only, the high places have not turned aside -- yet are the people sacrificing and making perfume in high places.

The remainder of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

Now the remainder of the acts of Zechariah, look, they are written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel.

Now the remainder of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he conspired; look, they [are] written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel.

Then doth Menahem smite Tiphsah, and all who are in it, and its borders from Tirzah, for it opened not to him, and he smiteth it, all its pregnant women he hath ripped up.

Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, [are] they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?

Now the remainder of the acts of Pekahiah and all that he did, look, they are written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel.

Now the remainder of the acts of Pekah and all that he did, look, they are written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel.

Only, the high places have not turned aside -- yet are the people sacrificing and making perfume in high places; he hath built the high gate of the house of Jehovah.

Now the remainder of the acts of Jotham which he did, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

At that time the king of Edom got Elath back for Edom, and sent the Jews out of Elath; and the Edomites came back to Elath where they are living to this day.

Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I [am] your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel who are rising up against me."

And King Ahaz gave orders to Urijah the priest, saying, Make the morning burned offering and the evening meal offering and the king's burned offering and meal offering, with the burned offerings of all the people and their meal offerings and drink offerings, on the great altar, and put on it all the blood of the burned offerings and of the beasts which are offered; but the brass altar will be for my use to get directions from the Lord.

And king Ahaz cutteth off the borders of the bases, and turneth aside from off them the laver, and the sea he hath taken down from off the brazen oxen that are under it, and putteth it on a pavement of stones.

Now the remainder of the acts of Ahaz which he did, [are] they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

and the sons of Israel do covertly things that are not right against Jehovah their God, and build for them high places in all their cities, from a tower of the watchers unto the fenced city,

and they served idols, a practice that the LORD had warned them, "You are not to do this."

The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, "Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands."

and reject His statutes and His covenant that He made with their fathers, and His testimonies that He testified against them, and go after the vain thing, and become vain, and after the nations that are round about them, of whom Jehovah commanded them not to do like them;

and it cometh to pass, at the commencement of their dwelling there, they have not feared Jehovah, and Jehovah doth send among them the lions, and they are destroying among them.

So they said to the king of Assyria, "The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the customs of the God of the land, so he sent lions among them, and now they are killing them because they do not know the customs of the God of the land."

and they are making each nation its gods, and place them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans have made, each nation in their cities where they are dwelling.

and the Avites have made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites are burning their sons with fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, gods of Sepharvim.

And they are fearing Jehovah, and make to themselves from their extremities priests of high places, and they are acting for them in the house of the high places.

Jehovah they are fearing, and their gods they are serving, according to the custom of the nations whence they removed them.

Until this day they [are] doing according to their former customs; none of them [are] fearing Yahweh, and none of them [are] doing according to their statutes, to their decisions, to the law, or to the commands that Yahweh commanded the descendants of Jacob [to] which he had given the name Israel.

And the Lord made an agreement with them and gave them orders, saying, You are to have no other gods; you are not to give worship to them or be their servants or make them offerings:

Instead fear the Lord, who brought you from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. You are to bow down to Him, and you are to sacrifice to Him.

You are to be careful always to observe the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandments He wrote for you; do not fear other gods.

You are not to forget the covenant that I've made with you, and you are not to fear other gods.

But you are to fear the LORD, and he will deliver you from the control of all your enemies."

and they have not hearkened, but according to their former custom they are doing,

So these nations were fearing Yahweh, but they were serving their idols, as were their children and their children's children; as their ancestors did, they [are] doing until this day.

Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: ‘What are you relying on?

You say (but they are but vain words), 'There is counsel and strength for war.' Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

Now, look! You {rely} on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, which [when] a man leans on it, it goes into his hand and pierces it! So [is] Pharaoh the king of Egypt for all who are trusting on him!

Perhaps you will tell me, 'We are trusting in the Lord our God.' But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, 'You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem.'

So then, please make a wager with my lord, with the king of Assyria, and I will give to you a thousand horses {if you are able on your part to put riders on them.}

Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebna and Joah said to the chief commander, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we [are] understanding, but you must not speak Judean with us in the ears of the people who [are] on the wall."

But Rab-shakeh spoke to them, "Has my master sent me to talk about this just to your master and to you, and not also to the men who are sitting on the wall, who will soon be eating their own feces and drinking their own urine along with you?"

Where [are] the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where [are] the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? For did they rescue Samaria from my hand?

Which are they among all the gods of the countries, who have delivered their country out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'A day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace is this day, for the children {are about to be born}, but there is no strength to bear them.

Perhaps Yahweh your God will hear all of the words of [the] chief commander whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to insult [the] living God, and he will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remainder who are left.'"

And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in your hearing.

"Thus you shall say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, 'Let not your God whom you [are] trusting deceive you, by his saying, "Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria!"

did the gods of the nations deliver them whom my fathers destroyed -- Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the sons of Eden, who are in Thelassar?

Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?'"

Then Hezekiah prayed before the face of Yahweh and said, "O Yahweh, God of Israel who lives [above] the cherubim. You [are] God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the world; you have made the heavens and the earth.

He has hurled their gods in the fire because they [are] not gods, but the work of the hands of a human [made of] wood and stone, so they destroyed them.

So then, O Yahweh our God, rescue us, please, from his hand, that all of the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Yahweh, you alone are God!"

This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you.

Who are you reproaching and blaspheming? Against whom have you raised your voice? And against whom have you lifted up your eyes in arrogance? Against the Holy One of Israel!

Have you not heard? From long ago I have determined it, from the days of old I have planned it, and now I am bringing it to pass. It shall be turned into a pile of rocks; fortified cities are ruined.

Their residents are powerless, they are terrified and ashamed. They are as short-lived as plants in the field, or green vegetation. They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops when it is scorched by the east wind.

Because you are raging against me, and your arrogance has come up in my ears, I will put my nose ring in your nose and my bridle in your mouth. And I will turn you back on the way that you have come.

And those of Judah who are still living will again take root in the earth and give fruit.

For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done.

And it cometh to pass, in that night, that a messenger of Jehovah goeth out, and smiteth in the camp of Asshur a hundred eighty and five thousand, and they rise early in the morning, and lo, all of them are dead corpses.

In those days Hezekiah became {deathly ill}, and Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet came to him and said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Command your house, for you [are about] to die; you will not recover.'"

Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? From where did they come to you?" Hezekiah said, "They are come from a far country, even from Babylon."

And he said, What have they seen in thy house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.

'Look, days [are] coming when all that is in your palace will be carried off; [even] all that your ancestors have stored up until this day, to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says Yahweh.

And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the Word of Jehovah which you have spoken. And he said, Is it not good if peace and truth are in my days?

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

Because that Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations -- he hath done evil above all that the Amorites have done who are before him, and causeth also Judah to sin by his idols;

because that they have done the evil thing in Mine eyes, and are provoking Me to anger from the day that their fathers came out of Egypt, even unto this day.'

The remainder of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin that he committed, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

The remainder of the acts of Amon that he did, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

and let them give it into the hand of those appointed doers of the work at the temple of Yahweh. Let them give it to the doers of the work who [are] at the temple of Yahweh to repair the breach of the temple:

They are to give it to the carpenters, builders, and masons to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the temple.

Only the money being given to them is not to be accounted for by them, for they [are] dealing with honesty."

Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah, about the words of this book which has come to light; for great is the wrath of the Lord which is burning against us, because our fathers have not given ear to the words of this book, to do all the things which are recorded in it.

"This is what the Lord says: 'I am about to bring disaster on this place and its residents, the details of which are recorded in the scroll which the king of Judah has read.

And the king stood on the dais, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart, and with all his soul, to establish the words of this covenant that are written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.

And the king commandeth Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out from the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that are made for Baal, and for the shrine, and for all the host of the heavens, and he burneth them at the outside of Jerusalem, in the fields of Kidron, and hath borne their ashes to Beth-El.

He eliminated the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to offer sacrifices on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the area right around Jerusalem. (They offered sacrifices to Baal, the sun god, the moon god, the constellations, and all the stars in the sky.)

And he breaketh down the houses of the whoremongers that are in the house of Jehovah, where the women are weaving houses for the shrine.

And he bringeth in all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defileth the high places where the priests have made perfume, from Geba unto Beer-Sheba, and hath broken down the high places of the gates that are at the opening of the gate of Joshua, head of the city, that is on a man's left hand at the gate of the city;

And he got rid of the horses that the kings of Judah had given [in worship] to the sun at the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the annex; and he burned the chariots of the sun.

And the altars that are on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, that the kings of Judah made, and the altars that Manasseh made in the two courts of the house of Jehovah, hath the king broken down, and removeth thence, and hath cast their dust unto the brook Kidron.

And the high places that are on the front of Jerusalem, that are on the right of the mount of corruption, that Solomon king of Israel had built to Ashtoreth abomination of the Zidonians, and Chemosh abomination of Moab, and to Milcom abomination of the sons of Ammon, hath the king defiled.

And Josiah turneth, and seeth the graves that are there in the mount, and sendeth and taketh the bones out of the graves, and burneth them on the altar, and defileth it, according to the word of Jehovah that the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.

And also all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria, that the kings of Israel made to provoke to anger, hath Josiah turned aside, and doth to them according to all the deeds that he did in Beth-El.

And he slayeth all the priests of the high places who are there by the altars, and burneth the bones of man upon them, and turneth back to Jerusalem.

And also, those having familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah, and in Jerusalem, hath Josiah put away, in order to establish the words of the law that are written on the book that Hilkiah the priest hath found in the house of Jehovah.

The remainder of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

The remainder of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon cometh against the city, and his servants are laying siege to it,

and all the men of valour seven thousand, and the artificers and the smiths a thousand, the whole are mighty men, warriors; and the king of Babylon bringeth them in a captivity to Babylon.

then the city is broken up, and all the men of war go by night the way of the gate, between the two walls that are by the garden of the king, and the Chaldeans are against the city round about, and the king goeth the way of the plain.

and the walls of Jerusalem round about have all the forces of the Chaldeans, who are with the chief of the executioners, broken down.

And the pillars of brass that are in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the sea of brass, that is in the house of Jehovah, have the Chaldeans broken in pieces, and bear away their brass to Babylon.

and the fire-pans, and the bowls that are wholly of silver, hath the chief of the executioners taken.

eighteen cubits is the height of the one pillar, and the chapiter on it is of brass, and the height of the chapiter is three cubits, and the net and the pomegranates are on the chapiter round about -- the whole is of brass; and like these hath the second pillar, with the net.

and out of the city he hath taken a certain eunuch who is appointed over the men of war, and five men of those seeing the king's face who have been found in the city, and the head scribe of the host, who mustereth the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who are found in the city,

and speaketh with him good things and putteth his throne above the throne of the kings who are with him in Babylon,