4 Kings Chapter 1
1:1. And Moab rebelled against Israel, after thc death of
Achab.
1:2. And Ochozias fell through the lattices of his upper
chamber, which he had in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent
messengers, saying to them: Go, consult Beelzebub, the god
of Accaron, whether I shall recover of this my illness.
1:3. And an angel of the Lord spoke to Elias, the Thesbite,
saying: Arise, and go up to meet the messengers of the king
of Samaria, and say to them: Is there not a God in Israel,
that ye go to consult Beelzebub, the god of Accaron?
1:4. Wherefore, thus saith the Lord: From the bed, on which
thou art gone up, thou shalt not come down, but thou shalt
surely die. And Elias went away.
1:5. And the messengers turned back to Ochozias. And he
said to them: Why are you come back?
1:6. But they answered him: A man met us, and said to us:
Go, and return to the king, that sent you, and you shall
say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Is it because there was no
God in Israel, that thou sendest to Beelzebub, the god of
Accaron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed,
on which thou art gone up, but thou shalt surely die.
1:7. And he said to them: What manner of man was he who met
you, and spoke these words?
1:8. But they said: A hairy man, with a girdle of leather
about his loins. And he said: It is Elias, the Thesbite.
1:9. And he sent to him a captain of fifty, and the fifty
men that were under him. And he went up to him, and as he
was sitting on the top of a hill, he said to him: Man of
God, the king hath commanded that thou come down.
1:10. And Elias answering, said to the captain of fifty: If
I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and
consume thee, and thy fifty. And there came down fire from
heaven and consumed him, and the fifty that were with him.
1:11. And he again sent to him another captain of fifty
men, and his fifty with him. And he said to him: Man of
God: Thus saith the king: Make haste and come down.
1:12. Elias answering, said: If I be a man of God, let fire
come down from heaven, and consume thee, and thy fifty. And
fire came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.
1:13. Again he sent a third captain of fifty men, and the
fifty that were with him. And when he was come, he fell
upon his knees before Elias, and besought him, and said:
Man of God, despise not my life, and the lives of thy
servants that are with me.
1:14. Behold fire came down from heaven, and consumed the
two first captains of fifty men, and the fifties that were
with them: but now I beseech thee to spare my life.
1:15. And the angel of the Lord spoke to Elias, saying: Go
down with him, fear not. He arose therefore, and went down
with him to the king,
1:16. And said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou
hast sent messengers to consult Beelzebub, the god of
Accaron, as though there were not a God in Israel, of whom
thou mightest inquire the word; therefore, from the bed on
which thou art gone up, thou shalt not come down, but thou
shalt surely die.
1:17. So he died, according to the word of the Lord, which
Elias spoke; and Joram, his brother, reigned in his stead,
in the second year of Joram, the son of Josaphat, king of
Juda, because he had no son.
1:18. But the rest of the acts of Ochozias, which he did,
are they not written in the book of the words of the days
of the kings of Israel?
4 Kings Chapter 2
2:1. And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up
Elias, into heaven, by a whirlwind, that Elias and Eliseus
were going from Galgal.
2:2. And Elias said to Eliseus: Stay thou here, because the
Lord hath sent me as far as Bethel. And Eliseus said to
him: As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not
leave thee. And when they were come down to Bethel,
2:3. The sons of the prophets, that were at Bethel, came
forth to Eliseus, and said to him: Dost thou know that,
this day, the Lord will take away thy master from thee? And
he answered: I also know it: hold your peace.
2:4. And Elias said to Eliseus: Stay here, because the Lord
hath sent me to Jericho. And he said: As the Lord liveth,
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And when
they were come to Jericho,
2:5. The sons of the prophets, that were at Jericho, came
to Eliseus, and said to him: Dost thou know that, this day,
the Lord will take away thy master from thee? And he said:
I also know it: hold your peace.
2:6. And Elias said to him: Stay here, because the Lord
hath sent me as far as the Jordan. And he said: as the Lord
liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And
they two went on together.
2:7. And fifty men, of the sons of the prophets, followed
them, and stood in sight, at a distance: but they two stood
by the Jordan.
2:8. And Elias took his mantle, and folded it together, and
struck the waters, and they were divided hither and
thither, and they both passed over on dry ground.
2:9. And when they were gone over, Elias said to Eliseus:
Ask what thou wilt have me to do for thee, before I be
taken away from thee. And Eliseus said: I beseech thee,
that in me may be thy double spirit.
2:10. And he answered: Thou hast asked a hard thing;
nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee,
thou shalt have what thou hast asked: but if thou see me
not, thou shalt not have it.
2:11. And as they went on, walking and talking together,
behold, a fiery chariot and fiery horses parted them both
asunder: and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
2:12. And Eliseus saw him, and cried: My father, my father,
the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof. And he saw
him no more: and he took hold of his own garments, and rent
them in two pieces.
2:13. And he took up the mantle of Elias, that fell from
him: and going back, he stood on the bank of the Jordan;
2:14. And he struck the waters with the mantle of Elias,
that had fallen from him, and they were not divided. And
he said: Where is now the God of Elias? And he struck the
waters, and they were divided hither and thither, and
Eliseus passed over.
2:15. And the sons of the prophets, at Jericho, who were
over against him, seeing it, said: The spirit of Elias hath
rested upon Eliseus. And coming to meet him, they
worshipped him, falling to the ground.
2:16. And they said to him: Behold, there are with thy
servants, fifty strong men, that can go, and seek thy
master, lest, perhaps, the spirit of the Lord, hath taken
him up and cast him upon some monntain, or into some
valley. And he said: Do not send.
2:17. But they pressed him, till he consented, and said:
Send. And they sent fifty men: and they sought three days,
bnt found him not.
2:18. And they came back to him: for he abode at Jericho,
and he said to them: Did I not say to you? Do not send.
2:l9. And the men of the city, said to Eliseus . Behold the
situation of this city is very good, as thou, my lord,
seest: but the waters are very bad, and the ground barren.
2:20. And he said: Bring me a new vessel, and put salt into
it. And when they had brought it,
2:21. He went out to the spring of the waters, and cast the
salt into it, and said: Thus saith the Lord: I have healed
these waters, and there shall be no more in them death or
barrenness.
2:22. And the waters were healed unto this day, according
to the word of Eliseus, which he spoke.
2:23. And he went up from thence to Bethel: and as he was
going up by the way, little boys came out of the city and
mocked him, saying: Go up, thou bald head, go up, thou bald
head.
2:24. And looking back, he saw them, and cursed them in the
name of the Lord: and there came forth two bears out of the
forest, and tore of them, two and forty boys.
2:25. And from thence he went to mount Carmel, and from
thence he returned to Samaria.
4 Kings Chapter 3
3:1. And Joram the son of Achab, reigned over Israel, in
Samaria, in the eighteenth year of Josaphat, king of Juda.
And he reigned twelve years.
3:2. And he did evil before the Lord, but not like his
father and his mother: for he took away the statues of
Baal, which his father had made.
3:3. Nevertheless, he stuck to the sins of Jeroboam, the
son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, nor did he depart
from them.
3:4. Now Mesa, king of Moab, nourished many sheep, and he
paid to the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs, and a
hundred thousand rams, with their fleeces.
3:5. And when Achab was dead, he broke the league which he
had made with the king of Israel.
3:6. And king Joram went out that day from Samaria, and
mustered all Israel.
3:7. And he sent to Josaphat; king of Juda, saying: The
king of Moab is revolted from me: come with me against him
to battle. And he answered: I will come up: he that is
mine, is thine: my people are thy people: and my horses,
thy horses.
3:8. And he said: Which way shall we go up? But he
answered: By the desert of Edom.
3:9. So the king of Israel, and the king of Juda, and the
king of Edom, went, and they fetched a compass of seven
days journey, and there was no water for the army, and for
the beasts, that followed them.
3:10. And the king of Israel said: Alas, alas, alas, the
Lord hath gathered us three kings together, to deliver us
into the hands of Moab.
3:11. And Josaphat said: Is there not here a prophet of thc
Lord, that we may beseech the Lord by him? And one of the
servants of the king of Israel answered: Here is Eliseus,
the son of Saphat, who poured water on the hands of Elias.
3:12. And Josaphat said: The word of the Lord is with him.
And the king of Israel, and Josaphat, king of Juda, and the
king of Edom, went down to him.
3:13. And Eliseus said to the king of Israel: What have I
to do with thee? go to the prophets of thy father, and thy
mother. And the king of Israel said to him: Why hath the
Lord gathered together these three kings, to deliver them
into the hands of Moab?
3:14. And Eliseus said to him: As the Lord of hosts liveth,
in whose sight I stand, if I did not reverence the face of
Josaphat, king of Juda, I would not have hearkened to thee,
nor looked on thee.
3:15. But now bring me hither a minstrel. And when the
minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon him, and he
said:
3:16. Thus saith the Lord: Make the channel of this torrent
full of ditches.
3:17. For thus saith the Lord: You shall not see wind, nor
rain: and yet this channel shall be filled with waters, and
you shall drink, you and your families, and your beasts.
3:18. And this is a small thing in the sight of the Lord:
moreover, he will deliver, also, Moab into your hands.
3:19. And you shall destroy every fenced city, and every
choice city, and shall cut down every fruitful tree, and
shall stop up all the springs of waters, and every goodly
field you shall cover with stones.
3:20. And it came to pass, in the morning, when the
sacrifices used to be offered, that behold, water came by
the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.
3:21. And all the Moabites hearing that the kings were come
up to fight against them, gathered together all that were
girded with a belt upon them, and stood in the borders.
3:22. And they rose early in the morning, and the sun being
now up, and shining upon the waters, the Moabites saw the
waters over against them red, like blood,
3:23. And they said: It is the blood of the sword: the
kings have fought among themselves, and they have killed
one another: go now, Moab, to the spoils.
3:24. And they went into the camp of Israel: but Israel
rising up, defeated Moab, who fled before them. And they
being conquerors, went and smote Moab.
3:25. And they destroyed the cities: And they filled every
goodly field, every man casting his stone: and they stopt
up all the springs of waters: and cut down all the trees
that bore fruit, so that brick walls only remained: and the
city was beset by the slingers, and a great part thereof
destroyed.
3:26. And when the king of Moab saw this, to wit, that the
enemies had prevailed, he took with him seven hundred men
that drew the sword, to break in upon the king of Edom: but
they could not.
3:27. Then he took his eldest son, that should have reigned
in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the
wall: and there was great indignation in Israel, and
presently they departed from him, and returned into their
own country.
4 Kings Chapter 4
4:1. Now a certain woman of the wives of the prophets,
cried to Eliseus, saying: Thy servant, my husband, is dead,
and thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God,
and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to
serve him.
4:2. And Eliseus said to her: What wilt thou have me do for
thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she
answered: I, thy handmaid, have nothing in my house but a
little oil, to anoint me.
4:3. And he said to her: Go, borrow of all thy neighbours
empty vessels, not a few.
4:4. And go in, and shut thy door, when thou art within,
and thy sons: and pour out thereof into all those vessels:
and when they are full, take them away.
4:5. So the woman went, and shut the door upon her, and
upon her sons: they brought her the vessels, and she poured
in.
4:6. And when the vessels were full, she said to her son:
Bring me yet a vessel. And he answered: I have no more. And
the oil stood.
4:7. And she came, and told the man of God. And he said:
Go, sell the oil, and pay thy creditor: and thou and thy
sons live of the rest.
4:8. And there was a day when Eliseus passed by Sunam: now
there was a great woman there, who detained him to eat
bread: and as he passed often that way, he turned into her
house to eat bread.
4:9. And she said to her husband: I perceive that this is a
holy man of God, who often passeth by us.
4:10. Let us, therefore, make him a little chamber, and put
a little bed in it for him, and a table, and a stool, and a
candlestick, that when he cometh to us he may abide there.
4:11. Now, there was a certain day, when he came, and
turned into the chamber, and rested there.
4:12. And he said to Giezi, his servant: Call this
Sunamitess. And when he had called her, and she stood
before him,
4:13. He said to his servant: Say to her: Behold, thou hast
diligently served us in all things; what wilt thou have me
to do for thee? Hast thou any business, and wilt thou, that
I speak to the king, or to the general of the army? And she
answered: I dwell in the midst of my own people.
4:14. And he said: What will she then that I do for her?
And Giezi said: Do not ask, for she hath no son, and her
husband is old.
4:15. Then he bid him call her. And when she was called,
and stood before the door,
4:16. He said to her: At this time, and this same hour, if
life be in company, thou shalt have a son in thy womb. But
she answered: Do not, I beseech thee, my lord, thou man of
God, do not lie to thy handmaid.
4:17. And the woman conceived, and brought forth a son in
the time, and at the same hour that Eliseus had said.
4:18. And the child grew. And on a certain day, when he
went out to his father to the reapers,
4:19. He said to his father: My head acheth, my head
acheth. But he said to his servant. Take him, and carry him
to his mother.
4:20. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his
mother, she sat him on her knees, until noon, and then he
died.
4:21. And she went up, and laid him upon the bed of the man
of God, and shut the door: and going out,
4:22. She called her husband, and said: Send with me, I
beseech thee, one of thy servants, and an ass, that I may
run to the man of God, and come again.
4:23. And he said to her: Why dost thou go to him? to day
is neither new moon nor sabbath. She answered: I will go.
4:24. And she saddled an ass, and commanded her servant:
Drive, and make haste, make no stay in going: And do that
which I bid thee.
4:25. So she went forward, and came to the man of God, to
mount Carmel: and when the man of God saw her coming
towards, he said to Giezi, his servant: Behold that
Sunamitess.
4:26. Go, therefore, to meet her, and say to her: Is all
well with thee, and with thy husband, and with thy son? And
she answered: Well.
4:27. And when she came to the man of God, to the mount,
she caught hold on his feet: and Giezi came to remove her.
And the man of God said: Let her alone for her soul is in
anguish, and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not
told me.
4:28. And she said to him: Did I ask a son of my lord? did
I not say to thee: Do not deceive me?
4:29. Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my
staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him
not: and if any man salute thee, answer him not: and lay my
staff upon the face of the child.
4:30. But the mother of the child said: As the Lord liveth,
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. He arose,
therefore, and followed her.
4:31. But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff
upon the face of the child, and there was no voice nor
sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him, saying:
The child is not risen.
4:32. Eliseus, therefore, went into the house, and behold
the child lay dead on his bed:
4:33. And going in, he shut the door upon him, and upon the
child, and prayed to the Lord.
4:34. And he went up, and lay upon the child: and put his
mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his
hands upon his hands: and he bowed himself upon him, and
the child's flesh grew warm.
4:35. Then he returned and walked in the house, once to and
fro: and he went up, and lay upon him: and the child gaped
seven times, and opened his eyes.
4:36. And he called Giezi, and said to him: Call this
Sunamitess. And she being called, went in to him: and he
said: Take up thy son.
4:37. She came and fell at his feet, and worshipped upon
the ground: and took up her son, and went out.
4:38. And Eliseus returned to Galgal, and there was a
famine in the land, and the sons of the prophets dwelt
before him: And he said to one of his servants: Set on the
great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.
4:39. And one went out into the field to gather wild herbs:
and he found something like a wild vine, and gathered of it
wild gourds of the field, and filled his mantle, and coming
back, he shred them into the pot of pottage; for he knew
not what it was.
4:40. And they poured it out for their companions to eat:
and when they had tasted of the pottage, they cried out,
saying: Death is in the pot, O man of God. And they could
not eat thereof.
4:41. But he said: Bring some meal. And when they had
brought it, he cast it into the pot, and said: Pour out for
the people, that they may eat. And there was now no
bitterness in the pot.
4:42. And a certain man came from Baalsalisa, bringing to
the man of God, bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of
barley, and new corn in his scrip. And he said: Give to the
people, that they may eat.
4:43. And his servant answered him: How much is this, that
I should set it before a hundred men? He said again: Give
to the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord:
They shall eat, and there shall be left.
4:44. So he set it before them: and they ate, and there was
left, according to the word of the Lord.
4 Kings Chapter 5
5:1. Naaman, general of the army, of the king of Syria, was
a great man with his master, and honourable: for by him the
Lord gave deliverance to Syria: and he was a valiant man,
and rich, but a leper.
5:2. Now there had gone out robbers from Syria, and had led
away captive out of the land of Israel, a little maid, and
she waited upon Naaman's wife.
5:3. And she said to her mistress: I wish my master had
been with the prophet that is in Samaria: he would
certainly have healed him of the leprosy which he hath.
5:4. Then Naaman went in to his lord, and told him, saying:
Thus and thus said the girl from the land of Israel.
5:5. And the king of Syria said to him: Go; and I will send
a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed, and took
with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of
gold, and ten changes of raiment;
5:6. And brought the letter to the king of Israel, in these
words: When thou shalt receive this letter, know that I
have sent to thee Naaman, my servant, that thou mayst heal
him of his leprosy.
5:7. And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he
rent his garments, and said: Am I God, to be able to kill
and give life, that this man hath sent to me to heal a man
of his leprosy? mark, and see how he seeketh occasions
against me.
5:8. And when Eliseus, the man of God, had heard this, to
wit, that the king of Israel had rent his garments, he sent
to him, saying: Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him
come to me, and let him know that there is a prophet in
Israel.
5:9. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and stood
at the door of the house of Eliseus:
5:10. And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, and
wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover
health, and thou shalt be clean.
5:11. Naaman was angry, and went away, saying: I thought he
would have come out to me, and standing, would have invoked
the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the
place of the leprosy, and healed me.
5:12. Are not the Abana, and the Pharphar, rivers of
Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may
wash in them, and be made clean? So as he turned, and was
going away with indignation,
5:13. His servants came to him, and said to him: Father, if
the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, surely thou
shouldst have done it: how much rather what he now hath
said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt be clean?
5:14. Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven
times, according to the word of the man of God; and his
flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child: and
he was made clean.
5:15. And returning to the man of God, with all his train,
he came, and stood before him, and said: In truth, I know
there is no other God, in all the earth, but only in
Israel: I beseech thee, therefore, take a blessing of thy
servant.
5:16. But he answered: As the Lord liveth, before whom I
stand, I will receive none. And when he pressed him, he
still refused.
5:17. And Naaman said: As thou wilt: but I beseech thee,
grant to me, thy servant, to take from hence two mules'
burden of earth: for thy servant will not henceforth offer
holocaust, or victim, to other gods, but to the Lord.
5:18. But there is only this, for which thou shalt entreat
the Lord for thy servant; when my master goeth into the
temple of Remmon, to worship there, and he leaneth on my
hand: if I bow down in the temple of Remmon, when he boweth
down in the same place, that the Lord pardon me, thy
servant, for this thing.
5:19. And he said to him: Go in peace. So he departed from
him, in the spring time of the earth.
5:20. But Giezi, the servant of the man of God, said: My
master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving of
him that which he brought: as the Lord liveth, I will run
after him, and take something of him.
5:21. And Giezi followed after Naaman: and when he saw him
running after him, he leapt down from his chariot to meet
him, and said: Is all well?
5:22. And he said: Well: my master hath sent me to thee,
saying: Just now there are come to me from mount Ephraim,
two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them a
talent of silver, and two changes of garments.
5:23. And Naaman said: It is better that thou take two
talents. And he forced him, and bound two talents of silver
in two bags, and two changes of garments, and laid them
upon two of his servants, and they carried them before him.
5:24. And when he was come, and now it was the evening, he
took them from their hands, and laid them up in the house,
and sent the men away, and they departed.
5:25. But he went in, and stood before his master. And
Eliseus said: Whence comest thou, Giezi? He answered: Thy
servant went no whither.
5:26. But he said: Was not my heart present, when the man
turned back, from his chariot, to meet thee? So now thou
hast received money, and received garments, to buy
oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and
men-servants, and maid-servants.
5:27. But the leprosy of Naaman, shall also stick to thee,
and to thy seed for ever. And he went out from him a leper,
as white as snow.
4 Kings Chapter 6
6:1. And the sons of the prophets said to Eliseus: Behold,
the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.
6:2. Let us go as far as the Jordan, and take out of the
wood every man a piece of timber, that we may build us
there a place to dwell in. And he said: Go.
6:3. And one of them said: But come thou also with thy
servants. He answered: I will come.
6:4. So he went with them. And when they were come to the
Jordan, they cut down wood.
6:5. And it happened, as one was felling some timber, that
the head of the ax fell into the water: and he cried out,
and said: Alas, alas, alas, my lord, for this same was
borrowed.
6:6. And the man of God said: Where did it fall? and he
shewed him the place: Then he cut off a piece of wood, and
cast it in thither: and the iron swam.
6:7. And he said: Take it up. And he put out his hand, and
took it.
6:8. And the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took
counsel with his servants, saying: In such and such a
place, let us lay an ambush.
6:9. And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying:
Beware that thou pass not to such a place: for the Syrians
are there in ambush.
6:1O. And the king of Israel, sent to the place which the
man of God had told him, and prevented him, and looked well
to himself there not once nor twice.
6:11. And the heart of the king of Syria, was troubled for
this thing. And calling together his servants, he said: Why
do you not tell me who it is that betrays me to the king of
Israel?
6:12. And one of his servants said: No one, my lord, O
king: but Eliseus, the prophet, that is in Israel, telleth
the king of Israel all the words, that thou speakest in thy
privy chamber.
6:13. And he said to them: Go, and see where he is: that I
may send and take him. And they told him: saying: Behold he
is in Dothan.
6:14. Therefore, he sent thither horses, and chariots, and
the strength of an army: and they came by night, and beset
the city.
6:15. And the servant of the man of God, rising early went
out, and saw an army round about the city, and horses and
chariots: and he told him, saying: Alas, alas, alas, my
lord, what shall we do?
6:16. But he answered: Fear not: for there are more with us
than with them.
6:17. And Eliseus prayed, and said: Lord, open his eyes,
that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the
servant, and he saw: and behold, the mountain was fu]l of
horses, and chariots of fire round about Eliseus.
6:18. And the enemies came down to him: but Eliseus prayed
to the Lord, saying: Strike, I beseech thee, this people
with blindness: and the Lord struck them with blindness,
according to the word of Eliseus.
6:19. And Eliseus said to them: This is not the way,
neither is this the city: follow me, and I will shew you
the man whom you seek. So he led them into Samaria.
6:20. And when they were come into Samaria, Eliseus said:
Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And
the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw themselves to be
in the midst of Samaria.
6:21. And the king of Israel said to Eliseus, when he saw
them: My father, shall I kill them?
6:22. And he said: Thou shalt not kill them: for thou didst
not take them with thy sword, or thy bow, that thou mayst
kill them: but set bread and water before them, that they
may eat and drink, and go to their master.
6:23. And a great provision of meats was set before them,
and they ate and drank; and he let them go: and they went
away to their master: and the robbers of Syria came no more
into the land of Israel.
6:24. And it came to pass, after these things, that
Benadad, king of Syria, gathered together all his army, and
went up and besieged Samaria.
6:25. And there was a great famine in Samaria: and so long
did the siege continue, till the head of an ass was sold
for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a
cabe of pigeons' dung, for five pieces of silver.
6:26. And as the king of Israel was passing by the wall, a
certain woman cried out to him, saying: Save me, my lord, O
king.
6:27. And he said: If the Lord doth not save thee, how can
I save thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?
And the king said to her: What aileth thee? And she
answered:
6:28. This woman said to me: Give thy son, that we may eat
him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.
6:29. So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her
on the next day: Give thy son, that we may eat him. And she
hath hid her son.
6:30. When the king heard this, he rent his garments, and
passed by upon the wall. And all the people saw the
haircloth which he wore within next to his flesh.
6:31. And the king said: May God do so and so to me, and
may he add more, if the head of Eliseus, the son of Saphat,
shall stand on him this day.
6:32. But Eliseus sat in his house, and the ancients sat
with him. So he sent a man before: and before that
messenger came, he said to the ancients: Do you know that
this son of a murderer hath sent to cut off my head? Look
then when the messenger shall come, shut the door, and
suffer him not to come in: for behold the sound of his
master's feet is behind him.
6:33. While he was yet speaking to them, the messenger
appeared, who was coming to him. And he said: Behold, so
great an evil is from the Lord: what shall I look for more
from the Lord?
4 Kings Chapter 7
7:1. And Eliseus said: Hear ye the word of the Lord: Thus
saith the Lord: Tomorrow, about this time, a bushel of fine
flour shall be sold for a stater, and two bushels of barley
for a stater, in the gate of Samaria.
7:2. Then one of the lords, upon whose hand the king
leaned, answering the man of God, said: If the Lord should
make flood-gates in heaven, can that possibly be which thou
sayest? And he said: Thou shalt see it with thy eyes, but
shalt not eat thereof.
7:3. Now there were four lepers, at the entering in of the
gate: and they said one to another: What mean we to stay
here till we die?
7:4. If we will enter into the city, we shall die with the
famine: and if we will remain here, we must also die: come
therefore, and let us run over to the camp of the Syrians.
If they spare us, we shall live: but if they kill us, we
shall but die.
7:5. So they arose in the evening, to go to the Syrian
camp. And when they were come to the first part of the camp
of the Syrians, they found no man there.
7:6. For the Lord had made them hear, in the camp of Syria,
the noise of chariots, and of horses, and of a very great
army: and they said one to another: Behold, the king of
Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hethites, and
of the Egyptians; and they are come upon us.
7:7. Wherefore they arose, and fled away in the dark, and
left their tents, and their horses and asses in the camp,
and fled, desiring to save their lives.
7:8. So when these lepers were come to the beginning of the
camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drank: and they
took from thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went,
and hid it: and they came again, and went into another
tent, and carried from thence in like manner, and hid it.
7:9. Then they said one to another: We do not well: for
this is a day of good tidings. If we hold our peace, and do
not tell it till the morning, we shall be charged with a
crime: come, let us go, and tell it in the king's court.
7:10. So they came to the gate of the city, and told them,
saying: We went to the camp of the Syrians, and we found no
man there, but horses, and asses tied, and the tents
standing.
7:11. Then the guards of the gate went, and told it within
in the king's palace.
7:12. And he arose in the night, and said to his servants:
I tell you what the Syrians have done to us: They know that
we suffer great famine, and therefore they are gone out of
the camp, and lie hid in the fields, saying: When they come
out of the city, we shall take them alive, and then we may
get into the city.
7:13. And one of his servants answered: Let us take the
five horses that are remaining in the city (because there
are no more in the whole multitude of Israel, for the rest
are consumed), and let us send and see.
7:14. They brought therefore two horses, and the king sent
into the camp of the Syrians, saying: Go, and see.
7:15. And they went after them, as far as the Jordan: and
behold, all the way was full of garments, and vessels,
which the Syrians had cast away, in their fright, and the
messengers returned, and told the king.
7:16. And the people going out, pillaged the camp of the
Syrians: and a bushel of fine flour was sold for a stater,
and two bushels of barley for a stater, according to the
word of the Lord.
7:17. And the king appointed that lord on whose hand he
leaned, to stand at the gate: and the people trod upon him
in the entrance of the gate; and he died, as the man of God
had said, when the king came down to him.
7:18. And it came to pass, according to the word of the man
of God, which he spoke to the king, when he said: Two
bushels of barley shall be for a stater, and a bushel of
fine flour for a stater, at this very time tomorrow, in the
gate of Samaria.
7:19. When that lord answered the man of God, and said:
Although the Lord should make flood-gates in heaven, could
this come to pass which thou sayestP And he said to him:
Thou shalt see it with thy eyes, and shalt not eat thereof.
7:20. And so it fell out to him, as it was foretold, and
the people trod upon him in the gate, and he died.
4 Kings Chapter 8
8:1.And Eliseus spoke to the woman, whose son he had
restored to life, saying: Arise, and go thou, and thy
household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst find: for the
Lord hath called a famine, and it shall come upon the land
seven years.
8:2. And she arose, and did according to the word of the
man of God: and going with her household, she sojourned in
the land of the Philistines many days.
8:3. And when the seven years were ended, the woman
returned out of the land of the Philistines, and she went
forth to speak to the king for her house and for her lands.
8:4. And the king talked with Giezi, the servant of the man
of God, saying: Tell me all the great things that Eliseus
hath done.
8:5. And when he was telling the king how he had raised one
dead to life, the woman appeared, whose son he had restored
to life, crying to the king for her house, and her lands.
And Giezi said: My lord, O king, this is the woman, and
this is her son, whom Eliseus raised to life.
8:6. And the king asked the woman: and she told him. And
the king appointed her an eunuch, saying: Restore her all
that is hers, and all the revenues of the lands, from the
day that she left the land to this present.
8:7. Eliseus also came to Damascus, and Benadad, king of
Syria was sick; and they told him, saying: The man of God
is come hither.
8:8. And the king said to Hazael: Take with thee presents,
and go to meet the man of God, and consult the Lord by him,
saying: Can I recover of this my illness?
8:9. And Hazael went to meet him, taking with him presents,
and all the good things of Damascus, the burdens of forty
camels. And when he stood before him, he said: Thy son,
Benadad, the king of Syria, hath sent me to thee, saying:
Can I recover of this my illness?
8:10. And Eliseus said to him: Go tell him: Thou shalt
recover: but the Lord hath shewed me that he shall surely
die.
8:11. And he stood with him, and was troubled so far as to
blush: and the man of God wept.
8:12. And Hazael said to him: Why doth my lord weep? And he
said: Because I know the evil that thou wilt do to the
children of Israel. Their strong cities thou wilt burn with
fire, and their young men thou wilt kill with the sword,
and thou wilt dash their children, and rip up their
pregnant women.
8:13. And Hazael said: But what am I, thy servant, a dog,
that I should do this great thing? And Eliseus said: The
Lord hath shewed me that thou shalt be king of Syria.
8:14. And when he was departed from Eliseus he came to his
master, who said to him: What said Eliseus to thee? And he
answered: He told me: Thou shalt recover.
8:15. And on the next day, he took a blanket, and poured
water on it, and spread it upon his face: and he died, and
Hazael reigned in his stead.
8:16. In the fifth year of Joram, son of Achab, king of
Israel, and of Josaphat, king of Juda, reigned Joram, son
of Josaphat, king of Juda.
8:17. He was two and thirty years old when he began to
reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
8:18. And he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as
the house of Achab had walked: for the daughter of Achab
was his wife: and he did that which was evil in the sight
of the Lord.
8:19. But the Lord would not destroy Juda, for David his
servant's sake, as he had promised him, to give him a
light, and to his children always.
8:20. In his days Edom revolted from being under Juda, and
made themselves a king.
8:21. And Joram came to Seira, and all the chariots with
him: and he arose in the night, and defeated the Edomites
that had surrounded him, and the captains of the chariots,
but the people fled into their tents.
8.22. So Edom revolted from being under Juda, unto this
day. Then Lobna also revolted at the same time.
8:23. But the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Juda?
8:24. And Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with
them in the city of David, and Ochozias, his son, reigned
in his stead.
8:25. In the twelfth year of Joram, the son of Achab, king
of Israel, reigned Ochozias, son of Joram, king of Juda.
8:26. Ochozias was two and twenty years old when he began
to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem: the name of
his mother was Athalia the daughter of Amri king of Israel.
8:27. And he walked in the ways of the house of Achab: and
he did evil before the Lord, as did the house of Achab: for
he was the son in law of the house of Achab.
8:28. He went also with Joram, son of Achab, to fight
against Hazael, king of Syria, in Ramoth Galaad, and the
Syrians wounded Joram:
8:29. And he went back to be healed, in Jezrahel: because
the Syrians had wounded him in Ramoth, when he fought
against Hazael, king of Syria And Ochozias, the son of
Joram, king of Juda, went down to visit Joram, the son of
Achab, in Jezrahel, because he was sick there.
4 Kings Chapter 9
9:1. And Eliseus the prophet, called one of the sons of the
prophets, and said to him: Gird up thy loins, and take this
little bottle of oil in thy hand, and go to Ramoth Galaad.
9:2. And when thou art come thither, thou shalt see Jehu
the son of Josaphat the son of Namsi: and going in, thou
shalt make him rise up from amongst his brethren, and carry
him into an inner chamber.
9:3. Then taking the little bottle of oil, thou shalt pour
it on his head, and shalt say: Thus saith the Lord: I have
anointed thee king over Israel. And thou shalt open the
door and flee, and shalt not stay there.
9:4. So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went
away to Ramoth Galaad,
9:5. And went in thither: and behold, the captains of the
army were sitting, and he said: I have a word to thee, O
prince. And Jehu said: Unto whom of us all? And he said:
To thee, O prince.
9:6. And he arose, and went into the chamber: and he poured
the oil upon his head, and said: Thus saith the Lord God of
Israel: I have anointed thee king over Israel, the people
of the Lord.
9:7. And thou shalt cut off the house of Achab, thy master,
and I will revenge the blood of my servants, the prophets,
and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand
of Jezabel.
9:8. And I will destroy all the house of Achab, and I will
cut off from Achab, him that pisseth against the wall, and
him that is shut up, and the meanest in Israel.
9:9. And I will make the house of Achab, like the house of
Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, and like the house of Baasa,
the son of Ahias.
9:10. And the dogs shall eat Jezabel, in the field of
Jezrahel, and there shall be no one to bury her. And he
opened the door and fled.
9:11. Then Jehu went forth to the servants of his Lord: and
they said to him: Are all things well? why came this madman
to thee? And he said to them: You know the man, and what he
said.
9:12. But they answered: It is false; but rather do thou
tell us. And he said to them: Thus and thus did he speak to
me: and he said: Thus saith the Lord: I have anointed thee
king over Israel.
9:13. Then they made haste, and taking every man his
garment, laid it under his feet, after the manner of a
judgment seat, and they sounded the trumpet, and said: Jehu
is king.
9:14. So Jehu, the son of Josaphat, the son of Namsi,
conspired against Joram. Now Joram had besieged Ramoth
Galaad, he, and all Israel, fighting with Hazael, king of
Syria:
9:15. And was returned to be healed in Jezrahel of his
wounds; for the Syrians had wounded him, when he fought
with Hazael, king of Syria. And Jehu said: If it please
you, let no man go forth or flee out of the city, lest he
go, and tell in Jezrahel.
9:16. And he got up, and went into Jezrahel for Joram was
sick there, and Ochozias king of Juda, was come down to
visit Joram.
9:17. The watchman therefore, that stood upon the tower of
Jezrahel, saw the troop of Jehu coming, and said: I see a
troop. And Joram said: Take a chariot, and send to meet
them, and let him that goeth say: Is all well?
9:18. So there went one in a chariot to meet him, and said:
Thus saith the king: Are all things peaceable? And Jehu
said: What hast thou to do with peace? go behind and follow
me. And the watchman told, saying: The messenger came to
them, but he returneth not.
9:19. And he sent a second chariot of horses: and he came
to them, and said: Thus saith the king: Is there peace? And
Jehu said: What hast thou to do with peace? pass, and
follow me.
9:20. And the watchman told, saying: He came even to them,
but returneth not: and the driving is like the driving of
Jehu, the son of Namsi; for he drives furiously.
9:21. And Joram said: Make ready the chariot. And they made
ready his chariot: and Joram, king of Israel, and Ochozias,
king of Juda, went out, each in his chariot, and they went
out to meet Jehu, and met him in the field of Naboth, the
Jezrahelite.
9:22. And when Joram saw Jehu, he said: Is there peace,
Jehu? And he answered: What peace? so long as the
fornications of Jezabel, thy mother, and her many
sorceries, are in their vigour.
9:23. And Joram turned his hand, and fleeing, said to
Ochozias: There is treachery, Ochozias.
9:24. But Jehu bent his bow with his hand, and shot Joram
between the shoulders: and the arrow went out through his
heart, and immediately he fell in his chariot.
9:25. And Jehu said to Badacer, his captain: Take him, and
cast him into the field of Naboth, the Jezrahelite: for I
remember, when I and thou, sitting in a chariot, followed
Achab, this man's father, that the Lord laid this burden
upon him, saying:
9:26. If I do not requite thee in this field, saith the
Lord, for the blood of Naboth, and for the blood of his
children, which I saw yesterday, saith the Lord. So now
take him, and cast him into the field, according to the
word of the Lord.
9:27. But Ochozias, king of Juda, seeing this, fled by the
way of the garden house: and Jehu pursued him, and said:
Strike him also in his chariot. And they struck him in the
going up to Gaver, which is by Jeblaam: and he fled into
Mageddo, and died there.
9:28. And his servants laid him upon his chariot, and
carried him to Jerusalem: and they buried him in his
sepulchre with his fathers, in the city of David.
9:29. In the eleventh year of Joram, the son of Achab,
Ochozias reigned over Juda;
9:30. And Jehu came into Jezrahel. But Jezabel, hearing of
his coming in, painted her face with stibic stone, and
adorned her head, and looked out of a window.
9:31. At Jehu coming in at the gate, and said: Can there be
peace for Zambri, that hath killed his master?
9:32. And Jehu lifted up his face to the window, and said:
Who is this? And two or three eunuchs bowed down to him.
9:33. And he said to them: Throw her down headlong; And
they threw her down, and the wall was sprinkled with her
blood, and the hoofs of the horses trod upon her.
9:34. And when he was come in to eat, and to drink, he
said: Go, and see after that cursed woman, and bury her;
because she is a king's daughter.
9:35. And when they went to bury her, they found nothing
but the skull, and the feet, and the extremities of her
hands.
9:36. And coming back they told him. And Jehu said: It is
the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elias,
the Thesbite, saying: In the field of Jezrahel the dogs
shall eat the flesh of Jezabel.
9:37. And the flesh of Jezabel shall be as dung upon the
face of the earth in the field of Jezrahel; so that they
who pass by shall say: Is this that same Jezabel?
4 Kings Chapter 10
10:1. And Achab had seventy sons in Samaria: so Jehu wrote
letters, and sent to Samaria, to the chief men of the city,
and to the ancients, and to them that brought up Achab's
children, saying:
10:2. As soon as you receive these letters, ye that have
your master's sons, and chariots, and horses, and fenced
cities, and armour,
10:3. Choose the best, and him that shall please you most
of your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne,
and fight for the house of your master.
10:4. But they were exceedingly afraid, and said: Behold
two kings could not stand before him, and how shall we be
able to resist?
10:5. Therefore they that were over the king's house, and
the rulers of the city, and the ancients, and the bringers
up of the children, sent to Jehu, saying: We are thy
servants: whatsoever thou shalt command us we will do; we
will not make us any king: do thou all that pleaseth thee.
10:6. And he wrote letters the second time to them, saying:
If you be mine, and will obey me, take the heads of the
sons of your master, and come to me to Jezrahel by tomorrow
at this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy men, were
brought up with the chief men of the city.
10:7. And when the letters came to them, they took the
king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads
in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezrahel.
10:8. And a messenger came, and told him, saying: They have
brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said: Lay ye
them in two heaps by the entering in of the gate until the
morning.
10:9. And when it was light, he went out, and standing,
said to all the people: You are just: if I conspired
against my master, and slew him; who hath slain all these?
10:10. See therefore now that there hath not fallen to the
ground any of the words of the Lord, which the Lord spoke
concerning the house of Achab, and the Lord hath done that
which he spoke in the hand of his servant Elias.
10:11. So Jehu slew all that were left of the honse of
Achab in Jezrahel, and all his chief men, and his friends,
and his priests, till there were no remains left of him.
10:12. And he arose, and went to Samaria: and when he was
come to the shepherds' cabin in the way,
10:13. He met with the brethren of Ochozias, king of Juda,
and he said to them: Who are you? And they answered: We are
the brethren of Ochozias, and are come down to salute the
sons of the king, and the sons of the queen.
10:14. And he said: Take them alive. And they took them
alive, and killed them at the pit by the cabin, two and
forty men, and he left not any of them.
10:15. And when he was departed thence, he found Jonadab,
the son of Rechab, coming to meet him, and he blessed him.
And he said to him: Is thy heart right as my heart is with
thy heart? And Jonadab said: It is. If it be, said he, give
me thy hand. He gave him his hand. And he lifted him up to
him into the chariot,
10:16. And said to him: Come with me, and see my zeal for
the Lord. So he made him ride in his chariot,
10:17. And brought him into Samaria. And he slew all that
were left of Achab, in Samaria, to a man, according to the
word of the Lord which he spoke by Elias.
10:18. And Jehu gathered together all the people, and said
to them: Achab worshipped Baal a little, but I will worship
him more.
10:19. Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal,
and all his servants, and all his priests: let none be
wanting, for I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal:
whosoever shall be wanting, shall not live. Now Jehu did
this craftily, that he might destroy the worshippers of
Baal.
10:20. And he said: Proclaim a festival for Baal. And he
called,
10:21. And he sent into all the borders of Israel; and all
the servants of Baal came: there was not one left that did
not come. And they went into the temple of Baal: and the
house of Baal was filled, from one end to the other.
10:22. And he said to them that were over the wardrobe:
Bring forth garments for all the servants of Baal. And
they brought them forth garments.
10:23. And Jehu, and Jonadab, the son of Rechab, went to
the temple of Baal, and said to the worshippers of Baal:
Search, and see that there be not any with you of the
servants of the Lord, but that there be the servants of
Baal only.
10:24. And they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt
offerings: but Jehu had prepared him fourscore men without,
and said to them: If any of the men escape, whom I have
brought into your hands, he that letteth him go, shall
answer life for life.
10:25. And it came to pass, when the burnt offering was
ended, that Jehu commanded his soldiers and captains,
saying: Go in, and kill them: let none escape. And the
soldiers and captains slew them with the edge of the sword,
and cast them out: and they went into the city of the
temple of Baal,
10:26. And brought the statue out of Baal's temple, and
burnt it,
10:27. And broke it in pieces. They destroyed also the
temple of Baal, and made a jakes in its place unto this
day.
10:28. So Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel:
10:29. But yet he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam,
the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, nor did he
forsake the golden calves that were in Bethel, and Dan.
10:30. And the Lord said to Jehu: because thou hast
diligently executed that which was right and pleasing in my
eyes, and hast done to the house of Achab according to all
that was in my heart: thy children shall sit upon the
throne of Israel to the fourth generation.
10:31. But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the
Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart: for he
departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel
to sin.
10:32. In those days the Lord began to be weary of Israel:
and Hazael ravaged them in all the coasts of Israel,
10:33. From the Jordan eastward, all the land of Galaad,
and Gad, and Ruben, and Manasses, from Aroer, which is upon
the torrent Arnon, and Galaad, and Basan.
10:34. But the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he
did, and his strength, are they not written in the book of
the words of the days of the kings of Israel?
10:35. And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him
in Samaria: and Joachaz, his son, reigned in his stead.
10:36. And the time that Jehu reigned over Israel, in
Samaria, was eight and twenty years.
4 Kings 11
11:1. Now Athalia, the mother of Ochozias, seeing that her
son was dead, arose and slew all the royal seed.
11:2. But Josaba the daughter of king Joram, sister of
Ochozias, took Joas, the son of Ochozias, and stole him
from among the king's sons that were slain, out of the
bedchamber with his nurse: and hid him from the face of
Athalia; so that he was not slain.
11:3. And he was with her six years, hid in the house of
the Lord. And Athalia reigned over the land.
11:4. And in the seventh year Joiada sent, and taking the
centurions and soldiers, brought them in to him into the
temple of the Lord, and made a covenant with them: and
taking an oath of them in the house of the Lord, shewed
them the king's son:
11:5. And he commanded them, saying: This is the thing that
you must do.
11:6. Let a third part of you go in on the sabbath, and
keep the watch of the king's house. And let a third part be
at the gate of Sur; and let a third part be at the gate
behind the dwelling of the shieldbearers; and you shall
keep the watch of the house of Messa.
11:7. But let two parts of you all that go forth on the
sabbath, keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the
king.
11:8. And you shall compass him round about, having weapons
in your hands: and if any man shall enter the precinct of
the temple, let him be slain: and you shall be with the
king, coming in and going out.
11:9. And the centurions did according to all things that
Joiada the priest, had commanded them: and takiug every one
their men, that went in on the sabbath, with them that went
out in the sabbath, came to Joiada, the priest.
11:10. And he gave them the spears, and the arms of king
David, which were in the house of the Lord.
11:11. And they stood, having every one their weapons in
their hands, from the right side of the temple, unto the
left side of the altar, and of the temple, about the king.
11:12. And he brought forth the king's son, and put the
diadem upon him, and the testimony: and they made him king,
and anointed him: and clapping their hands, they said: God
save the king.
11:13. And Athalia heard the noise of the people running:
and going in to the people into the temple of the Lord,
11:14. She saw the king standing upon a tribunal, as the
manner was, and the singers, and the trumpets near him, and
all the people of the land rejoicing, and sounding the
trumpets: and she rent her garments, and cried: A
conspiracy, a conspiracy.
11:15. But Joiada commanded the centurions that were over
the army, and said to them: Have her forth without the
precinct of the temple, and whosoever shall follow her, let
him be slain with the sword. For the priest had said: Let
her not be slain in the temple of the Lord.
11:16. And they laid hands on her: and thrust her out by
the way by which the horses go in, by the palace, and she
was slain there.
11:17. And Joiada made a covenant between the Lord, and the
king, and the people, that they should be the people of the
Lord; and between the king and the people.
11:18. And all the people of the land went into the temple
of Baal, and broke down his altars, and his images they
broke in pieces thoroughly: they slew also Mathan the
priest of Baal before the altar. And the priest set guards
in the house of the Lord.
11:19. And he took the centurions, and the bands of the
Cerethi, and the Phelethi, and all the people of the land,
and they brought the king from the house of the Lord: and
they came by the way of the gate of the shieldbearers into
the palace, and he sat on the throne of the kings.
11:20. And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the
city was quiet: but Athalia was slain with the sword in the
king's house.
11:21. Now Joas was seven years old when he began to reign.
4 Kings Chapter 12
12:1. In the seventh year of Jehu, Joas began to reign: and
he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother
was Sebia, of Bersabee.
12:2. And Joas did that which was right before the Lord all
the days that Joiada, the priest, taught him.
12:3. But yet he took not away the high places: for the
people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high
places.
12:4. And Joas said to the priests: all the money of the
sanctified things, which is brought into the temple of the
Lord by those that pass, which is offered for the price of
a soul, and which of their own accord, and of their own
free heart, they bring into the temple of the Lord:
12:5. Let the priests take it according to their order and
repair the house, wheresoever they shall see any thing that
wanteth repairing.
12:6. Now till the three and twentieth year of king Joas
the priests did not make the repairs of the temple.
12:7. And king Joas called Joiada, the high priest, and the
priests, saying to them: Why do you not repair the temple?
Take you, therefore, money no more according to your order,
but restore it for the repairing of the temple.
12:8. And the priests were forbidden to take any more money
of the people, and to make the repairs of the house.
12:9. And Joiada, the high priest, took a chest, and bored
a hole in the top, and set it by the altar at the right
hand of them that came into the house of the Lord; and the
priests that kept the doors, put therein all the money that
was brought to the temple of the Lord.
12:10. And when they saw that there was very much money in
the chest, the king's scribe, and the high priest, came up,
and poured it out, and counted the money that was found in
the house of the Lord.
12:11. And they gave it out by number and measure into the
hands of them that were over the builders of the house of
the Lord: and they laid it out to the carpenters, and the
masons, that wrought in the house of the Lord,
12:12. And made the repairs: and to them that cut stones,
and to buy timber, and stones to be hewed, that the repairs
of the house of the Lord might be completely finished, and
wheresoever there was need of expenses to uphold the house.
12:13. But there were not made of the same money for the
temple of the Lord, bowls, or fleshhooks, or censers, or
trumpets, or any vessel of gold and silver, of the money
that was brought into the temple of the Lord:
12:14. For it was given to them that did the work, that the
temple of the Lord might be repaired.
12:15. And they reckoned not with the men that received the
money to distribute it to the workmen, but they bestowed it
faithfully.
12:16. But the money for trespass, and the money for sins,
they brought not into the temple of the Lord, because it
was for the priests.
12:17. Then Hazael, king of Syria, went up, and fought
against Geth, and took it, and set his face to go up to
Jerusalem.
12:18. Wherefore Joas, king of Juda, took all the
sanctified things, which Josaphat, and Joram, and Ochozias,
his fathers, the kings of Juda, had dedicated to holy uses,
and which he himself had offered: and all the silver that
could be found in the treasures of the temple of the Lord,
and in the king's palace: and sent it to Hazael, king of
Syria, and he went off from Jerusalem.
12:19. And the rest of the acts of Joas, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Juda?
12:20. And his servants arose, and conspired among
themselves, and slew Joas, in the house of Mello, in the
descent of Sella.
12:21. For Josachar the son of Semaath, and Jozabad the son
of Somer his servant, struck him, and he died: and they
buried him with his fathers in the city of David; and
Amasias, his son, reigned in his stead.
4 Kings Chapter 13
13:1. In the three and twentieth year of Joas son of
Ochozias, king of Juda, Joachaz, the son of Jehu, reigned
over Israel, in Samaria, seventeen years.
13:2. And he did evil before the Lord, and followed the
sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin;
and he departed not from them.
13:3. And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel,
and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael, the king of
Syria, and into the hand of Benadad, the son of Hazael, all
days.
13:4. But Joachaz besought the face of the Lord, and the
Lord heard him: for he saw the distress of Israel, because
the king of Syria had oppressed them:
13:5. And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, and they were
delivered out of the hand of the king of Syria: and the
children of Israel dwelt in their pavilions as yesterday
and the day before.
13:6. But yet they departed not from the sins of the house
of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, but walked in them:
and there still remained a grove also in Samaria.
13:7. And Joachaz had no more left of the people than fifty
horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen: for
the king of Syria had slain them, and had brought them low
as dust by threshing in the barnfloor.
13:8. But thc rest of the acts of Joachaz, and all that he
did, and his valour, are they not written in the book of
the words of the days of the kings of Israel?
13:9. And Joachaz slept with his fathers, and they buried
him in Samaria: and Joas, his son, reigned in his stead.
13:10. In the seven and thirtieth year of Joas, king of
Juda, Joas the son of Joachaz reigned over Israel, in
Samaria, sixteen years.
13:11. And he did that which is evil in the sight of the
Lord: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, the
son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin; but he walked in
them.
13:12. But the rest of the acts of Joas, and all that he
did, and his valour wherewith he fought against Amasias,
king of Juda, are they not written in the book of the words
of the days of the kings of Israel?
13:13. And Joas slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat
upon his throne. But Joas was buried in Samaria, with the
kings of Israel.
13:14. Now Eliseus was sick of the illness whereof he died:
and Joas, king of Israel, went down to him, and wept before
him, and said: O my father, my father, the chariot of
Israel, and the guider thereof.
13:15. And Eliseus said to him: Bring a bow and arrows.
And when he had brought him a bow and arrows,
13:16. He said to the king of Israel: Put thy hand upon the
bow. And when he had put his hand, Eliseus put his hands
over the king's hands,
13:17. And said: Open the window to the east. And when he
had opened it, Eliseus said: Shoot an arrow. And he shot.
And Eliseus said: The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and
the arrow of the deliverance from Syria: and thou shalt
strike the Syrians in Aphec, till thou consume them.
13:18. And he said: Take the arrows. And when he had taken
them, he said to him: Strike with an arrow upon the ground.
And he struck three times, and stood still.
13:19. And the man of God was angry with him, and said: If
thou hadst smitten five or six or seven times, thou hadst
smitten Syria even to utter destruction: but now three
times shalt thou smite it.
13:20. And Eliseus died, and they buried him. And the
rovers from Moab came into the land the same year.
13:21. And some that were burying a man, saw the rovers,
and cast the body into the sepulchre of Eliseus. And when
it had touched the bones of Eliseus, the man came to life
and stood upon his feet.
13:22. Now Hazael, king of Syria, afflicted Israel all the
days of Joachaz.
13:23. And the Lord had mercy on them, and returned to
them, because of his covenant, which he had made with
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob: and he would not destroy
them, nor utterly cast them away, unto this present time.
13:24. And Hazael, king of Syria, died; and Benadad, his
son, reigned in his stead.
13:25. Now Joas the son of Joachaz, took the cities out of
the hand of Benadad, the son of Hazael, which he had taken
out of the hand of Joachaz, his father, by war; three times
did Joas beat him, and he restored the cities to Israel.
4 Kings Chapter 14
14:1. In the second year of Joas son of Joachaz, king of
Israel, reigned Amasias son of Joas, king of Juda.
14:2. He was five and twenty years old when he began to
reign; and nine and twenty years he reigned in Jerusalem;
the name of his mother was Joadan, of Jerusalem.
14:3. And he did that which was right before the Lord, but
yet not like David his father. He did according to all
things that Joas his father, did:
14:4. But this only, that he took not away the high places;
for yet the people sacrificed, and burnt incense in the
high places:
14:5. And when he had possession of the kingdom, he put his
servants to death that had slain the king, his father.
14:6. But the children of the murderers he did not put to
death, according to that which is written in the book of
the law of Moses, wherein the Lord commanded, saying: The
fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither
shall the children be put to death for the fathers: but
every man shall die for his own sin.
14:7. He slew of Edom in the valley of the Saltpits, ten
thousand men, and took the rock by war, and called the name
thereof Jectehel, unto this day.
14:8. Then Amasias sent messengers to Joas, son of Joachaz,
son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying: Come, let us see one
another.
14:9. And Joas, king of Israel, sent again to Amasias, king
of Juda, saying: A thistle of Libanus sent to a cedar tree,
which is in Libanus, saying: Give thy daughter to my son to
wife. And the beasts of the forest, that are in Libanus,
passed, and trod down the thistle.
14:10. Thou hast beaten and prevailed over Edom, and thy
heart hath lifted thee up; be content with this glory, and
sit at home; why provokest thou evil, that thou shouldst
fall, and Juda with thee?
14:11. But Amasias did not rest satisfied. So Joas, king of
Israel, went up; and he and Amasias, king of Juda, saw one
another in Bethsames, a town in Juda.
14:12. And Juda was put to the worse before Israel, and
they fled every man to their dwellings.
14:13. But Joas, king of Israel, took Amasias, king of
Juda, the son of Joas, the son of Ochozias, in Bethsames,
and brought him into Jerusalem; and he broke down the wall
of Jerusalem, from the gate of Ephraim to the gate of the
corner, four hundred cubits.
14:14. And he took all the gold and silver, and all the
vessels that were found in the house of the Lord, and in
the king's treasures, and hostages, and returned to
Samaria.
14:15. But the rest of the acts of Joas, which he did, and
his valour, wherewith he fought against Amasias, king of
Juda, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Israel?
14:16. And Joas slept with his fathers, and was buried in
Samaria, with the kings of Israel: and Jeroboam, his son,
reigned in his stead.
14:17. And Amasias, the son of Joas, king of Juda, lived
after the death of Joas, son of Joachaz, king of Israel,
fifteen years.
14:18. And the rest of the acts of Amasias, are they not
written in the book of the words of the days of the kings
of Juda?
14:19. Now they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem:
and he fled to Lachis. And they sent after him to Lachis,
and killed him there.
14:20. And they brought him away upon horses, and he was
buried in Jerusalem with his fathers, in the city of David.
14:21. And all the people of Juda took Azarias, who was
sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father,
Amasias.
14:22. He built Elath, and restored it to Juda, after that
the king slept with his fathers.
14:23. In the fifteenth year of Amasias, son of Joas, king
of Juda, reigned Jeroboam, the son of Joas, king of Israel,
in Samaria, one and forty years:
14:24. And he did that which is evil before the Lord. He
departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of
Nabat, who made Israel to sin.
14:25. He restored the borders of Israel from the entrance
of Emath, unto the sea of the wilderness, according to the
word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his
servant, Jonas, the son of Amathi, the prophet, who was of
Geth, which is in Opher.
14:26. For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it
was exceedingly bitter, and that they were consumed even to
them that were shut up in prison, and the lowest persons,
and that there was no one to help Israel.
14:27. And the Lord did not say that he would blot out the
name of Israel from under heaven; but he saved them by the
hand of Jeroboam, the son of Joas.
14:28. But the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that
he did, and his valour, wherewith he fought, and how he
restored Damascus and Emath to Juda, in Israel, are they
not written in the book of the words of the days of the
kings of Israel?
14:29. And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, the kings of
Israel; and Zacharias, his son, reigned in his stead.
4 Kings Chapter 15
15:1. In the seven and twentieth year of Jeroboam, king of
Israel, reigned Azarias, son of Amasias, king of Juda.
15:2. He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and
he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem: the name of
his mother was Jechelia, of Jerusalem.
15:3. And he did that which was pleasing before the Lord,
according to all that his father, Amasias, had done.
15:4. But the high places he did not destroy, for the
people sacrificed, and burnt incense in the high places.
15:5. And the Lord struck the king, so that he was a leper
unto the day of his death, and he dwelt in a free house
apart: but Joatham, the king's son, governed the palace,
and judged the people of the land.
15:6. And the rest of the acts of Azarias, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Juda?
15:7. And Azarias slept with his fathers: and they buried
him with his ancestors in the city of David, and Joatham,
his son, reigned in his stead.
15:8. In the eight and thirtieth year of Azarias, king of
Juda, reigned Zacharias, son of Jeroboam, over Israel, in
Samaria, six months:
15:9. And he did that which is evil before the Lord, as his
fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam
the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin.
15:10. And Sellum, the son of Jabes, conspired against him:
and struck him publicly, and killed him, and reigned in his
place.
15:11. Now the rest of the acts of Zacharias, are they not
written in the book of the words of the days of the kings
of Israel?
15:12. This was the word of the Lord, which he spoke to
Jehu, saying: Thy children, to the fourth generation, shall
sit upon the throne of Israel. And so it came to pass.
15:13. Sellum, the son of Jabes, began to reign in the nine
and thirtieth year of Azarias, king of Juda: and reigned
one month in Samaria.
15:14. And Manahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Thersa,
and he came into Samaria, and struck Sellum, the son of
Jabes, in Samaria, and slew him, and reigned in his stead.
15:15. And the rest of the acts of Sellum, and his
conspiracy which he made, are they not written in the book
of the words of the days of the kings of Israel?
15:16. Then Manahem destroyed Thapsa and all that were in
it, and the borders thereof from Thersa, because they would
not open to him: and he slew all the women thereof that
were with child, and ripped them up.
15:17. In the nine and thirtieth year of Azarias, king of
Juda, reigned Manahem, son of Gadi, over Israel, ten years,
in Samaria.
15:18. And he did that which was evil before the Lord: he
departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat,
who made Israel to sin, all his days.
15:19. And Phul, king of the Assyrians, came into the land,
and Manahem gave Phul a thousand talents of silver to aid
him and to establish him in the kingdom.
15:20. And Manahem laid a tax upon Israel, on all that were
mighty and rich, to give the king of the Assyrians, each
man fifty sicles of silver: so the king of the Assyrians
turned back, and did not stay in the land.
15:21. And the rest of the acts of Manahem, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Israel?
15:22. And Manahem slept with his fathers: and Phaceia, his
son, reigned in his stead.
15:23. In the fiftieth year of Azarias, king of Juda,
reigned Phaceia, the son of Manahem, over Israel, in
Samaria, two years.
15:24. And he did that which was evil before the Lord: he
departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat,
who made Israel to sin.
15:25. And Phacee the son of Romelia, his captain,
conspired against him, and smote him in Samaria, in the
tower of the king's house, near Argob, and near Arie, and
with him fifty men of the sons of the Galaadites, and he
slew him, and reigned in his stead.
15:26. And the rest of the acts of Phaceia, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Israel?
15:27. In the two and fiftieth year of Azarias, king of
Juda, reigned Phacee, the son of Romelia, over Israel, in
Samaria, twenty years.
15:28. And he did that which was evil before the Lord: he
departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat,
who made Israel to sin.
15:29. In the days of Phacee, king of Israel, came
Theglathphalasar, king of Assyria, and took Aion, and Abel
Domum Maacha, and Janoe, and Cedes, and Asor, and Galaad,
and Galilee, and all the land of Nephthali: and carried
them captives into Assyria.
15:30. Now Osee, son of Ela, conspired, and formed a plot
against Phacee, the son of Romelia, and struck him, and
slew him: and reigned in his stead in the twentieth year of
Joatham, the son of Ozias.
15:31. But the rest of the acts of Phacee, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Israel?
15:32. In the second year of Phacee, the son of Romelia
king of Israel, reigned Joatham, son of Ozias, king of
Juda.
15:33. He was five and twenty years old when he began to
reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: the name
of his mother was Jerusa, the daughter of Sadoc.
15:34. And he did that which was right before the Lord:
according to all that his father Ozias had done, so did he.
15:35. But the high places he took not away: the people
still sacrificed, and burnt incense in the high places: he
built the highest gate of the house of the Lord.
15:36. But the rest of the acts of Joatham, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Juda?
15:37. In those days the Lord began to send into Juda,
Rasin king of Syria, and Phacee the son of Romelia.
15:38. And Joatham slept with his fathers, and was buried
with them in the city of David, his father; and Achaz, his
son, reigned in his stead.
4 Kings Chapter 16
16:1. In the seventeenth year of Phacee, the son of Romelia
reigned Achaz, the son of Joatham, king of Juda.
16:2. Achaz was twenty years old when he began to reign,
and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: he did not that
which was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, his God, as
David, his father.
16:3. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel:
moreover, he consecrated also his son, making him pass
through the fire, according to the idols of the nations
which the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.
16:4. He sacrificed also, and burnt incense in the high
places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
16:5. Then Rasin, king of Syria, and Phacee, son of
Romelia, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to fight: and
they besieged Achaz, but were not able to overcome him.
16:6. At that time Rasin, king of Syria, restored Aila to
Syria, and drove the men of Juda out of Aila: and the
Edomites came into Aila, and dwelt there unto this day.
16:7. And Achaz sent messengers to Theglathphalasar, king
of the Assyrians, saying: I am thy servant, and thy son:
come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria,
and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who are risen up
together against me.
16:8. And when he had gathered together the silver and gold
that could be found in the house of the Lord, and in the
king's treasures, he sent it for a present to the king of
the Assyrians.
16:9. And he agreed to his desire: for the king of the
Assyrians went up against Damascus, and laid it waste: and
he carried away the inhabitants thereof to Cyrene; but
Rasin he slew.
16:10. And king Achaz went to Damascus to meet
Theglathphalasar, king of the Assyrians, and when he had
seen the altar of Damascus, king Achaz sent to Urias, the
priest, a pattern of it, and its likeness, according to all
the work thereof.
16:11. And Urias, the priest, built an altar according to
all that king Achaz had commanded from Damascus so did
Urias, the priest, until king Achaz came from Damascus.
16:12. And when the king was come from Damascus, he saw the
altar and worshipped it: and went up and offered
holocausts, and his own sacrifice;
16:13. And he offered libations, and poured the blood of
the peace offerings, which he had offered, upon the altar.
16:14. But the altar of brass that was before the Lord, he
removed from the face of the temple, and from the place of
the altar, and from the place of the temple of the Lord:
and he set it at the side of the altar towards the north.
16:15. And king Achaz commanded Urias, the priest, saying:
Upon the great altar offer the morning holocaust, and the
evening sacrifice, and the king's holocaust, and his
sacrifice, and the holocaust of the whole people of the
land, and their sacrifices, and their libations: and all
the blood of the holocaust, and all the blood of the
victim, thou shalt pour out upon it: but the altar of brass
shall be ready at my pleasure.
16:16. So Urias, thc priest, did according to all that king
Achaz had commanded him.
16:17. And king Achaz took away the graven bases, and the
laver that was upon them: and he took down the sea from the
brazen oxen that held it up, and put it upon a pavement of
stone.
16:18. The Musach also for the sabbath, which he had built
in the temple, and the king's entry from without, he turned
into the temple of the Lord, because of the king of the
Assyrians.
16:19. Now the rest of the acts of Achaz which he did, are
they not written in the book of the words of the of the
days of the kings of Juda?
16:20. And Achaz slept with his fathers, and was buried
with them in the city of David, and Ezechias, his son,
reigned in his stead.
4 Kings Chapter 17
17:1. In the twelfth year of Achaz king of Juda, Osee the
son of Ela reigned in Samaria, over Israel, nine years.
17:2. And he did evil before the Lord: but not as the kings
of Israel that had been before him.
17:3. Against him came up Salmanasar, king of the
Assyrians; and Osee became his servant, and paid him
tribute.
17:4. And when the king of the Assyrians found that Osee,
endeavouring to rebel, had sent messengers to Sua, the king
of Egypt, that he might not pay tribute to the king of the
Assyrians, as he had done every year, he besieged him,
bound him, and cast him into prison.
17:5. And he went through all the land: and going up to
Samaria, he besieged it three years.
17:6. And in the ninth year of Osee, the king of the
Assyrians took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria:
and he placed them in Hala, and Habor, by the river of
Gozan, in the cities of the Medes.
17:7. For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned
against the Lord, their God, who brought them out of the
land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharao, king of
Egypt; and they worshipped strange gods.
17:8. And they walked according to the way of the nations
which the Lord had destroyed in the sight of the children
of Israel, and of the kings of Israel: because they had
done in like manner.
17:9. And the children of Israel offended the Lord, their
God, with things that were not right: and built them high
places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen
to the fenced city.
17:10. And they made them statues and groves on every high
hill, and under every shady tree:
17:11. And they burnt incense there upon altars, after the
manner of the nations which the Lord had removed from their
face: and they did wicked things, provoking the Lord.
17:12. And they worshipped abominations, concerning which
the Lord had commanded them that they should not do this
thing.
17:13. And the Lord testified to them in Israel, and in
Juda, by the hand of all the prophets and seers, saying:
Return from your wicked ways, and keep my precepts, and
ceremonies, according to all the law which I commanded your
fathers: and as I have sent to you in the hand of my
servants the prophets.
17:14. And they hearkened not, but hardened their necks
like to the neck of their fathers, who would not obey the
Lord, their God.
17:15. And they rejected his ordinances, and the covenant
that he made with their fathers, and the testimonies which
he testified against them: and they followed vanities, and
acted vainly: and they followed the nations that were round
about them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them
that they should not do as they did.
17:16. And they forsook all the precepts of the Lord, their
God: and made to themselves two molten calves, and groves,
and adored all the host of heaven: and they served Baal,
17:17. And consecrated their sons, and their daughters,
through fire: and they gave themselves to divinations, and
soothsayings: and they delivered themselves up to do evil
before the Lord, to provoke him.
17:18. And the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed
them from his sight, and there remained only the tribe of
Juda.
17:19. But neither did Juda itself keep the commandments of
the Lord, their God: but they walked in the errors of
Israel, which they had wrought.
17:20. And the Lord cast off all the seed of Israel, and
afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of
spoilers, till he cast them away from his face:
17:21. Even from that time, when Israel was rent from thc
house of David, and made Jeroboam, son of Nabat, their
king: for Jeroboam separated Israel from the Lord, and made
them commit a great sin.
17:22. And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of
Jeroboam, which he had done: and they departed not from
them,
17:23. Till the Lord removed Israel from his face, as he
had spoken in the hand of all his servants, the prophets:
and Israel was carried away out of their land to Assyria,
unto this day.
17:24. And the king of the Assyrians brought people from
Babylon, and from Cutha, and from Avah, and from Emath, and
from Sepharvaim: and placed them in the cities of Samaria
instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed
Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
17:25. And when they began to dwell there, they feared not
the Lord: and the Lord sent lions among them, which killed
them.
17:26. And it was told the king of the Assyrians, and it
was said: The nations which thou hast removed, and made to
dwell in the cities of Samaria, know not the ordinances of
the God of the land: and the Lord hath sent lions among
them: and behold they kill them, because they know not the
manner of the God of the land.
17:27. And the king of the Assyrians commanded, saying:
Carry thither one of the priests whom you brought from
thence captive, and let him go, and dwell with them: and
let him teach them the ordinances of the God of the land.
17:28. So one of the priests, who had been carried away
captive from Samaria, came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught
them how they should worship the Lord.
17:29. And every nation made gods of their own and put them
in the temples of the high places, which the Samaritans had
made, every nation in their cities where they dwelt.
17:30. For the men of Babylon made Sochothbenoth: and the
Cuthites made Nergel: and the men of Emath made Asima.
17:31. And the Hevites made Nebahaz, and Tharthac. And
they that were of Sepharvaim burnt their children in fire,
to Adramelech and Anamelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
17:32. And nevertheless they worshipped the Lord. And they
made to themselves, of the lowest of the people, priests of
the high places, and they placed them in the temples of the
high places.
17:33. And when they worshipped the Lord, they served also
their own gods, according to the custom of the nations out
of which they were brought to Samaria:
17:34. Unto this day they follow the old manner: they fear
not the Lord, neither do they keep his ceremonies, and
judgments, and law, and the commandment, which the Lord
commanded the children of Jacob, whom he surnamed Israel:
17:35. With whom he made a covenant, and charged them,
saying: You shall not fear strange gods, nor shall you
adore them, nor worship them, nor sacrifice to them.
17:36. But the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the
land of Egypt, with great power, and a stretched out arm,
him shall you fear, and him shall you adore, and to him
shall you sacrifice.
17:37. And the ceremonies, and judgments, and law, and the
commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to
do them always: and you shall not fear strange gods.
17:38. And the covenant that he made with you, you shall
not forget: neither shall ye worship strange Gods,
17:39. But fear the Lord, your God, and he shall deliver
you out of the hand of all your enemies.
17:40. But they did not hearken to them, but did according
to their old custom.
17:41. So these nations feared the Lord, but nevertheless
served also their idols: their children also, and
grandchildren, as their fathers did, so do they unto this
day.
4 Kings Chapter 18
18:1. In the third year of Osee, the son of Ela, king of
Israel, reigned Ezechias, the son of Achaz, king of Juda.
18:2. He was five and twenty years old when he began to
reign: and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem:
the name of his mother was Abi, the daughter of Zacharias.
18:3. And he did that which was good before the Lord,
according to all that David, his father, had done
18:4. He destroyed the high places, and broke the statues
in pieces, and cut down the groves, and broke the brazen
serpent, which Moses had made: for till that time the
children of Israel burnt incense to it: and he called its
name Nohestan.
And he called its name Noheston... That is, their brass;
or a little brass. So he called it in contempt, because
they had made an idol of it.
18:5. He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel: so that
after him there was none like him among all the kings of
Juda, nor any of them that were before him:
18:6. And he stuck to the Lord, and departed not from his
steps, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded
Moses.
18:7. Wherefore the Lord also was with him, and in all
things, to which he went forth, he behaved himself wisely.
And he rebelled against the king of the Assyrians, and
served him not.
18:8. He smote the Philistines as far as Gaza, and all
their borders, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced
city.
18:9. In the fourth year of king Ezechias, which was the
seventh vear of Osee, the son of Ela, king of Israel,
Salmanasar, king of the Assyrians, came up to Samaria, and
besieged it,
18:1O. And took it. For after three years, in the sixth
year of Ezechias, that is, in the ninth year of Osee, king
of Israel, Samaria was taken:
18:11. And the king of the Assyrians carried away Israel
into Assyria, and placed them in Hala, and in Habor, by the
rivers of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes.
18:12. Because they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord,
their God, but transgressed his covenant: all that Moses,
the servant of the Lord, commanded, they would not hear,
nor do.
18:13. In the fourteenth year of king Ezechias,
Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, came up against the
fenced cities of Juda, and took them.
18:14. Then Ezechias, king of Juda, sent messengers to the
king of the Assyrians, to Lachis, saying: I have offended,
depart from me: and all that thou shalt put upon me, I will
bear. And the king of the Assyrians put a tax upon
Ezechias, king of Juda, of three hundred talents of silver,
and thirty talents of gold.
18:15. And Ezechias gave all the silver that was found in
the house of the Lord, and in the king's treasures.
18:16. At that time Ezechias broke the doors of the temple
of the Lord, and the plates of gold which he had fastened
on them, and gave them to the king of the Assyrians.
18:17. And the king of the Assyrians sent Tharthan, and
Rabsaris, and Rabsaces, from Lachis, to king Ezechias, with
a strong army, to Jerusalem: and they went up and came to
Jerusalem, and they stood by the conduit of the upper pool,
which is in the way of the fuller's field.
18:18. And they called for the king: and there went out to
them Eliacim, the son of Helcias, who was over the house,
and Sobna, the scribe, and Joahe, the son of Asaph, the
recorder.
18:19. And Rabsaces said to them: Speak to Ezechias: Thus
saith the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is
this confidence, wherein thou trustest?
18:20. Perhaps thou hast taken counsel, to prepare thyself
for battle. On whom dost thou trust, that thou darest to
rebel?
18:21. Dost thou trust in Egypt a staff of a broken reed,
upon which if a man lean, it will break and go into his
hand, and pierce it? so is Pharao, king of Egypt, to all
that trust in him.
18:22. But if you say to me: We trust in the Lord, our God:
is it not he, whose high places and altars Ezechias hath
taken away: and hath commanded Juda and Jerusalem: You
shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
18:23. Now therefore come over to my master, the king of
the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, and
see whether you be able to have riders for them.
18:24. And how can you stand against one lord of the least
of my master's servants? Dost thou trust in Egypt for
chariots and for horsemen?
18:25. Is it without the will of the Lord that I am come up
to this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me: Go up to
this land, and destroy it.
18:26. Then Eliacim, the son of Helcias, and Sobna, and
Joahe, said to Rabsaces: We pray thee, speak to us, thy
servants, in Syriac: for we understand that tongue: and
speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the hearing of
the people that are upon the wall.
18:27. And Rabsaces answered them, saying: Hath my master
sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words,
and not rather to the men that sit upon the wall, that they
may eat their own dung, and drink their urine with you?
18:28. Then Rabsaces stood, and cried out with a loud voice
in the Jews' language, and said: Hear the word of the great
king, the king of the Assyrians.
18:29. Thus saith the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you:
for he shall not be able to deliver you out of my hand.
18:30. Neither let him make you trust in the Lord, saying:
The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be
given into the hand of the king of the Assyrians.
18:31. Do not hearken to Ezechias. For thus saith the king
of the Assyrians: Do with me that which is for your
advantage, and come out to me: and every man of you shall
eat of his own vineyard, and of his own fig tree: and you
shall drink water of your own cisterns,
18:32. Till I come, and take you away, to a land, like to
your own land, a fruitful land, and plentiful in wine, a
land of bread and vineyards, a land of olives, and oil, and
honey, and you shall live, and not die. Hearken not to
Ezechias, who deceiveth you, saying: The Lord will deliver
us.
18:33. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their
land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
18:34. Where is the god of Emath, and of Arphad? where is
the god of Sepharvaim, of Ana, and of Ava? have they
delivered Samaria out of my hand?
18:35. Who are they among all the gods of the nations that
have delivered their country out of my hand, that the Lord
may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
18:36. But the people held their peace, and answered him
not a word: for they had received commandment from the king
that they should not answer him.
18:37. And Eliacim, the son of Helcias, who was over the
house, and Sobna, the scribe, and Joahe, the son of Asaph,
the recorder, came to Ezechias, with their garments rent,
and told him the words of Rabsaces.
4 Kings Chapter 19
19:1. And when king Ezechias heard these words, he rent his
garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into
the house of the Lord.
19:2. And he sent Eliacim, who was over the house, and
Sobna, the scribe, and the ancients of the priests, covered
with sackcloths, to Isaias, the prophet, the son of Amos.
19:3. And they said to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day
is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy:
the children are come to the birth, and the woman in
travail hath not strength.
19:4. It may be the Lord, thy God, will hear all the words
of Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians, his master,
hath sent to reproach the living God, and to reprove with
words, which the Lord, thy God, hath heard: and do thou
offer prayer for the remnants that are found.
19:5. So the servants of king Ezechias came to Isaias.
19:6. And Isaias said to them: Thus shall you say to your
master: Thus saith the Lord: Be not afraid for the words
which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king
of the Assyrians have blasphemed me.
19:7. Behold I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall
hear a message, and shall return into his own country, and
I will make him fall by the sword in his own country.
19:8. And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of the
Assyrians besieging Lobna: for he had heard that he was
departed from Lachis.
19:9. And when he heard of Tharaca, king of Ethiopia:
Behold, he is come out to fight with thee: and was going
against him, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying:
19:10. Thus shall you say to Ezechias, king of Juda: Let
not thy God deceive thee, in whom thou trustest: and do not
say: Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of the
king of the Assyrians.
19:11. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of the
Assyrians have done to all countries, how they have laid
them waste: and canst thou alone be delivered?
19:12. Have the gods of the nations delivered any of them,
whom my fathers have destroyed, to wit, Gozan, and Haran,
and Reseph, and the children of Eden, that were in
Thelassar?
19:13. Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad,
and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Ana, and of
Ava?
19:14. And when Ezechias had received the letter of the
hand of the messengers, and had read it, he went up to the
house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord,
19:15. And he prayed in his sight, saying: O Lord God of
Israel, who sittest upon the cherubims, thou alone art the
God of all the kings of the earth: thou madest heaven and
earth:
19:16. Incline thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, thy eyes
and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who hath
sent to upbraid unto us the living God.
19:17. Of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have
destroyed nations, and the lands of them all.
19:18. And they have cast their gods into the fire: for
they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, of wood
and stone, and they destroyed them.
19:19. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his
hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou
art the Lord, the only God.
19:20. And Isaias, the son of Amos, sent to Ezechias,
saying: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: I have
heard the prayer thou hast made to me concerning
Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians.
19:21. This is the word that the Lord hath spoken of him:
The virgin, the daughter of Sion, hath despised thee, and
laughed thee to scorn: the daughtor of Jerusalem hath
wagged her head behind thy back.
19:22. Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou
blasphemed? against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and
lifted up thy eyes on high? against the holy one of Israel.
19:23. By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the
Lord, and hast said: With the multitude of my chariots I
have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the top of
Libanus, and have cut down its tall cedars, and its choice
fir trees. And I have entered into the furthest parts
thereof, and the forest of its Carmel.
19:24. I have cut down, and I have drunk strange waters,
and have dried up with the soles of my feet all the shut up
waters.
19:25. Hast thou not heard what I have done from the
beginning? from the days of old I have formed it, and now I
have brought it to effect: that fenced cities of fighting
men should be turned to heaps of ruins:
19:26. And the inhabitants of them were weak of hand, they
trembled and were confounded, they became like the grass of
the field, and the green herb on the tops of houses, which
withered before it came to maturity.
19:27. Thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy coming in,
and thy way I knew before, and thy rage against me.
19:28. Thou hast been mad against me, and thy pride hath
come up to my ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy
nose, and a bit between thy lips, and I will turn thee back
by the way by which thou camest.
19:29. And to thee, O Ezechias, this shall be a sign: Eat
this year what thou shalt find: and in the second year,
such things as spring of themselves: but in the third year
sow and reap: plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
19:30. And whatsoever shall be left of the house of Juda,
shall take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
19:31. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and
that which shall be saved out of mount Sion: the zeal of
the Lord of hosts shall do this.
19:32. Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of
the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot
an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast
a trench about it.
19:33. By the way that he came he shall return: and into
this city he shall not come, saith the Lord.
19:34. And I will protect this city, and will save it for
my own sake, and for David, my servant's sake.
19:35. And it came to pass that night, that an angel of the
Lord came, and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred
and eighty-five thousand. And when he arose early in the
morning, he saw all the bodies of the dead.
19:36. And Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, departing,
went away, and he returned and abode in Ninive.
19:37. And as he was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch,
his god, Adramelech and Sarasar, his sons, slew him with
the sword, and they fled into the land of the Armenians,
and Asarhaddon, his son, reigned in his stead.
4 Kings Chapter 20
20:1. In those days Ezechias was sick unto death: and
Isaias, the son of Amos, the prophet, came and said to him:
Thus saith the Lord God: Give charge concerning thy house,
for thou shalt die, and not llve.
20:2. And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the
Lord, saying:
20:3. I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked
before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have
done that which is pleasing before thee. And Ezechias wept
with much weeping.
20:4. And before Isaias was gone out of the middle of the
court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying:
20:5. Go back, and tell Ezechias, the captain of my people:
Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father: I have
heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: and behold I
have healed thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the
temple of the Lord.
20:6. And I will add to thy days fifteen years: and I will
deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of
the Assyrians, and I will protect this city for my own
sake, and for David, my servant's sake.
20:7. And Isaias said: Bring me a lump of figs. And when
they had brought it, and laid it upon his boil, he was
healed.
20:8. And Ezechias had said to Isaias: What shall be the
sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I will go up to
the temple of the Lord the third day?
20:9. And Isaias said to him: This shall be the sign from
the Lord, that the Lord will do the word which he hath
spoken: Wilt thou that the shadow go forward ten lines, or
that it go back so many degrees?
20:10. And Ezechias said: It is an easy matter for the
shadow to go forward ten lines: and I do not desire that
this be done, but let it return back ten degrees.
20:11. And Isaias, the prophet, called upon the Lord, and
he brought the shadow ten degrees backwards by the lines,
by which it had already gone down on the dial of Achaz.
20:12. At that time Berodach Baladan, the son of Baladan,
king of the Babylonians, sent letters and presents to
Ezechias: for he had heard that Ezechias had been sick.
20:13. And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he shewed
them the house of his aromatical spices, and the gold, and
the silver, and divers precious odours, and ointments, and
the house of his vessels, and all that he had in his
treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his
dominions, that Ezechias shewed them not.
20:14. And Isaias, the prophet, came to king Ezechias, and
said to him: What said these men? or from whence came they
to thee? And Ezechias said to him: From a far country, they
came to me out of Babylon.
20:15. And he said: What did they see in thy house?
Ezechias said: They saw all the things that are in my
house: There is nothing among my treasures that I have not
shewed them.
20:16. And Isaias said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the
Lord.
20:17. Behold the days shall come, that all that is in thy
house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store unto this
day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left,
saith the Lord.
20:18. And of thy sons also that shall issue from thee,
whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall
be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
20:19. Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord, which
thou hast spoken, is good: let peace and truth be in my
days.
20:20. And the rest of the acts of Ezechias, and all his
might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought
waters into the city, are they not written in the book of
the words of the days of the kings of Juda?
20:21. And Ezechias slept with his fathers, and Manasses,
his son reigned in his stead.
4 Kings Chapter 21
21:1. Manasses was twelve years old when he began to reign,
and he reigned five and fifty years in Jerusalem: the name
of his mother was Haphsiba.
21:2. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according
to the idols of the nations, which the Lord destroyed from
before the face of the children of Israel.
21:3. And he turned, and built up the high places, which
Ezechias, his father, had destroyed: and he set up altars
to Baal, and made groves, as Achab, the king of Israel, had
done: and he adored all the host of heaven, and served
them.
21:4. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of
which the Lord said: In Jerusalem I will put my name.
21:5. And he built altars for all the host of heaven, in
the two courts of the temple of the Lord.
21:6. And he made his son pass through fire: and he used
divinations, and observed omens, and appointed pythons, and
multiplied soothsayers, to do evil before the Lord, and to
provoke him.
21:7. He set also an idol of the grove, which he had made,
in the temple of the Lord: concerning which the Lord said
to David, and to Solomon his son: In this temple, and in
Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of
Israel, I will put my name for ever.
21:8. And I will no more make the feet of Israel to be
moved out of the land, which I gave to their fathers: only
if they will observe to do all that I have commanded them,
according to the law which my servant Moses commanded them.
21:9. But they hearkened not: but were seduced by Manasses,
to do evil more than the nations which the Lord destroyed
before the children of Israel.
21:10. And the Lord spoke in the hand of his servants, the
prophets, saying:
21:11. Because Manasses, king of Juda, hath done these most
wicked abominations, beyond all that the Amorrhites did
before him, and hath made Juda also to sin with his filthy
doings:
21:12. Therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel:
Behold, I will bring on evils upon Jerusalem and Juda: that
whosoever shall hear of them, both his ears shall tingle.
21:13. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of
Samaria, and the weight of the house of Achab: and I will
efface Jerusalem, as writings tables are wont to be
effaced, and I will erase and turn it, and draw the pencil
often over the face thereof.
21:14. And I will leave the remnants of my inheritance, and
will deliver them into the hands of their enemies: and they
shall become a prey, and a spoil to all their enemies.
21:15. Because they have done evil before me, and have
continued to provoke me, from the day that their fathers
came out of Egypt, even unto this day.
21:16. Moreover, Manasses shed also very much innocent
blood, till he filled Jerusalem up to the mouth: besides
his sins, wherewith he made Juda to sin, to do evil before
the Lord.
21:17. Now the rest of the acts of Manasses, and all that
he did, and his sin, which he sinned, are they not written
in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda?
21:18. And Manasses slept with his fathers, and was buried
in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Oza: and
Amon, his son, reigned in his stead.
21:19. Two and twenty years old was Amon when he began to
reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem: the name of
his mother was Messalemeth, the daughter of Harus, of
Jeteba.
21:20. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as
Manasses, his father, had done.
21:21. And he walked in all the way in which his father had
walked: and he served the abominations which his father had
served, and he adored them.
21:22. And forsook the Lord, the God of his fathers, and
walked not in the way of the Lord.
21:23. And his servants plotted against him, and slew the
king in his own house.
21:24. But the people of the land slew all them that had
conspired against king Amon: and made Josias, his son,
their king in his stead.
21:25. But the rest of the acts of Amon, which he did, are
they not written in the book of the words of the days of
the kings of Juda?
21:26. And they buried him in his sepulchre, in the garden
of Oza: and his son, Josias, reigned in his stead.
4 Kings Chapter 22
22:1. Josias was eight years old when he began to reign: he
reigned one and thirty years in Jerusalem: the name of his
mother was Idida, the daughter of Hadaia, of Besecath.
22:2. And he did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord, and walked in all the ways of David, his father: he
turned not aside to the right hand, or to the left.
22:3. And in the eighteenth year of king Josias, the king
sent Saphan, the son of Assia, the son of Messulam, the
scribe of the temple of the Lord, saying to him:
22:4 .Go to Helcias, the high priest, that the money may be
put together which is brought into the temple of the Lord,
which the doorkeepers of the temple have gathered of the
people.
22:5. And let it be given to the workmen by the overseers
of the house of the Lord: and let them distribute it to
those that work in the temple of the Lord, to repair the
temple:
22:6. That is, to carpenters and masons, and to such as
mend breaches: and that timber may be bought, and stones
out of the quarries, to repair the temple of the Lord.
22:7. But let there be no reckoning made with them of the
money which they receive, but let them have it in their
power, and in their trust.
22:8. And Helcias, the high priest, said to Saphan, the
scribe: I have found the book of the law in the house of
the Lord: and Helcias gave the book to Saphan, and he read
it.
22:9. And Saphan, the scribe, came to the king, and brought
him word again concerning that which he had commanded, and
said: Thy servants have gathered together the money that
was found in the house of the Lord: and they have given it
to be distributed to the workmen, by the overseers of the
works of the temple of the Lord.
22:10. And Saphan, the scribe, told the king, saying:
Helcias, the priest, hath delivered to me a book. And when
Saphan had read it before the king,
22:11. And the king had heard the words of the law of the
Lord, he rent his garments.
22:12. And he commanded Helcias, the priest, and Ahicam,
the son of Saphan, and Achobor, the son of Micha, and
Saphan, the scribe, and Asaia, the king's servant, saying:
22:13. Go and consult the Lord for me, and for the people,
and for all Juda, concerning the words of this book which
is found: for the great wrath of the Lord is kindled
against us, because our fathers have not hearkened to the
words of this book, to do all that is written for us.
22:14. So Helcias, the priest, and Ahicam, and Achobor, and
Sapham, and Asaia, went to Holda, the prophetess, the wife
of Sellum, the son of Thecua, the son of Araas, keeper of
the wardrobe, who dwelt in Jerusalem, in the Second: and
they spoke to her.
22:15. And she said to them: Thus saith the Lord, the God
of Israel: Tell the man that sent you to me:
22:16. Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will bring evils upon
this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, all the words
of the law which the king of Juda hath read:
22:17. Because they have forsaken me, and have sacrificed
to strange gods, provoking me by all the works of their
hands: therefore my indignation shall be kindled against
this place, and shall not be quenched.
22:18. But to the king of Juda, who sent you to consult the
Lord, thus shall you say: Thus saith the Lord, the God of
Israel: for as much as thou hast heard the words of the
book,
22:19. And thy heart hath been moved to fear, and thou hast
humbled thyself before the Lord, hearing the words against
this place, and the inhabitants thereof, to wit, that they
should become a wonder and a curse: and thou hast rent thy
garments, and wept before me; I also have heard thee; saith
the Lord.
22:20. Therefore I will gather thee to thy fathers, and
thou shalt be gathered to thy sepulchre in peace; that thy
eyes may not see all the evils which I will bring upon this
place.
4 Kings Chapter 23
23:1. And they brought the king word again what she had
said. And he sent: and all the ancients of Juda and
Jerusalem were assembled to him.
23:2. And the king went up to the temple of the Lord, and
all the men of Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
with him, the priests, and the prophets, and all the
people, both little and great: and in the hearing of them
all he read all the words of the book of the covenant,
which was found in the house of the Lord.
23:3. And the king stood upon the step: and he made a
covenant with the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep
his commandments, and his testimonies, and his ceremonies,
with all their heart, and with all their soul, and to
perform the words of this covenant, which were written in
that book: and the people agreed to the covenant.
23:4. And the king commanded Helcias, the high priest, and
the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to
cast out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that had
been made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host
of heaven: and he burnt them without Jerusalem, in the
valley of Cedron, and he carried the ashes of them to
Bethel.
23:5. And he destroyed the soothsayers, whom the kings of
Juda had appointed to sacrifice in the high places in the
cities of Juda, and round about Jerusalem: them also that
burnt incense to Baal, and to the sun, and to the moon, and
to the twelve signs, and to all the host of heaven.
23:6. And he caused the grove to be carried out from the
house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, to the valley of
Cedron, and he burnt it there, and reduced it to dust, and
cast the dust upon the graves of the common people.
23:7. He destroyed also the pavilions of the effeminate,
which were in the house of the Lord, for which the women
wove as it were little dwellings for the grove.
23:8. And he gathered together all the priests out of the
cities of Juda: and he defiled the high places, where the
priests offered sacrifice, from Gabaa to Bersabee: and he
broke down thc altars of the gates that were in the
entering in of the gate of Josue, governor of the city,
which was on the left hand of the gate of the city.
23:9. However, the priests of the high places came not up
to the altar of the Lord, in Jerusalem: but only eat of the
unleavened bread among their brethren.
23:10. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of
the son of Ennom: that no man should consecrate there his
son, or his daughter, through fire, to Moloch.
23:11. And he took away the horses which the kings of Juda
had given to the sun, at the entering in of the temple of
the Lord, near the chamber of Nathanmelech the eunuch, who
was in Pharurim: and he burnt the chariots of the sun with
fire.
23:12. And the altars that were upon the top of the upper
chamber of Achaz, which the kings of Juda had made, and the
altars which Manasses had made in the two courts of the
temple of the Lord, the king broke down: and he ran from
thence, and cast the ashes of them into the torrent Cedron.
23:13. The high places also that were at Jerusalem, on the
right side of the Mount of Offence, which Solomon, king of
Israel, had built to Astaroth, the idol of the Sidonians,
and to Chamos, the scandal of Moab, and to Melchom, the
abomination of the children of Ammon, the king defiled.
23:14. And he broke in pieces the statues, and cut down the
groves: and he filled their places with the bones of dead
men.
23:15. Moreover, the altar also that was at Bethel, and the
high place, which Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who made
Israel to sin, had made: both the altar, and the high
place, he broke down and burnt, and reduced to powder, and
burnt the grove.
23:16. And as Josias turned himself, he saw there the
sepulchres that were in the mount: and he sent and took the
bones out of the sepulchres, and burnt them upon the altar,
and defiled it according to the word of the Lord, which the
man of God spoke, who had foretold these things.
23:17. And he said: What is that monument which I see? And
the men of that city answered: It is the sepulchre of the
man of God, who came from Juda, and foretold these things
which thou hast done upon the altar of Bethel.
23:18. And he said: Let him alone, let no man move his
bones. So his bones were left untouched with the bones of
the prophet, that came out of Samaria.
23:19. Moreover all the temples of the high places which
were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel
had made to provoke the Lord, Josias took away: and he did
to them according to all the acts that he had done in
Bethel.
23:20. And he slew all the priests of the high places, that
were there, upon the altars; and he burnt men's bones upon
them: and returned to Jerusalem.
23:21. And he commanded all the people, saying: Keep the
Phase to the Lord your God, according as it is written in
the book of this covenant.
23:22. Now there was no such a Phase kept from the days of
the judges, who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the
kings of Israel, and of the kings of Juda,
23:23. As was this Phase, that was kept to the Lord in
Jerusalem, in the eighteenth year of king Josias.
23:24. Moreover the diviners by spirits, and soothsayers,
and the figures of idols, and the uncleannesses, and the
abominations, that had been in the land of Juda and
Jerusalem, Josias took away: that he might perform the
words of the law, that were written in the book, which
Helcias the priest had found in the temple of the Lord.
23:25. There was no king before him like unto him, that
returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his
soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law
of Moses: neither after him did there arise any like unto
him.
23:26. But yet the Lord turned not away from the wrath of
his great indignation, wherewith his anger was kindled
against Juda: because of the provocations, wherewith
Manasses had provoked him.
23:27. And the Lord said: I will remove Juda also from
before my face, as I have removed Israel: and I will cast
off this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house, of
which I said: My name shall be there.
23:28. Now the rest of the acts of Josias, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Juda?
23:29. In his days Pharao Nechao, king of Egypt, went up
against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and
king Josias went to meet him: and was slain at Mageddo,
when he had seen him.
23:30. And his servants carried him dead from Mageddo: and
they brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own
sepulchre. And the people of the land took Joachaz, the son
of Josias: and they anointed him, and made him king in his
father's stead.
23:31. Joachaz was three and twenty years old when he began
to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the
name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias, of
Lobna.
23:32. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all
that his fathers had done.
23:33. And Pharao Nechao bound him at Rebla, which is in
the land of Emath, that he should not reign in Jerusalem:
and he set a fine upon the land, of a hundred talents of
silver, and a talent of gold.
23:34. And Pharao Nechao made Eliacim, the son of Josias,
king in the room of Josias his father: and turned his name
to Joakim. And he took Joachaz away and carried him into
Egypt, and he died there.
23:35. And Joakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharao,
after he had taxed the land for every man, to contribute
according to the commandment of Pharao: and he exacted both
the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every
man according to his ability: to give to Pharao Nechao.
23:36. Joakim was five and twenty years old when he began
to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the
name of his mother was Zebida, the daughter of Phadaia, of
Ruma.
23:37. And he did evil before the Lord according to all
that his fathers had done.
4 Kings Chapter 24
24:1. In his days Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon came up,
and Joakim became his servant three years: then again he
rebelled against him.
24:2. And the Lord sent against him the rovers of the
Chaldees, and the rovers of Syria, and the rovers of Moab,
and the rovers of the children of Ammon: and he sent them
against Juda, to destroy it, according to the word of the
Lord, which he had spoken by his servants, the prophets.
24:3. And this came by the word of the Lord against Juda,
to remove them from before him for all the sins of Manasses
which he did;
24:4. And for the innocent blood that he shed, filling
Jerusalem with innocent blood: and therefore the Lord would
not be appeased.
24:5. But the rest of the acts of Joakim, and all that he
did, are they not written in the book of the words of the
days of the kings of Juda? And Joakim slept with his
fathers:
24:6. And Joachin, his son, reigned in his stead.
24:7. And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of
his own country: for the king of Babylon had taken all that
had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt,
unto the river Euphrates.
24:8. Joachin was eighteen years old when he began to
reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name
of his mother was Nohesta, the daughter of Elnathan, of
Jerusalem.
24:9. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all
that his father had done.
24:10. At that time the servants of Nabuchodonosor, king of
Babylon, came up against Jerusalem, and the city was
surrounded with their forts.
24:11. And Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came to the
city, with his servants, to assault it.
24:12. And Joachin, king of Juda, went out to the king of
Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his
nobles, and his eunuchs: and the king of Babylon received
him in the eighth year of his reign.
24:13. And he brought out from thence all the treasures of
the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's
house: and he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which
Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of the
Lord, according to the word of the Lord.
24:14. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the
princes, and all the valiant men of the army, to the number
of ten thousand, into captivity: and every artificer and
smith: and none were left, but the poor sort of the people
of the land.
24:15. And he carried away Joachin into Babylon, and the
king's mother, and the king's wives, and his eunuchs: and
the judges of the land he carried into captivity, from
Jerusalem, into Babylon.
24:16. And all the strong men, seven thousand, and the
artificers, and the smiths, a thousand, all that were
valiant men, and fit for war: and the king of Babylon led
them captives into Babylon.
24:17. And he appointed Matthanias, his uncle, in his
stead: and called his name Sedecias.
24:18. Sedecias was one and twenty years old when he began
to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the
name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias, of
Lobna.
24:19. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all
that Joakim had done.
24:20. For the Lord was angry against Jerusalem and against
Juda, till he cast them out from his face: and Sedecias
revolted from the king of Babylon.
4 Kings Chapter 25
25:1. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign,
in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that
Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came, he and all his army,
against Jerusalem: and they surrounded it: and raised works
round about it.
25:2. And the city was shut up and besieged till the
eleventh year of king Sedecias,
25:3. The ninth day of the month: and a famine prevailed in
the city, and there was no bread for the people of the
land.
25:4. And a breach was made into the city: and all the men
of war fled in the night between the two walls by the
king's garden (now the Chaldees besieged the city round
about), and Sedecias fled by the way that leadeth to the
plains of the wilderness.
25:5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king,
and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all the
warriors that were with him were scattered, and left him:
25:6. So they took the king, and brought him to the king of
Babylon, to Reblatha, and he gave judgment upon him.
25:7. And he slew the sons of Sedecias before his face, and
he put out his eyes, and bound him with chains, and brought
him to Babylon.
25:8. In the fifth month, the seventh day of the month, the
same is the nineteenth year of the king of Babylon, came
Nabuzardan, commander of the army, a servant of the king of
Babylon, into Jerusalem.
25:9. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's
house, and the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house
he burnt with fire.
25:10. And all the army of the Chaldees, which was with the
commander of the troops, broke down the walls of Jerusalem
round about.
25:11. And Nabuzardan, the commander of the army, carried
away the rest of the people, that remained in the city, and
the fugitives, that had gone over to the king of Babylon,
and the remnant of the common people.
25:12. But of the poor of the land he left some dressers of
vines and husbandmen.
25:13. And the pillars of brass that were in the temple of
the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass, which was in
the house of the Lord, the Chaldees broke in pieces, and
carried all the brass of them to Babylon.
25:14. They took away also the pots of brass, and the
mazers, and the forks, and the cups, and the mortars, and
all the vessels of brass, with which they ministered.
25:15. Moreover also the censers, and the bowls, such as
were of gold in gold: and such as were of silver in silver,
the general of the army took away.
25:16. That is, two pillars, one sea, and the bases which
Solomon had made in the temple of the Lord: the brass of
all these vessels was without weight.
25:17. One pillar was eighteen cubits high: and the
chapiter of brass, which was upon it, was three cubits
high: and the network, and the pomegranates that were upon
the chapiter of the pillar, were all of brass: and the
second pillar had the like adorning.
25:18. And the general of the army took Seraias, the chief
priest, and Sophonias, the second priest, and three
doorkeepers:
25:19. And out of the city one eunuch, who was captain over
the men of war: and five men of them who had stood before
the king, whom he found in the city, and Sopher, the
captain of the army, who exercised the young soldiers of
the people of the land: and threescore men of the common
people, who were found in the city:
25:20. These Nabuzardan, the general of the army, took
away, and carried them to the king of Babylon, to Reblatha.
25:21. And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at
Reblatha, in the land of Emath: so Juda was carried away
out of their land.
25:22. But over the people that remained in the land of
Juda, which Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, had left, he
gave the government to Godolias, the son of Ahicam, the son
of Saphan.
25:23. And when all the captains of the soldiers had heard
this, they and the men that were with them, to wit, that
the king of Babylon had made Godolias governor they came to
Godolias to Maspha, Ismael, the son of Nathanias, and
Johanan, the son of Caree, and Saraia, the son of
Thanehumeth, the Netophathite, and Jezonias, the son of
Maachathi, they and their men.
25:24. And Godolias swore to them and to their men, saying:
Be not afraid to serve the Chaldees: stay in the land, and
serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
25:25. But it came to pass in the seventh month, that
Ismael, the son of Nathanias, the son of Elisama, of the
seed royal came, and ten men with him, and smote Godolias;
so that he died: and also the Jews and the Chaldees that
were with him in Maspha.
25:26. And all the people, both little and great, and the
captains of the soldiers, rising up, went to Egypt, fearing
the Chaldees.
25:27. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year
of the captivity of Joachin, king of Juda, in the twelfth
month, the seven and twentieth day of the month:
Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, in the year that he began to
reign, lifted up the head of Joachin, king of Juda, out of
prison.
25:28. And he spoke kindly to him: and he set his throne
above the throne of the kings that were with him in
Babylon.
25:29. And he changed his garments which he had in prison,
and he ate bread always before him, all the days of his
life.
25:30. And he appointed him a continual allowance, which
was also given him by the king, day by day, all the days of
his life.