lord aroused the allophyles and the Arabs and the neighbors of the Ethiopians against Ioram. ¹⁷And they came up against Ioudas, and they seized and removed all the belongings they found in the king’s house, and his sons and his daughters, and no son was left to him except Ochozias, the youngest of his sons.

18 And after all this the Lord struck him with an infirmity in his belly, for which there was no cure. ¹⁹And it occurred from days^a to days^a. And when a time came during two days^a of the days^a, his belly came out with the illness, and he died in grave infirmity. And his people did not do a funeral like a funeral of his fathers. ²⁰He was thirty-two years old when he became king and reigned eight years in Ierousalem. And he walked not in commendation and was buried in the city of Dauid and not in the tombs of the kings.

22 And the inhabitants of Ierousalem made Ochozias, his little son, king in his stead, because the band of robbers, the Arabs and the Alimazones, that fell on them had killed all the older ones. And Ochozias son of Ioram, king of Ioudas, became king. ²Being twenty years old Ochozias became king and reigned in Ierousalem for one year. And his mother’s name was Gotholia daughter of Ambri. ³And he walked in the way of the house of Achaab, because his mother was his counselor in sinning. ⁴And he did what was evil before the Lord, like the house of Achaab, because they were his counselors after his father’s death in order to destroy him utterly. ⁵And he walked in their counsels. And he went with Ioram son of Achaab to war against Hazael, king of Syria, to Rama Galaad. And the archers struck Ioram. ⁶And Ioram retreated to be cured in Iezrael of the wounds the Syrians had inflicted on him at Rama when he fought against Hazael, king of Syria. And Ochozias son of Ioram, king of Ioudas, went down to see Ioram son of Achaab in Iezrael, because he was sick.

7 And from God came ruin to Ochozias that he came to Ioram. And when he arrived, Ioram went out with him against Iou son of Namessi, the Lord’s anointed, against^b the house of Achaab. ⁸And it happened, as Iou was taking vengeance on the house of Achaab, he also found the rulers of Ioudas and Ochozias’ brothers ministering to Ochozias, and he killed them. ⁹And he gave orders to search for Ochozias, and they caught him as he was being cured in Samaria and led him to Iou, and he killed him. And they buried him, because they said, “He is Iosaphat’s son, who sought the Lord with his whole heart.” And there was no one in Ochozias’ house to assert power over the kingdom.

10 And Gotholia, the mother of Ochozias, saw that her son was dead, and she was aroused and destroyed every offspring of the kingdom in the house of Ioudas. ¹¹And Iosabeth, the king’s daughter, took Ioas, Ochozias’ son, and stole him from among the king’s sons about to be killed and consigned him and his nurse to the storeroom of the beds. And Iosabeth daughter of King Ioram, sister of Ochozias, wife of Iodae the priest, hid him. And she hid him from before Gotholia, and she did not kill him. ¹²And he was hidden with her in the house of God for six years, and Gotholia reigned over the land.

23 And in the seventh year Iodae gained strength and took the officers of hundreds, Azarias son of Ioram and Ismael son of Ioanan and Azarias son of Obed and Maasaias son of Adaias and Elisaphas son of Zacharias, with him into a house. ²And they went round Ioudas and gathered the Leuites from all the cities of Ioudas and the rulers of the paternal families of Israel and came to Ierousalem. ³And all the assembly of Ioudas made a covenant with the king in the house of God, and he showed to them the king’s son and said to them, “Behold, let the king’s son be king, as the Lord has spoken concerning the house of Dauid. ⁴Now this is the plan you will do. Let one third of you, of the priests and the Leuites, proceed on the sabbath and to the gates of the entrances, ⁵and let one third be in the king’s house, and let one third be at the middle gate, and all the people are in the courts of the Lord’s house. ⁶And let no one enter the Lord’s house except the priests and the Leuites and those of the Leuites who are ministering. They shall enter because they are holy, and let all the people keep the Lord’s watches. ⁷And the Leuites shall surround the king on all sides, a man with an implement in his hand, and he who enters the house shall die. And they shall be with the king as he enters and exits.”

8 And the Leuites and all Iouda^a did according to all that Iodae the priest commanded, and each took his men from the beginning to the end of sabbath, because Iodae did not disband the daily divisions. ⁹And he distributed the daggers and the shields and the arms which had belonged to King Dauid in the house of God. ¹⁰And he appointed all the people, each with his arms, from the right angle of the house to the left angle of the altar, and the house, in a ring around the king. ¹¹And he led out the king’s son and bestowed the crown upon him, and the testimonies. And Iodae and his sons made him king and anointed him and said, “Let the king live!”

12 And Gotholia heard the sound of the people, those who ran and acknowledged and praised the king and approached the king in the house of the Lord. ¹³And she looked, and, behold, there was the king at his station and at the entrance the rulers and the trumpets around the king, and all the people were glad, and they trumpeted with the trumpets and the singers singing with their instruments and hymning a song of praise. And Gotholia tore her garment and exclaimed and said, “Attacking you are launching an attack.” ¹⁴And Iodae the priest went out, and Iodae the priest commanded the officers of hundreds and commanders of the force and said to them, “Remove her from the house, and follow her, and let her die by dagger,” because the priest said, “Let her not die in the house of the Lord.” ¹⁵And they gave her leave, and she exited through the cavalry gate of the king’s house, and there they put her to death.

16 And Iodae made a covenant between himself and the people and the king that they should be a people to the Lord. ¹⁷And all the people of the land entered into the house of Baal, and they tore it down and smashed to pieces its altars and idols, and they killed Matthan the priest of the she-Baal before his altars. ¹⁸And Iodae the priest put his hand to the works of the Lord’s house through priests and Leuites and re-established the daily divisions of the priests and the Leuites, which Dauid had appointed for the house of the Lord and to offer whole burnt offerings to the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moyses, with gladness and with songs, through the hand of Dauid. ¹⁹And the gatekeepers stood at the gates of the Lord’s house, and no one unclean shall enter on any account. ²⁰And he took the patriarchs and the magnates and the rulers of the people and all the people of the land, and they brought up the king to the Lord’s house, and he entered by the exterior gate to the king’s house, and they sat the king on the throne of the kingdom. ²¹And all the people of the land were glad, and the city was quiet. And they put Gotholia to death by dagger.

24 Ioas was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Ierousalem. And his mother’s name was Sabia from Bersabee. ²And Ioas did what was right before the Lord all the days of Iodae the priest. ³And Iodae took for him two wives, and he fathered sons and daughters.

4 And it happened afterwards that it came into Ioas’s heart to restore the house of the Lord. ⁵And he gathered the priests and Leuites and said to them, “Go out into the cities of Ioudas, and gather money from all Israel to restore the Lord’s house, year by year, and hurry to spread the word.” But the Leuites did not hurry. ⁶And King Ioas summoned Iodae the chief and said to him, “Why have you not exercised oversight concerning the Leuites, to bring in from Ioudas and Ierousalem what was determined by Moyses, man of God, when he assembled Israel into the tent of witness?”—⁷because Gotholia was the lawless one, and her sons laid waste the house of God and furthermore made over to the she-Baalim all the holy things of the Lord’s house.

8 And the king said, “Let there be a chest, and let it stand outside the gate to the Lord’s house.” ⁹And they proclaimed in Ioudas and Ierousalem that people should bring an offering to the Lord, as Moyses servant of God had mentioned for Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰And all the rulers and all the people gave and brought and dropped into the chest until it was full. ¹¹And it happened, as they would bring the chest to the king’s officials by means of the Leuites and as they saw that the money had increased, the king’s scribe and the official of the great priest also came and emptied the chest and set it back in its place. This is how they acted day after day, and they collected much money. ¹²And the king and Iodae the priest gave it to those doing the work for the work of the Lord’s house. And they hired masons and carpenters to restore the Lord’s house and smiths of iron and copper to restore the Lord’s house. ¹³And those doing the work kept on working, and the extent of their work expanded by their hands, and they raised up the Lord’s house in its position and strengthened it.

¹⁴And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Iodae, and they made utensils for the Lord’s house, liturgical utensils for whole burnt offerings and gold and silver censers. And they offered whole burnt offerings in the Lord’s house regularly all the days of Iodae.

15 And Iodae grew old and full of days and died at the age of one hundred and thirty years at his death. ¹⁶And they buried him in the city of Dauid with the kings, because he had done goodness with Israel and with God and with his house.

17 And it happened after Iodae’s death that the rulers of Ioudas entered and did obeisance to the king. Then the king heeded them. ¹⁸And they abandoned the Lord, God of their fathers, and were subject to the Astartes and to the idols. And wrath came upon Ioudas and upon Ierousalem on that day. ¹⁹And he sent prophets to them to turn them back to the Lord, but they did not listen. And they bore witness against them, and they did not listen.

20 And a divine spirit entered Azarias the son of Iodae the priest, and he stood above the people and said, “This is what the Lord says: Why do you transgress the Lord’s commandments? And you will not prosper. Because you have abandoned the Lord, he will also abandon you.” ²¹And they plotted against him and stoned him by command of King Ioas in the court of the Lord’s house. ²²And Ioas did not remember the mercy that Iodae his father had done with him, and he put his son to death. And as he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see, and let him judge.”

23 And it happened after the completion of the year, the Syrian force came up against him and came against Ioudas and against Ierousalem, and they destroyed all the rulers of the people among the people and sent all the plunder to the king of Damascus. ²⁴Because the Syrian force arrived with few men, God also delivered into their hands a very large force, because they had abandoned the Lord, God of their fathers. And he executed many judgments against Ioas.

25 And after they had withdrawn from him, when they abandoned him in great infirmities, his servants also plotted against him because of the bloodshed of the son of Iodae the priest, and they put him to death on his bed. And he died. And they buried him in the city of Dauid, and they did not bury him in the tomb of the kings. ²⁶And those plotting against him were Zabed the son of Samath the Ammanite and Iozabed the son of Somaroth the Moabite. ²⁷And all his sons, even the five, came against him. And the rest, behold, it is written in the document of the kings. And Amasias his son became king in his stead.

25 When he was twenty-five years old Amasias became king and reigned twenty-nine years in Ierousalem. And his mother’s name was Ioaden from Ierousalem. ²And he did what was right before the Lord, but not with a full heart. ³And it happened, as his reign was confirmed in his hand, he also put to death his servants who had murdered the king, his father. ⁴And he did not kill their sons according to the covenant of the Lord’s law, as it is written, as the Lord had commanded, saying, “Fathers shall not die because of children, and sons shall not die because of fathers, but each shall die for his own sin.”

5 And Amasias gathered the house of Ioudas and appointed them as officers of thousands and officers of hundreds according to their paternal families in all Ioudas and Ierousalem. And he numbered them from the age of twenty and up and found them to be three hundred thousand men able-bodied to go to war grasping spear and shield. ⁶And he hired one hundred thousand powerful in strength from Israel for one hundred talents of silver. ⁷And a man of God went to him and said, “King, a force of Israel shall not advance with you, because the Lord is not with Israel, since all are the sons of Ephraim—⁸because, if you presume to prevail with these, then the Lord will defeat you before your enemies, because to prevail and to be routed are from the Lord.” ⁹And Amasias said to the man of God, “And what shall I do about the hundred talents I gave to the force of Israel?” And the man of God said, “It is for the Lord to give you more than these.” ¹⁰And Amasias discharged the force that had come to him from Ephraim to return to their place. And they were very angry with Ioudas and returned to their place in fierce anger.

11 And Amasias became strong and brought his people along with him and advanced into the Valley of Salt and there struck ten thousand sons of Seir. ¹²And the sons of Ioudas took captive ten thousand and brought them to the cliff edge and tossed them over the cliff edge, and they were all rent asunder. ¹³And the sons of the force whom Amasias had turned so as not to advance with him to war also fell upon the cities of Ioudas from Samaria to Baithoron, and they struck three thousand among them and took much plunder.

14 And it happened, after Amasias went and struck Idumea, he also brought back to them the gods of the sons of Seir and established them as gods for himself and would do obeisance to them, and he himself would sacrifice to them. ¹⁵And the Lord’s wrath came upon Amasias, and he sent to him prophets, and they said to him, “Why did you seek the gods of the people, who did not deliver their people out of your hand?” ¹⁶And it happened, as he spoke to him, that he said to him, “Surely I have not engaged you as a counselor to the king? Take heed lest you are whipped.” And the prophet fell silent. And he said, “I know that he^a desired for you to destroy you, because you have done this and have not heeded my counsel.”

17 And Amasias took counsel and sent to Ioas son of Ioachaz son of Iou, king of Israel, saying, “Come, let us see face to face,” ¹⁸And Ioas, king of Israel, sent to Amasias, king of Ioudas, saying, “The achouch^b in Lebanon sent a message to the cedar in Lebanon saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife. And behold, the wild beasts of the field in Lebanon will come out.’ And the wild beasts came and trampled down the achouch^a. ¹⁹You said, ‘See, you have struck Idumea, and your heavy heart exalts you. Now sit in your house, and why are you planning harm, and you yourself will fall and Ioudas with you?’ ”

20 And Amasias did not listen, because it was from the Lord to hand him over into his hands, because he sought out the gods of the Idumeans. ²¹And Ioas, king of Israel, went up, and they appeared to one another, he and Amasias, king of Ioudas, in Baithsamys, which belongs to Ioudas. ²²And Ioudas was turned back before Israel, and each fled to his covert. ²³And Ioas, king of Israel, captured Amasias, king of Ioudas, son of Ioas in Baithsamys and led him into Ierousalem, and he pulled down a portion of the wall of Ierousalem from the gate of Ephraim to the gate of the corner, four hundred cubits. ²⁴And ^bhe took^b all the gold and the silver and all the vessels that were found in the Lord’s house and with Abdedom and the treasures of the king’s house and the sons of the mixed parentage and returned to Samaria.

25 And Amasias the son of Ioas, king of Ioudas, lived fifteen years after the death of Ioas son of Ioachaz, king of Israel. ²⁶And the rest of the histories of Amasias, the first and the last, behold, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Ioudas and Israel? ²⁷And at the time when Amasias turned from the Lord, they plotted a plot against him, and he fled from Ierousalem to Lachis. And they sent after him to Lachis and there put him to death. ²⁸And they took him back on horses and buried him with his fathers in the city of Dauid.

26 And all the people of the land took Ozias, and he was sixteen years old, and they made him king in his father Amasias’ stead. ²He built Ailath and restored it to Ioudas after the king slept with his fathers. ³Ozias became king being a son of sixteen years and reigned in Ierousalem fifty-two years. And his mother’s name was Chalia, from Ierousalem. ⁴And he did what was right before the Lord in accordance with everything his father Amasias had done. ⁵And he would seek out the Lord in the days of Zacharias who had understanding in fear of the Lord. And in his days he sought the Lord, and the Lord made him prosper.

6 And he went out and made war against the allophyles and pulled down the walls of Geth and the walls of Iabne and the walls of Azotus, and he built cities of^c Azotus and among the allophyles. ⁷And the Lord made him prevail over the allophyles and over the Arabs who lived on the rock^d and over the Minites. ⁸And the Minites gave Ozias gifts, and his fame reached as far as the entry to Egypt, because he was highly strong. ⁹And Ozias built towers in Ierousalem, both at the gate of the corner and at the gate of the ravine and on the corners, and he grew strong. ¹⁰And he built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, because he had large herds in Sephela and in the low land and vinedressers in the hill country and in Carmel, because he loved the soil. ¹¹And Ozias had forces making war and going out to battle in number, and their number was through the hand of Iiel the scribe and Maasaias the judge through the hand of Ananias the king’s deputy. ¹²And the entire number of the patriarchs of the mighty ones for war was two thousand six hundred. ¹³And with them was a military force of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred. These were the ones making war with power of strength to assist the king against his adversaries. ¹⁴And Ozias equipped them, the entire force, with shields and spears and helmets and breastplates and bows and slings for stones. ¹⁵And he made machines in Ierousalem devised by a mathematician to be on the towers and on the corners, to fire projectiles and large stones. And their construction was noised abroad far and wide, because it was marveled at in order to be of help until he became strong.

16 And as he grew in power, his heart was exalted so as to be corrupt, and he did wrong against the Lord, his God, and entered into the Lord’s shrine, to burn incense on the altar of incense. ¹⁷And Azarias the priest entered after him and with him the priests of the Lord, eighty mighty sons. ¹⁸And they opposed King Ozias and said to him, “It is not for you, Ozias, to offer incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated, to offer incense. Go out of the holy precinct, because you are in revolt against the Lord, and this will not win you any glory from the Lord God.” ¹⁹And Ozias became angry, and in his hand was the fumigator to offer incense in the shrine. And when he became angry with the priests, leprosy also rose up on his forehead in front of the priests in the house of the Lord over the altar of incense. ²⁰And the first priest and the priests turned toward him and, behold, he was leprous on his forehead. And they hurried him out of there, and indeed he himself hurried to get out, because the Lord had convicted him. ²¹And King Ozias was leprous until the day of his death, and he sat as a leper in the house of aphphousoth^e, because he was excluded from the Lord’s house. And Ioatham his son was in charge of his kingdom, judging the people of the land.

22 And the rest of the histories of Ozias, the first and the last, were written by Iessias^f the prophet. ²³And Ozias slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the plain of the kings’ burial, because they said, “He is leprous.” And Ioatham his son became king in his stead.

27 Ioatham was a son of twenty-five years when he became king and reigned sixteen years in Ierousalem. And his mother’s name was Ierousa daughter of Sadok. ²And he did what was right before the Lord in accordance with everything his father Ozias had done—but he did not enter into the Lord’s shrine. And still the people were becoming corrupt. ³He built the high gate of the Lord’s house and built extensively on the wall of Ophla. ⁴And he built cities in the hill country of Ioudas and both dwellings and towers in the forests. ⁵He fought with the king of the sons of Ammon and prevailed over him. And the sons of Ammon would give him one hundred talents of silver annually and ten thousand kors^a of wheat and ten thousand of barley. These the king of Ammon would bring him annually in the first year and the second and the third. ⁶And Ioatham became strong, because he ordered his ways before the Lord, his God. ⁷And the rest of the histories of Ioatham and the war and his acts, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Ioudas and Israel. ⁹And Ioatham slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of Dauid, and his son Achaz became king in his stead.

28 Achaz was a son of twenty years when he became king and reigned sixteen years in Ierousalem. And he did not do what was right before the Lord, as Dauid his father had done. ²And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, for indeed he made carved objects for their idols. ³And he would sacrifice in Gaibenenom, and he led his children through fire according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord utterly destroyed from before the sons of Israel. ⁴And he would offer incense on the high places and on the roofs and under every woodland tree.

5 And the Lord, his God, handed him over through the hand of the king of Syria, and he struck at him and took captive of them a large captivity and brought it to Damascus. Moreover, he also handed him over into the hands of the king of Israel, and he struck at him a severe blow. ⁶And Phakee the son of Romelias, king of Israel, killed one hundred and twenty thousand men powerful in strength in Ioudas in one day when they had abandoned the Lord, God of their fathers. ⁷And Ezekri, the powerful one of Ephraim, killed Maasaias the king’s son and Esdrikam, a commander of his house, and Elkana the king’s deputy.

8 And the sons of Israel took captive three hundred thousand of their brothers, women, sons and daughters, and they took much plunder from them and brought the plunder to Samaria. ⁹And there, there was the prophet of the Lord, whose name was Oded, and he went out to meet the force of those entering Samaria and said to them, “See, the wrath of the Lord, God of your fathers, is upon Ioudas, and he gave them over into your hands, and you killed among them with anger. As far as the heavens it has reached. ¹⁰And now you say that you have acquired sons of Ioudas and Ierousalem as male slaves and female slaves. See, am I not with you to witness to the Lord, your God? ¹¹And now hear me, and return the captives whom you have taken captive from among your brothers, for the anger of the Lord’s wrath is upon you.” ¹²And rulers of the sons of Ephraim stood up against those returning from war, Oudia the son of Ioanes and Barachias the son of Mosolamoth, Hezekias the son of Sellem and Amasias the son of Chodli. ¹³And they said to them, “You shall not bring the captives here to us, because you speak to us in regard to sinning against the Lord to add to our sins and ignorance, because great is our sin and the anger of the Lord’s wrath against Israel.” ¹⁴And the warriors left the captives and the plunder before the rulers and all the assembly. ¹⁵And the men got up as their name was called out and assisted the captives and wrapped all the naked from the plunder and clothed them and shod them and gave them to eat and to be anointed and assisted every sick person with pack animals and brought them back to their brothers in Iericho, the city of palms, and they returned to Samaria.

16 At that time Achaz sent to the king of Assour to help him ¹⁷and on this occasion, because the Idumeans had attacked and struck at Ioudas and taken a captivity captive. ¹⁸And the allophyles had attacked against the cities of the low land and from the southwest of Ioudas, and they had taken Baithsamys and Ailon and Gaderoth and Socho and its villages and Thamna and its villages and Gamzo and its villages, and they settled there, ¹⁹because the Lord humbled Ioudas on account of Achaz, king of Ioudas, because he had rebelled with rebellion against the Lord. ²⁰And Thaglathphellasar, king of Assour, came against him and struck him. ²¹And Achaz took what was in the Lord’s house and in the house of the king and of the rulers and gave it to the king of Assour, but it was of no help to him. ²²Rather by his having been afflicted, he even added to rebel against the Lord, and the king said, ²³“I will seek out the gods of Damascus who are hitting me.” And he said, “Because the gods of the king of Syria themselves will strengthen them, I will therefore sacrifice to them, and they will support me.” And they became a stumbling block to him and to all Israel. ²⁴And Achaz removed the utensils of the Lord’s house and cut them up and closed the doors of the Lord’s house and made altars for himself on every corner of Ierousalem. ²⁵And in ^bevery city and city^b in Ioudas he made high places to ^cburn incense^c to foreign gods, and they angered the Lord, God of their fathers. ²⁶And the rest of his histories and his acts, the first and the last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Ioudas and Israel. ²⁷And Achaz slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of Dauid, because they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. And his son Hezekias reigned in his stead.

29 And Hezekias became king at age twenty-five and reigned twenty-nine years in Ierousalem. And his mother’s name was Abba daughter of Zacharias. ²And he did what was right before the Lord, just as his father Dauid had done.

3 And it happened that, when he was established over his kingdom, in the first month he opened the doors of the Lord’s house and repaired them. ⁴And he brought in the priests and the Leuites and placed them on the side toward the east. ⁵And he said to them, “Listen, Leuites, now be purified, and purify the house of the Lord, God of your fathers, and cast out uncleanness from the holy places, ⁶because our fathers were apostate and did what was evil before the Lord and abandoned him and turned their face from the Lord’s tent and gave their neck ⁷and shut the doors of the shrine and put out the lamps. And they did not burn incense and did not offer whole burnt offerings in the holy place to Israel’s God. ⁸And the Lord was angered with anger against Ioudas and against Ierousalem and gave them into terror and into annihilation and into scorn, as you see with your very eyes. ⁹And, behold, your fathers were struck by dagger, and your sons and your daughters and your wives are in captivity in a land not their own, which even now is the case. ¹⁰As a result of these things, it is now in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, God of Israel, and he will turn the anger of his wrath from us. ¹¹And now do not delay, because the Lord has chosen for you to stand before him to minister and to be ministers and incense burners for him.”

12 And the Leuites arose, Maath the son of Amasi and Ioel the son of Azarias from the sons of Kaath, and from the sons of Merari, Kis the son of Abdi and Azarias the son of Iallelel, from the sons of Gedsoni, Ioa the son of Zemmath and Iodan the son of Ioacha, ¹³and of the sons of Elisaphan, Sambri and Iiel, and of the sons of Asaph, Zacharias and Maththanias, ¹⁴and of the sons of Haiman, Iiel and Semei, and of the sons of Idithon, Samaias and Oziel. ¹⁵And they gathered their brothers and were purified according to the king’s command through the Lord’s ordinance to cleanse the Lord’s house. ¹⁶And the priests entered inside the Lord’s house to purify it and threw out all the uncleanness that they found in the Lord’s house and into the court of the Lord’s house, and the Leuites took it to toss out into the Wadi Kedron outside. ¹⁷And they began to purify on the first day, on the new moon of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered into the Lord’s shrine and purified the Lord’s house in eight days, and they finished on the sixteenth day of the first month. ¹⁸And they went inside to King Hezekias and said, “We have purified everything in the Lord’s house, the altar for whole burnt offerings and its utensils, the table of presentation and its utensils, ¹⁹and all the utensils, which King Achaz defiled during his reign in his apostasy, we have made ready and purified. See, they are in front of the Lord’s altar.”

20 And King Hezekias early in the morning gathered the rulers of the city and went up to the Lord’s house. ²¹And he brought seven calves, seven rams, seven lambs, seven he-goats of goats for sin, for the kingdom and for the holy things and for Israel, and he told the priests, the sons of Aaron, to go up to the Lord’s altar. ²²And they sacrificed the calves, and the priests received the blood and poured it on the altar. And they sacrificed the rams and poured the blood on the altar. And they sacrificed the lambs and poured the blood for the altar. ²³And they brought the he-goats for sin in front of the king and the assembly and laid their hands on them. ²⁴And the priests sacrificed them, and they atoned with their blood at the altar, and they atoned for all Israel, because—the king said—the whole burnt offering and the victims for sin offerings were for all Israel.

25 And he stationed the Leuites in the Lord’s house with cymbals and with nablas^a and with cinyras^b according to the commandment of King Dauid and of Gad the king’s seer and of Nathan the prophet, for the ordinance was through the Lord’s commandment by the hand of the prophets. ²⁶And the Leuites stood with instruments of Dauid and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷And Hezekias said that the whole burnt offering should be brought to the altar, and when they began to offer the whole burnt offering, they began to sing to the Lord, and the trumpets were next to the instruments of Dauid, king of Israel. ²⁸And all the assembly did obeisance, and the harp-singers were singing and the trumpets were trumpeting until the whole burnt offering was finished. ²⁹And as they finished offering, the king knelt, and all those present also did obeisance. ³⁰And King Hezekias and the rulers said that the Leuites should hymn the Lord with words of Dauid and of Asaph the prophet. And they hymned with gladness and fell down and did obeisance.

31 And Hezekias answered and said, “Now you have filled your hands to the Lord; bring, and bear sacrifices of praise also to the Lord’s house. And the assembly brought sacrifices of praise also to the Lord’s house, and everyone eager in heart brought whole burnt offerings. ³²And the number of the whole burnt offering that the assembly offered was seventy calves, one hundred rams, two hundred lambs. All these were for a whole burnt offering to the Lord. ³³And the consecrated calves were six hundred; sheep, three thousand. ³⁴But the priests were few and were unable to skin the whole burnt offering, and their brothers the Leuites assisted them until the task was finished and until the priests were purified, because the Leuites had been purified more eagerly than the priests. ³⁵And the whole burnt offering was abundant with the fats of the completion for deliverance and of the libations of the whole burnt offering. And the service in the Lord’s house was restored. ³⁶And Hezekias and all the people were glad on account of the fact that God had prepared for the people, because the thing had come about suddenly.

30 And Hezekias sent to all Israel and Ioudas and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasse, to come to the Lord’s house in Ierousalem to hold the phasek^c to the Lord, God of Israel. ²And the king and the rulers and all the assembly in Ierousalem took counsel to hold the phasek^a in the second month, ³for they were unable to hold it at that time, because not enough priests had been purified and the people had not gathered in Ierousalem. ⁴And the plan was pleasing both to the king and to the assembly. ⁵And they fixed a plan to pass a message through all Israel from Bersabee up to Dan to come and hold the phasek^a to the Lord, God of Israel, in Ierousalem, because the multitude had not held it according to prescription^b. ⁶And the couriers with the letters from the king and the rulers traveled throughout all Israel and Ioudas in accordance with the king’s ordinance, saying, “Sons of Israel, turn to the God of Abraam and Isaak and Israel, and he will return those survivors who escaped the hand of the king of Assour. ⁷And do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who became apostate from the Lord, God of their fathers, and he gave them over to desolation, as you yourselves see. ⁸And now do not harden your necks. Give glory to the Lord God, and enter his holy precinct, which he sanctified forever, and be subject to the Lord, your God, and he will remove from you the anger of his wrath, ⁹because, when you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will become pitied before all who took them captive, and he will return them to this land, because the Lord our God is merciful and compassionate and will not turn his face from us, if we turn to him.”

10 And the couriers passed through city from city in Mount Ephraim and Manasse and as far as Zaboulon, and they were, as it were, as people deriding and mocking them. ¹¹But the people of Aser and some of Manasse and of Zaboulon were moved to shame and came to Ierousalem. ¹²And the hand of the Lord was on Ioudas to give them one heart to go and act in accordance with the ordinance of the king and the rulers in the word of the Lord.

13 And many people gathered in Ierousalem to hold the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, an exceedingly vast assembly. ¹⁴And they got up and removed the altars that were in Ierousalem, and all with which they had ^cburned incense^c to the false ones they pulled down and threw into the Wadi Kedron. ¹⁵And they sacrificed the phasek^a on the fourteenth of the second month. And the priests and the Leuites were ashamed and were purified and brought whole burnt offerings into the Lord’s house. ¹⁶And they stood at their station according to their judgment in accordance with the commandment of Moyses, man of God. And the priests received the blood from the hand of the Leuites, ¹⁷for the majority of the assembly were not purified and the Leuites had to sacrifice the phasek^a for anyone unable to be purified for the Lord, ¹⁸for the majority of the people from Ephraim and Manasse and Issachar and Zaboulon had not been purified but ate the phasek^a in contravention of prescription^b. And Hezekias prayed for them, saying, “Let the good Lord be propitiated over ¹⁹every heart directed to seek out the Lord, God of their fathers, and not in accordance with the purity of the holy things.” ²⁰And the Lord heard Hezekias and healed the people. ²¹And the sons of Israel who were found in Ierousalem held the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great gladness and were singing hymns to the Lord day by day, and the priests and the Leuites with instruments to the Lord. ²²And Hezekias spoke to every heart of the Leuites and those with a good understanding for the Lord, and they completed the feast of unleavened bread, sacrificing sacrifices for deliverance for seven days and acknowledging the Lord, God of their fathers.

23 And the assembly decided to hold it together for seven more days, and they celebrated for seven days with gladness, ²⁴for Hezekias contributed to the assembly of Ioudas a thousand calves and seven thousand sheep and the rulers contributed to the people a thousand calves and ten thousand sheep, and the priests’ holy things were in abundance. ²⁵And the whole assembly was glad: the priests and the Leuites and all the assembly of Ioudas and those present from Israel and the guests who had come from the land of Israel and those who dwelt in Ioudas. ²⁶And there was great gladness in Ierousalem. From the days of Salomon son of Dauid king of Israel there had not been such a feast in Ierousalem. ²⁷And the priests, the Leuites, stood up and blessed the people. And their voice was heard and their prayer entered his holy dwelling place in the sky.

31 And when all this was finished, all Israel found in the cities of Ioudas went out and demolished the steles and cut down the groves and completely dismantled the high places and altars^d from all over Judea and Beniamin and from Ephraim and from Manasse. And all Israel—each one—returned to his inheritance and to their cities.

2 And Hezekias appointed the daily divisions of the priests and of the Leuites and the daily divisions of each according to their ministry for the priests and for the Leuites in whole burnt offerings and in the sacrifice of deliverance and to praise and acknowledge and minister at the gates in the courts of the Lord’s house. ³And the king’s portion from his possessions was for whole burnt offerings, morning and evening, and whole burnt offerings on sabbaths and on new moons and on the feasts written in the Lord’s law. ⁴And he told the people who lived in Ierousalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Leuites so that they might be strong in the ministry of the Lord’s house. ⁵And when he had prescribed the matter, the sons of Israel multiplied their first fruits of grain and of wine and of oil and of honey and of every field crop, and the sons of Israel and of Ioudas brought all the tithes in profusion. And the inhabitants of all the cities in Ioudas, ⁶they too brought tithes of calves and of sheep and tithes of goats, and they dedicated them to the Lord, their God, and brought them in and laid them in heaps by heaps. ⁷In the third month the heaps began to be formed and in the seventh month they were finished. ⁸And Hezekias and the rulers came and saw the heaps and blessed the Lord and his people Israel. ⁹And Hezekias learned from the priests and from the Leuites about the heaps. ¹⁰And Azarias the ruling priest said to him, and he said, “From the time that the first fruits began to be brought to the house of the Lord, we have eaten and drunk and had left over, because the Lord has blessed his people, and we still have this abundance left over.”

11 And Hezekias told them to prepare shrine-carriers’ chambers for the house of the Lord, and they prepared them. ¹²And there they faithfully brought the first fruits and tithes, and Chonenias the Leuite was supervisor over them, and Semei his brother was deputy. ¹³And Iiel and Ozazias and Naeth and Asael and Ierimoth and Iozabath and Eliel and Samachia and Maath and Banaias and his sons were appointed through Chonenias and Semei his brother, as King Hezekias and Azarias, the chief officer of the Lord’s house, had ordered. ¹⁴And Kore the son of Iemna the Leuite, the gatekeeper on the east, was in charge of the gifts to give the first fruits to the Lord and the holies of holies items ¹⁵through the hand of Odom and Beniamin and Iesous and Semei and Amarias and Sechonias through the hand of the priests, to give faithfully to their brothers according to the daily divisions, in accord with great and small, ¹⁶apart from the off-spring of the male line from three years old and up to every one entering the Lord’s house, on the appropriate day, for ministry according to the calculation of days with the daily divisions of their dispositions. ¹⁷This was the register of the priests according to their paternal houses, and the Leuites were in their daily divisions from the age of twenty and up, in order, ¹⁸in registers, in every generation of their sons and their daughters to their full extent, because they faithfully purified the holy place ¹⁹for the sons of Aaron, those serving as priests. And those from their cities, in ^aevery city and city^a, men who were named by name, were to give a portion to every male among the priests and to everyone enumerated among the Leuites.

20 And Hezekias acted so in all Ioudas and did what was good and right before the Lord, his God. ²¹And in every task with which he began in the work in the Lord’s house and in the law and in the ordinances, he sought out his God with his whole soul and acted and succeeded.

32 And after these matters and this truth, Sennacherim, king of the Assyrians, came, and he came against Ioudas and encamped against the walled cities and said that he would take possession of them. ²And Hezekias saw that Sennacherim had come and that his face was set to wage war on Ierousalem. ³And he took counsel with his elders and the magnates to seal off the waters of the springs that were outside the city, and they supported him. ⁴And he gathered a large group of people and sealed off the waters of the springs and the stream that separated the city, saying, “May the king of Assour not come and find much water and be revived.” ⁵And Hezekias strengthened and built the entire wall that had been demolished and towers and another external wall, and he strengthened the retaining structure of the city of Dauid and fashioned many weapons. ⁶And he set war commanders over the people, and they gathered to him in the square of the ravine gate, and he spoke to their hearts, saying: ⁷“Be strong, and be manly. Do not be terrified from before the king of Assour and from before all the nation with him, because with us are more than with him. ⁸With him are physical arms, but with us is the Lord, our God, to save us and to fight our war for us.” And the people took heart at the words of Hezekias, king of Ioudas.

9 And after this, Sennacherim, king of the Assyrians, sent his servants to Ierousalem, and he himself was at Lachis, and all his army with him. And he sent to Hezekias, king of Ioudas, and to all Ioudas in Ierousalem, saying, ¹⁰“Thus says Sennacherim, king of the Assyrians: In what^b have you put your trust, that you sit in the siege in Ierousalem? ¹¹Is not Hezekias deceiving you, to hand you over to death and to famine and to thirst, saying, ‘The Lord, our God, will save us from the hand of the king of Assour?’ ¹²Was it not this Hezekias who removed his altars and his high places and said to Ioudas and the inhabitants of Ierousalem, saying, ‘Opposite this altar you shall do obeisance and upon it you shall offer incense’? ¹³Shall you not know what I have done, I and my fathers, to all the peoples of the countries? Being able were the gods of the nations of all the earth able to save their people from my hand? ¹⁴Who was there among the gods of those nations whom my fathers utterly destroyed? Were they able to save their people from my hand, that your God should be able to save you from my hand? ¹⁵Now, let Hezekias not deceive you; let him not make you trust like this, and do not believe him, because no god of any nation or kingdom shall be able to save his people from my hand and from the hand of my fathers—because your God will not save you from my hand.”

16 And his servants spoke still more against the Lord God, and against Hezekias his servant. ¹⁷And he wrote a note to reproach the Lord, God of Israel, and spoke about him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the earth did not deliver their peoples from my hand, so Hezekias’ God will not deliver his people from my hand.” ¹⁸And he shouted with a loud voice in Judean to the people of Ierousalem who were on the wall, to frighten them and draw them down in order that they might seize the city. ¹⁹And he talked about Ierousalem’s God as he did about the gods of the peoples of the earth: works of human hands.

20 And King Hezekias and the prophet Esaias son of Amos prayed about this and shouted out to the sky. ²¹And the Lord sent an angel, and he destroyed every powerful warrior and commander and general in the camp of Assour’s king, and he returned to his country shamefaced. And he came into the house of his god, and some of those fathered from his belly struck him down with a sword. ²²And the Lord saved Hezekias and the inhabitants of Ierousalem from the hand of Sennacherim, king of Assour, and from the hand of all^a. And he gave them rest on every side. ²³And many brought gifts to the Lord in Ierousalem and presents to Hezekias, king of Ioudas, and he was exalted in the eyes of all the nations after that.

24 In those days Hezekias became sick unto death. And he prayed to the Lord, and he heard him and gave him a sign. ²⁵And Hezekias did not repay according to the reward which he had given him; rather, his heart was exalted. And anger came upon him and upon Ioudas and Ierousalem. ²⁶And Hezekias was brought low from the exaltation of his heart—and the inhabitants of Ierousalem—and the Lord’s anger did not come upon them in the days of Hezekias.

27 And wealth and very great honor accrued to Hezekias. And he made himself treasuries for silver and gold and precious stone and for spices, and armories also for desirable articles, ²⁸and cities for the produce of grain and oil and wine and mangers for every herd and folds for the flocks ²⁹and cities, which he built for himself, and goods for sheep and cows in profusion, because the Lord gave him very abundant goods. ³⁰This same Hezekias closed above the outlet of the water of Gion and directed them^b down to the southwest of the city of Dauid. And Hezekias prospered in all his works, ³¹and likewise with regard to the envoys of the commanders of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire from him the marvel that had happened on the land, and the Lord abandoned him, to test him, to know what was in his heart.

32 And the rest of the histories of Hezekias and his mercy, behold, they are written in the Prophecy of Esaias son of Amos the Prophet and in the Book of the Kings of Ioudas and Israel. ³³And Hezekias slept with his fathers, and they buried him on the ascent of the tombs of Dauid’s sons, and ^call Iouda^c and the inhabitants of Ierousalem gave him fame and honor in his death. And Manasses his son became king in his stead.

33 Manasses was twelve years old when he became king and reigned fifty-five years in Ierousalem. ²And he did what was evil before the Lord, arising from all the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had utterly destroyed from before the sons of Israel. ³And he turned and built the high places that his father Hezekias had pulled down and erected steles to the she-Baalim and made groves and did obeisance to all the host of the sky and was subject to them. ⁴And he built altars in the Lord’s house of which the Lord had said, “In Ierousalem shall my name be forever.” ⁵And he built altars to all the host of the sky in the two courts of the Lord’s house. ⁶He too passed his children through fire in Gai-Banai-ennom, and he acted as a diviner and practiced ornithomancy and sorcery and acted as ventriloquists and enchanters. He multiplied doing evil before the Lord in order to provoke him. ⁷And he installed what was carved and what was smelted, an image that he had made, in the Lord’s house of which God had said to Dauid and to Salomon his son, “In this house and Ierousalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. ⁸And I will not add to shake Israel’s foot from the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to all the law and the ordinances and the judgments by Moyses’ hand.” ⁹And Manasses led astray Ioudas and the inhabitants of Ierousalem to do what was evil beyond all the nations whom the Lord had removed from before the sons of Israel.

10 And the Lord spoke to Manasses and to his people, but they gave no heed. ¹¹And the Lord led against them the commanders of the force of the king of Assour, and they took Manasses in manacles and bound him with fetters and brought him to Babylon. ¹²And when he was in distress he sought the face of the Lord, his God, and he was humbled exceedingly from before the God of his fathers. ¹³And he prayed to him, and he heard him. And he heard his cry and brought him back to Ierousalem to his kingdom. And Manasses knew that the Lord, he is God.

14 And afterward he built a wall outside the city of Dauid from the southwest by Gion in the wadi and when people exit the round about gate even on to Ophla, and he heightened it significantly. And he appointed commanders of the force in all the walled cities in Ioudas. ¹⁵And he removed the foreign gods and the carved item from the Lord’s house and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the Lord’s house and in Ierousalem and outside the city. ¹⁶And he restored the Lord’s altar and sacrificed on it a sacrifice of deliverance and of praise, and he said that Ioudas should be subject to the Lord, God of Israel. ¹⁷The people, however, were still on the high places; the Lord, however, was their God.

18 And the rest of the histories of Manasses and his prayer to God and the words of the seers when they spoke to him in the name of the Lord, God of Israel, behold, they are in the accounts ¹⁹of his prayer, and how he listened to him, and all his sins and his acts of apostasy and the places on which he built the high places and set up there groves and carved items before he repented, behold, they are written in the accounts of the seers. ²⁰And Manasses slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the orchard of his house. And his son Amon became king in his stead.

21 Amon became king at twenty-two years old and reigned two years in Ierousalem. ²²And he did what was evil before the Lord as Manasses his father had done. And Amon would sacrifice to all the idols his father Manasses had made, and he was subject to them. ²³And he was not humbled before the Lord, as his father Manasses had been humbled, because his son Amon increased error. ²⁴And his servants plotted against him and struck him in his house. ²⁵And the people of the land struck those who had plotted against King Amon, and the people of the land made Iosias his son king in his stead.

34 Iosias was eight when he became king and reigned thirty-one years in Ierousalem. ²And he did what was right before the Lord and walked in the ways of his father Dauid and did not stray to right or left. ³And in the eighth year of his reign—and he was still a lad—he began to seek the Lord, God of Dauid his father. And in the twelfth year of his reign he began to purge Ioudas and Ierousalem of the high places and the groves and smelted items. ⁴And he pulled down in front of him the altars of the Baalim and the high places on them, and he cut down the groves and demolished the carved and smelted items and pulverized and threw them upon the memorials to those who had sacrificed to them, ⁵and the bones of the priests he burned on the altars and purged Ioudas and Ierousalem. ⁶And in the cities of Ephraim and Manasse and Symeon and Nephthali and in reference to their sites round about, ⁷he also pulled down the groves and the altars and demolished the idols into smithereens and cut down all the groves from off the land of Israel and returned to Ierousalem.

8 And in the eighteenth year of his reign—in order to purge the land and the house—he sent out Saphan son of Eselias and Maasias ruler of the city and Iouach son of Ioachaz, his recorder, to repair the house of the Lord, his God. ⁹And they came to Chelkias the great priest and delivered the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Leuites in guarding the gate had collected from the hand of Manasse and Ephraim and the rulers and from everyone left in Israel and the sons of Ioudas and Beniamin and people living in Ierousalem. ¹⁰And those appointed in the Lord’s house gave it into the hand of people doing the tasks, and they gave it to people doing the tasks who were working in the Lord’s house to make preparations to restore the house. ¹¹And they gave it to the carpenters and the builders to buy squared^a stones and wood as beams to roof the houses, which kings of Ioudas had utterly destroyed. ¹²And there were the men faithfully in charge of operations, and over them as overseers were the Leuites Ieth and Abdias from the sons of Merari, and Zacharias and Mosollam from the sons of Kaath, to oversee, and every Leuite, everyone skilled in instruments of singers, ¹³and over the burden bearers and over all those doing the tasks, chore by chore. And some of the Leuites were scribes and judges and gatekeepers.

14 And as they were bringing out the money that had been collected into the Lord’s house, Chelkias the priest found a book of the Lord’s law through the hand of Moyses. ¹⁵And Chelkias answered and said to Saphan the scribe, “A book of the law I have found in the Lord’s house,” and Chelkias gave the book to Saphan. ¹⁶And Saphan brought the book to the king and rendered a further account to the king, “All the donated money is in the hand of your servants who are doing the task. ¹⁷And they have smelted the silver^b found in the Lord’s house and have given it into the hand of the overseers and into the hand of those doing the work.” ¹⁸And Saphan the scribe reported to the king, saying, “Chelkias the priest has given me a book,” and Saphan read it before the king.

19 And it happened, when the king heard the words of the law, he rent his garments. ²⁰And the king commanded Chelkias and Saphan’s son Achikam and Abdon, Michaias’ son, and Saphan the scribe and Asaias the king’s servant, saying: ²¹“Go, and inquire of the Lord concerning me and concerning every one who is left in Israel and Ioudas, concerning the words of the book that has been found, because the Lord’s wrath kindled against us is great, because our fathers did not listen to the words of the Lord, to act in accordance with all that is written in this book.”

22 And Chelkias went, and those to whom the king had spoken, to Holda the prophetess, wife of Sellem son of Thakouath son of Chelles, since she kept the vestments—and she lived in Ierousalem in masana^c, and they spoke to her to that effect. ²³And she said to them, “Thus said the Lord, God of Israel: Say to the man who sent you to me, ²⁴Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am bringing harm against this place, all the words that are written in the book that was read before the king of Ioudas, ²⁵since they have forsaken me and have offered incense to foreign gods so that they have provoked me to anger with all the works of their hands. And my wrath was blazed in this place, and it will not be quenched. ²⁶And as to the king of Ioudas, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say this to him: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: As for the words that you heard—²⁷and your heart was embarrassed, and you were humbled from before me, when you heard my words regarding this place and regarding those who inhabit it, and you were humbled before me and tore your garments, and you wept before me; I on my part also heard you, says the Lord. ²⁸Behold, I will add you to your fathers, and you shall be added to your memorials^d in peace, and your eyes shall not see among all the harm that I am bringing upon this place and upon its inhabitants.” And they gave back word to the king.

29 And the king sent and gathered the elders of Ioudas and Ierousalem. ³⁰And the king went up to the Lord’s house, and all Iouda^e and the inhabitants of Ierousalem, both the priests and the Leuites and all the people, from great to small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the Lord’s house. ³¹And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to walk before the Lord, to keep his commandments and testimonies and ordinances with his whole heart and with his whole soul, the words of the covenant that are written in this book. ³²And he made all those found in Ierousalem and Beniamin stand, and the inhabitants of Ierousalem made a covenant in the house of the Lord, God of their fathers. ³³And Iosias removed all the abominations from the entire land, which belonged to the sons of Israel, and he made all those found in Ierousalem and Israel be subject to the Lord, their God, all his days. He did not stray from behind the Lord, God of his fathers.

35 And Iosias held the phasech^a to the Lord, his God, and they slaughtered the phasech^a on the fourteenth of the first month. ²And he set the priests at their watches and strengthened them for the tasks of the Lord’s house. ³And he said to the Leuites, who were powerful in all Israel, that they should be sanctified to the Lord, and they placed the holy ark in the house that Salomon son of Dauid, the king of Israel, had built. And the king said, “You are not to carry anything on your shoulders. Now then, minister to the Lord, your God, and to his people Israel. ⁴And prepare according to your paternal houses and according to your daily divisions according to the writing of Dauid, king of Israel, and through the hand of his son Salomon. ⁵And stand in the house according to the divisions of your paternal houses for your brothers, the sons of the people, and a portion of the paternal house is for the Leuites. ⁶And slaughter the phasech^a, and prepare the holy things for your brothers to do according to the word of the Lord through the hand Moyses.”

7 And Iosias contributed sheep and lambs and kids from the young of goats to the sons of the people, everything for the phasech^a for all those present, up to a number of thirty thousand and three thousand calves. These were from the king’s substance. ⁸And his officials contributed to the people and to the priests and the Leuites. Chelkias and Zacharias and Iiel, the chief officers of the house of God, gave to the priests, and they gave for the phasech^a two thousand six hundred sheep and lambs and kids and three hundred calves. ⁹And Chonenias and Banaias and Samaias and Nathaniel, his brother, and Hasabias and Iiel and Iozabad, rulers of the Leuites, contributed five thousand sheep and five hundred calves to the Leuites for the phasech^a.

10 And the service was set up. And the priests stood at their post, and the Leuites in their divisions according to the king’s command. ¹¹And they slaughtered the phasech^a, and the priests poured the blood out of their hand, and the Leuites did the skinning. ¹²And they made ready the whole burnt offering to pass on to them according to the divisions of their paternal houses to the sons of the people to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moyses, and so until morning. ¹³And they roasted the phasech^a with fire according to the rule and boiled the holy things in the copper vessels and in the cauldrons. And it was a success, and they ran to all the sons of the people. ¹⁴And after preparing for them and for the priests, because the priests offered the fat and whole burnt offerings till night, the Leuites prepared both for themselves and for their brothers, the sons of Aaron. ¹⁵And the harp-singers, sons of Asaph, were at their post according to the commandments of Dauid. And Asaph and Haiman and Idithon, the king’s prophets, and the rulers and the gatekeepers of ^bgate and gate^b—it was not for them to move from the ministry of the holy things, because their brothers the Leuites ministered to them.

16 And all the service of the Lord was set up and prepared on that day, to hold the phasech^a and to offer the whole burnt offerings upon the Lord’s altar according to King Iosias’ command. ¹⁷And the sons of Israel who were present held the phasech^a at that time and the feast of unleavened bread for seven days. ¹⁸And no phasech^a like it took place in Israel from the days of Samouel the prophet, and none of the kings of Israel celebrated anything like the phasech^a that Iosias held for the Lord—and the priests and the Leuites and ^call Iouda^c and Israel, who were present, and the inhabitants of Ierousalem—¹⁹in the eighteenth year of King Iosias’ reign. ^19aAnd King Iosias burned the ventriloquists and the wizards and the tharaphin^d and the idols and the karasim^e, which were in the land of Ioudas and in Ierousalem in order to establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Chelkias the priest found in the Lord’s house. ^19bNo one like him appeared before him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moyses, and none like him arose after him. ^19cNevertheless, the Lord did not turn back from the anger of his great wrath with which the Lord was angry with wrath against Ioudas for all the provocations with which Manasses provoked him to anger. ^19dAnd the Lord said, “Indeed, Ioudas I will remove from before me as I removed Israel, and I have rejected the city I chose, Ierousalem, and the house about which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’ ”

20 And Pharao Nechao, king of Egypt, went up against the king of the Assyrians to the river Euphrates, and King Iosias went to meet him. ²¹And he sent envoys to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Ioudas? I have not come against you today to make war, and God has told me to hurry. Beware of the god who is with me, lest he destroy you.” ²²And Iosias did not turn away his face from him, but he was strengthened^f to fight him and did not listen to Nechao’s words through God’s mouth and went to fight in the plain of Magedon.

²³And the archers shot at King Iosias. And the king said to his servants, “Take me away, because I am very much in trouble.” ²⁴And his servants removed him from the chariot and put him on the secondary chariot that he had and brought him to Ierousalem. And he died and was buried with his fathers. And ^aall Iouda^a and Ierousalem mourned for Iosias. ²⁵And Ieremias lamented over Iosias, and all the leading men and leading women have spoken the lament over Iosias until this very day. And they gave it as an ordinance for Israel, and see, it is written among the Laments. ²⁶And Iosias’ affairs and his hope are written in the Lord’s law. ²⁷And his affairs, the first and the last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Ioudas.

36 And the people of the land took Ioachaz son of Iosias and anointed him and established him as king in Ierousalem in his father’s stead. ²Ioachaz was a son of twenty-three years when he became king and reigned three months in Ierousalem. ^2aAnd his mother’s name was Amital daughter of Ieremias of Lobena. ^2bAnd he did what was evil before the Lord in all respects as his fathers had done. ^2cAnd Pharao Nechao bound him in Deblatha in the land of Hemath so that he would not reign in Ierousalem. ³And the king transferred him to Egypt, and he imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ⁴And Pharao Nechao appointed Iosias’ son Eliakim as king of Ioudas in place of his father Iosias and changed his name to Ioakim. And Pharao Nechao took his brother Ioachaz and led him to Egypt, and he died there. ^4aAnd they gave the gold and silver to the Pharao. Then the land began to be subject to tribute to give the silver at the mouth^b of Pharao, and everyone according to his power demanded silver and gold from the people of the land to give to Pharao Nechao.

5 Ioakim was twenty-five years old when he became king and reigned eleven years in Ierousalem. And his mother’s name was Zechora daughter of Nerias of Rama. And he did what was evil before the Lord in all respects, as his fathers had done. ^5aIn his days, Nabouchodonosor, king of Babylon, came into the land, and he was subject to him for three years, and he left him. ^5bAnd the Lord sent upon them the Chaldeans and the robber bands of the Syrians and the robber bands of the Moabites and of the sons of Ammon and of Samaria, and they rebelled after this affair according to the Lord’s word by the hand of his servants the prophets. ^5cNevertheless, the Lord’s wrath was upon Ioudas, to remove it from before him on account of the sins of Manasses in all that he did ⁵dand for the innocent blood that Ioakim shed, and he filled Ierousalem with innocent blood, and the Lord did not want to destroy them utterly. ⁶And Nabouchodonosor, king of Babylon, came up against him and bound him in bronze fetters and led him away to Babylon. ⁷And he removed part of the vessels of the Lord’s house to Babylon and placed them in his shrine in Babylon. ⁸And the rest of the histories of Ioakim and all that he did, behold, is this not written in the Book of the Histories of the Days of the Kings of Ioudas? And Ioakim slept with his fathers and was buried in Ganoza with his fathers, and Iechonias his son became king in his stead.

9 Iechonias was a son of eighteen years when he became king and reigned three months and ten days in Ierousalem and did what was evil before the Lord. ¹⁰And as the year was turning King Nabouchodonosor sent and brought him to Babylon along with the prize vessels of the Lord’s house and made his father’s brother Sedekias king over Ioudas and Ierousalem.

11 Sedekias was twenty-one years old when he became king and reigned eleven years in Ierousalem. ¹²And he did what was evil before the Lord, his God, and was not moved to shame from before the prophet Ieremias and out of the mouth of the Lord, ¹³when he violated the terms with King Nabouchodonosor, to which he had made him swear by God, and he hardened his neck and steeled his heart not to return to the Lord, God of Israel. ¹⁴And all those held in honor in Ioudas and the priests and the people of the land multiplied violating with violations of abominations of the nations, and they polluted the Lord’s house in Ierousalem.

15 And the Lord, God of their fathers, sent out by the hand of prophets, sending his messengers early on, because he was trying to spare his people and his holy precinct. ¹⁶And they kept mocking his messengers and disregarding his words and poking fun at his prophets until the Lord’s wrath went up against his people until there was no cure.

17 And he led against them a king of the Chaldeans, and he killed their young men by sword in the house of his holy precinct, and he did not spare Sedekias, and on their young women they had no mercy, and their elderly they led away. He handed over everything into their hands. ¹⁸And all the vessels of the house of God, large and small, and the treasures and all the treasures of the king and the nobles, all these he brought to Babylon. ¹⁹And he set on fire the Lord’s house and broke down the wall of Ierousalem, and its bastions he burned with fire and every handsome vessel to annihilation. ²⁰And he deported the remaining people to Babylon, and they were slaves to him and to his sons until the reign of the Medes ²¹in order to fulfill the Lord’s word by the mouth of Ieremias until the land received its sabbaths to sabbatize. All the days of its desolation it sabbatized until the fulfillment of seventy years.

22 In the first year of Cyrus, king of the Persians, after the fulfillment of the Lord’s dictum through the mouth of Ieremias, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of the Persians, and he announced to proclaim in all his kingdom, in writing, saying, ²³“This is what Cyrus, king of the Persians says: The Lord, the god of the sky, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and it is he who has commanded me to build him a house in Ierousalem, which is in Judea. Who of you is from all his people? His god shall be with him, and let him go up.”