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

Now, the rest of the story of Azariah, and all that he did, are, they, not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

And the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

And the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles 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 story of Menahem, and all that he did, are, they, not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

And the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles 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.

And the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles 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.

So Ahaz sent messengers unto Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, Thy servant and thy son, I am, - 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 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.

And the rest of the acts of Ahaz, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles 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 made themselves servants of disgusting things, though the Lord had said, 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.

Therefore spake they unto the king of Assyria, saying, The nations whom thou hast removed and settled in the cities of Samaria, know not the custom of the God of the land, - and he hath sent among them lions, and lo! they are slaying them, because they know not the custom 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.

Unto this day, are they offering according to the former customs, - they are not revering Yahweh, neither are they offering after their own statutes, or their own custom, nor yet after the law and the commandment which Yahweh commanded the sons of Jacob, whose name he made to be 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.

And you are to keep in memory the agreement which I have made with you; and you are to have no other gods.

And you are to give worship to the Lord your God; for it is he who will give you salvation from the hands of all who are against you.

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

Thus were these nations doing reverence unto Yahweh, and yet, unto their own carved images, were they rendering service, - yea, their sons and their son's sons, as the fathers offered, so are, they, offering 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?

Thou hast said - they are only words of the lips! - Counsel and might have I for the war. Now, in whom dost thou trust, that thou hast rebelled against me?

Now pay attention: you are relying on Egypt, on that staff of crushed reed; if a man leans on it, it will only go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust and rely 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.'

And now, take a chance with my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to put horsemen on them.

And Eliakim the son of Hilkijah, and Shebnah and Joah said to Rab-shakeh, Speak, we pray thee, to thy servants in Syriac, for we understand it, and talk not with us in the Jewish language in the ears of the people that are on the wall.

But Rab-shakeh said unto them - Is it, concerning thy lord, and concerning thee, that my lord hath sent me to speak these things? Is it not concerning the men who are tarrying upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own water with you?

Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? and have they delivered Samaria out of 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?

And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah: This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of reviling; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that 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.

This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands 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, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, - of Hena, and Ivvah?

Hezekiah prayed before the Lord: "Lord God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubs! You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky and the earth.

They have burned the gods of the nations, for they are not really gods, but only the product of human hands manufactured from wood and stone. That is why the Assyrians could destroy them.

Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power, so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you, Lord, are the only 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 was stricken with a terminal illness. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, "This is what the Lord says, 'Give your household instructions, for you are about to die; you will not get well.'"

Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.

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

Lo! days are coming, when all that is in thine house, and that thy fathers have treasured up, unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon, - nothing shall be left, saith Yahweh;

And Hezekiah saith unto Isaiah, 'Good is the word of Jehovah that thou hast spoken;' and he saith, 'Is it not -- if peace and truth are in my days?'

And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool and the aqueduct, and brought the water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles 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.'

And the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin which he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

And the rest of the acts of Amon, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

that they may give it into the hand of the doers of the work, who have oversight of the house of Yahweh, that they may give it to the doers of the work, who are in the house of Yahweh, to repair the breaches of the house;

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

Do not audit the foremen who disburse the silver, for they are honest."

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.

And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

And the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles 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,