May 2
2 Kings 16:1 — 18:12

16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham the king of Judah became king. 2 Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and for sixteen years he reigned in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the eyes of Jehovah his God like David his forefather. 3 And he went walking in the way of the kings of Israel, and even his own son he made pass through the fire, according to the detestable things of the nations whom Jehovah drove out because of the sons of Israel. 4 And he kept sacrificing and making sacrificial smoke on the high places and upon the hills and under every luxuriant tree.

5 It was then that Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel proceeded to come up against Jerusalem in war and laid siege against Ahaz, but they were not able to fight. 6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria restored Elath to Edom, after which he cleared out the Jews from Elath; and the Edomites, for their part, entered Elath and kept dwelling there down to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser the king of Assyria, saying: “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me out of the palm of the king of Syria and out of the palm of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.” 8 Accordingly Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was to be found at the house of Jehovah and in the treasures of the king’s house and sent the king of Assyria a bribe. 9 At that the king of Assyria listened to him and the king of Assyria went up to Damascus and captured it and led its [people] into exile at Kir, and Rezin he put to death.

10 Then King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-pileser the king of Assyria at Damascus, and he got to see the altar that was in Damascus. So King Ahaz sent Urijah the priest the design of the altar and its pattern as respects all its workmanship. 11 And Urijah the priest proceeded to build the altar. According to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus was the way that Urijah the priest made it, pending the time that King Ahaz came from Damascus. 12 When the king came from Damascus, the king got to see the altar; and the king began to go near to the altar and make offerings upon it. 13 And he continued to make his burnt offering and his grain offering smoke and to pour out his drink offering and to sprinkle the blood of the communion sacrifices that were his upon the altar. 14 And the copper altar that was before Jehovah he now brought near from in front of the house, from between his altar and the house of Jehovah, and put it at the north side of his altar. 15 And King Ahaz went on to command him, even Urijah the priest, saying: “Upon the great altar make the burnt offering of the morning smoke, also the grain offering of the evening and the burnt offering of the king and his grain offering and the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offerings; and all the blood of burnt offering and all the blood of a sacrifice you should sprinkle upon it. As for the copper altar, it will become something for me to take under consideration.” 16 And Urijah the priest went doing according to all that King Ahaz had commanded.

17 Furthermore, King Ahaz cut the sidewalls of the carriages in pieces and removed from off them the basins; and the sea he took down off the copper bulls that were underneath it and then put it upon a stone pavement. 18 And the covered structure for the sabbath that they had built in the house and the king’s outer entryway he shifted from the house of Jehovah because of the king of Assyria.

19 As for the rest of the affairs of Ahaz, what he did, are they not written in the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Judah? 20 Finally Ahaz lay down with his forefathers and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David; and Hezekiah his son began to reign in place of him.

17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king in Samaria over Israel for nine years. 2 And he continued to do what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, only not as the kings of Israel that happened to be prior to him. 3 It was against him that Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came up, and Hoshea came to be his servant and began to pay tribute to him. 4 However, the king of Assyria got to find conspiracy in Hoshea’s case, in that he had sent messengers to So the king of Egypt and did not bring the tribute up to the king of Assyria as in former years. Hence the king of Assyria shut him up and kept him bound in the house of detention.

5 And the king of Assyria proceeded to come up against all the land and to come up to Samaria and lay siege against it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and then led Israel into exile in Assyria and kept them dwelling in Halah and in Habor at the river Gozan and in the cities of the Medes.

7 And it came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against Jehovah their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and they began to fear other gods; 8 and they kept walking in the statutes of the nations whom Jehovah had driven out from before the sons of Israel, and [in the statutes of] the kings of Israel that they had made; 9 and the sons of Israel went searching into the things that were not right toward Jehovah their God and kept building themselves high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen clear to the fortified city; 10 and they kept setting up for themselves sacred pillars and sacred poles upon every high hill and under every luxuriant tree; 11 and there on all the high places they continued to make sacrificial smoke the same as the nations whom Jehovah had taken into exile because of them, and they kept doing bad things to offend Jehovah;

12 And they continued to serve dungy idols, concerning which Jehovah had said to them: “YOU must not do this thing”; 13 and Jehovah kept warning Israel and Judah by means of all his prophets [and] every visionary, saying: “Turn back from YOUR bad ways and keep my commandments, my statutes, according to all the law that I commanded YOUR forefathers and that I have sent to YOU by means of my servants the prophets”; 14 and they did not listen but kept hardening their necks like the necks of their forefathers that had not exercised faith in Jehovah their God; 15 and they continued rejecting his regulations and his covenant that he had concluded with their forefathers and his reminders with which he had warned them, and they went following vain idols and became vain themselves, even in imitation of the nations that were all around them, concerning whom Jehovah had commanded them not to do like them;

16 And they kept leaving all the commandments of Jehovah their God and proceeded to make for themselves molten statues, two calves, and to make a sacred pole, and they began to bow down to all the army of the heavens and to serve Baal; 17 and they continued to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire and to practice divination and to look for omens, and they kept selling themselves to do what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, to offend him;

18 Therefore Jehovah got very incensed against Israel, so that he removed them from his sight. He did not let any remain but the tribe of Judah alone.

19 Even Judah itself did not keep the commandments of Jehovah their God, but they went walking in the statutes of Israel that they had made. 20 Consequently Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel and kept afflicting them and giving them into the hand of pillagers, until he had cast them away from before him. 21 For he ripped Israel off from the house of David, and they proceeded to make Jeroboam the son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam proceeded to part Israel from following Jehovah, and he caused them to sin with a great sin. 22 And the sons of Israel went walking in all the sins of Jeroboam that he had done. They did not depart from them, 23 until Jehovah removed Israel from his sight, just as he had spoken by means of all his servants the prophets. So Israel went off its own soil into exile in Assyria down to this day.

24 Subsequently the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon and Cuthah and Avva and Hamath and Sepharvaim and had them dwell in the cities of Samaria instead of the sons of Israel; and they began to take possession of Samaria and to dwell in its cities. 25 And it came about at the start of their dwelling there that they did not fear Jehovah. Therefore Jehovah sent lions among them, and they came to be killers among them. 26 So they sent word to the king of Assyria, saying: “The nations that you have taken into exile and then settled in the cities of Samaria have not known the religion of the God of the land, so that he keeps sending lions among them; and, look! they are putting them to death, inasmuch as there are none knowing the religion of the God of the land.”

27 At that the king of Assyria commanded, saying: “Have one of the priests go there whom YOU led into exile from there, that he may go and dwell there and teach them the religion of the God of the land.” 28 Accordingly one of the priests whom they had led into exile from Samaria came and began dwelling in Bethel, and he came to be a teacher of them as to how they ought to fear Jehovah.

29 However, each different nation came to be a maker of its own god, which they then deposited in the house of the high places that the Samaritans had made, each different nation, in their cities where they were dwelling. 30 And the men of Babylon, for their part, made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth, for their part, made Nergal, and the men of Hamath, for their part, made Ashima. 31 As for the Avvites, they made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites were burning their sons in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 And they came to be fearers of Jehovah and went making for themselves from the people in general priests of high places, and they came to be functionaries for them in the house of the high places. 33 It was of Jehovah that they became fearers, but it was of their own gods that they proved to be worshipers, according to the religion of the nations from among whom they had led them into exile.

34 Down to this day they are doing according to their former religions. There were none fearing Jehovah and none doing according to his statutes and his judicial decisions and the law and the commandment that Jehovah had commanded the sons of Jacob, whose name he made Israel; 35 when Jehovah concluded a covenant with them and commanded them, saying: “YOU must not fear other gods, and YOU must not bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them. 36 But Jehovah, who brought YOU up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched-out arm, is the One whom YOU should fear, and to him YOU should bow down, and to him YOU should sacrifice. 37 And the regulations and the judicial decisions and the law and the commandment that he wrote for YOU, YOU should take care to do always; and YOU must not fear other gods. 38 And the covenant that I have concluded with YOU, YOU must not forget; and YOU must not fear other gods. 39 But it is Jehovah YOUR God that YOU should fear, as he is the one that will deliver YOU out of the hand of all YOUR enemies.”

40 And they did not obey, but it was according to their former religion that they were doing. 41 And these nations came to be fearers of Jehovah, but it was their own graven images that they proved to be serving. As for both their sons and their grandsons, it was just as their forefathers had done that they themselves are doing down to this day.

18 And it came about in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah the king of Israel that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz the king of Judah became king. 2 Twenty-five years old he happened to be when he began to reign, and for twenty-nine years he reigned in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he continued to do what was right in Jehovah’s eyes, according to all that David his forefather had done. 4 He it was that removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars to pieces and cut down the sacred pole and crushed to pieces the copper serpent that Moses had made; for down to those days the sons of Israel had continually been making sacrificial smoke to it, and it used to be called the copper serpent-idol. 5 In Jehovah the God of Israel he trusted; and after him there proved to be no one like him among all the kings of Judah, even those who had happened to be prior to him. 6 And he kept sticking to Jehovah. He did not turn aside from following him, but he continued keeping his commandments that Jehovah had commanded Moses. 7 And Jehovah proved to be with him. Wherever he would go out, he would act prudently; and he proceeded to rebel against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 It was he that struck down the Philistines clear to Gaza and also its territories, from the tower of the watchmen clear to the fortified city.

9 And it came about in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, that is, the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah the king of Israel, that Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came up against Samaria and began to lay siege to it. 10 And they got to capture it at the end of three years; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Israel, Samaria was captured. 11 After that the king of Assyria took Israel into exile in Assyria and set them down in Halah and in Habor at the river Gozan and in the cities of the Medes, 12 over the fact that they had not listened to the voice of Jehovah their God, but kept overstepping his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded. They neither listened nor performed.