And turning their backs on all the orders which the Lord had given them, they made for themselves images of metal, and the image of Asherah, worshipping all the stars of heaven and becoming servants to Baal.

(But even Judah did not keep the orders of the Lord their God, but were guided by the rules which Israel had made.

And the children of Israel went on with all the sins which Jeroboam did; they did not keep themselves from them;

And every nation made gods for themselves, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the towns where they were living.

So to this day they go on in their old ways, not worshipping the Lord or keeping his orders or his ways or the law and the rule which the Lord gave to the children of Jacob, to whom he gave the name Israel;

And the rules and the orders and the law which he put in writing for you, you are to keep and do for ever; you are to have no 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.

He had the high places taken away, and the stone pillars broken to bits, and the Asherah cut down; and the brass snake which Moses had made was crushed to powder at his order, because in those days the children of Israel had offerings burned before it, and he gave it the name Nehushtan.

For his heart was fixed on the Lord, not turning from his ways, and he did his orders which the Lord gave to Moses.

Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria, shutting it in with his armies.

And at the end of three years they took it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah's rule, which was the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

See, now, you are basing your hope on that broken rod of Egypt, which will go through a man's hand if he makes use of it for a support; for so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who put their faith in him.

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.

Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer which you have made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my ears.

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.

And Hezekiah was glad at their coming and let them see all his store of wealth, the silver and the gold and the spices and the oil of great price, and the house of his arms, and everything there was in his stores; there was nothing in all his house or his kingdom which Hezekiah did not let them see.

And he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said in answer, They saw everything in my house: there is nothing among my stores which I did not let them see.

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which you have said. Then he said, ... if in my time there is peace and righteousness?

He put up again the high places which had been pulled down by Hezekiah his father; he made altars for Baal, and an Asherah, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done; he was a worshipper and servant of all the stars of heaven.

And he put up altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

He put the image of Asherah which he had made in the house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever.

And never again will I send the feet of Israel wandering from the land which I gave to their fathers; if only they will take care to do all my orders, and keep all the law which my servant Moses gave them.

He went in all the ways of his father, being a servant and worshipper of the false gods to which his father had been a servant;

Now the rest of the acts which Amon did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

Go up to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and let him give out the money which is taken into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door have got together from the people;

They did not have to give any account of the money which was handed to them, for they made use of it with good faith.

Then, after reading it, Shaphan the scribe went in to the king and gave him an account of what had been done, saying, Your servants have given out the money which was in the house, and have given it to the overseers of the work of the house of the Lord.

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.

These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on this place and on its people, even everything which the king of Judah has been reading in the book;

But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said: As to the words which have come to your ears,

For this cause I will let you go to your fathers and be put in your last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will send on this place. So they took this news back to the king.

And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, small and great; and they were present at his reading of the book of the law which had come to light in the house of the Lord.

And he made all the priests from the towns of Judah come into Jerusalem, and he made unclean the high places where the priests had been burning offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; and he had the high places of the evil spirits pulled down which were by the doorway of Joshua, the ruler of the town, on the left side of the way into the town.

And he took away the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the way into the house of the Lord, by the room of Nathan-melech, the unsexed servant, which was in the outer part of the building, and the carriages of the sun he put on fire.

And the altars on the roof of the high room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two outer squares of the house of the Lord, were pulled down and crushed to bits, and the dust of them was put into the stream Kidron.

And the high places before Jerusalem, on the south side of the mountain of destruction, which Solomon, king of Israel, had made for Ashtoreth, the disgusting god of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and for Milcom, the disgusting god of the children of Ammon, the king made unclean.

What is that headstone I see over there? And the men of the town said to him, It is the resting-place of the man of God who came from Judah and gave word of all these things which you have done to the altar of Beth-el.

Then Josiah took away all the houses of the high places in the towns of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had put up, moving the Lord to wrath, and he did with them as he had done in Beth-el

And all those who had control of spirits, and the wonder-workers, and the images, and the false gods, and all the disgusting things which were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah put away, so that he might give effect to the words of the agreement recorded in the book which Hilkiah the priest made discovery of in the house of the Lord.

And the Lord said, I will send Judah away from before my face, as I have sent Israel; I will have nothing more to do with this town, which I had made mine, even Jerusalem, and the holy house of which I said, My name will be there.

And he took away all the stored wealth of the Lord's house, and the goods from the king's store-house, cutting up all the gold vessels which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the house of the Lord, as the Lord had said.

So an opening was made in the wall of the town, and all the men of war went in flight by night through the doorway between the two walls which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldaeans were stationed round the town:) and the king went by the way of the Arabah.

And the walls round Jerusalem were broken down by the Chaldaean army which was with the captain.

The two pillars, the great water-vessel and the wheeled bases, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

And Johanan was the father of Azariah, (he was priest in the house which Solomon put up in Jerusalem:)

Now these are their living-places, the limits inside which they were to put up their tents: to the sons of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, because they had the first selection,

And to the sons of Aaron they gave Hebron, the town to which men might go in flight and be safe, and Libnah with its outskirts, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa with its outskirts,

And they gave them the town to which men might go in flight and be safe, Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim with its outskirts, and Gezer with its outskirts,

And Shallum, the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brothers, of his family, the Korahites, were responsible for everything which had to be done in connection with the order of worship, keepers of the doors of the Tent; their fathers had had the care of the tents of the Lord, being keepers of the doorway.

And some of their brothers, sons of the Kohathites, were responsible for the holy bread which was put in order before the Lord, to get it ready every Sabbath.

So death came to Saul because of the sin which he did against the Lord, that is, because of the word of the Lord which he kept not; and because he went for directions to one who had an evil spirit,

Then David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (which is Jebus); and the Jebusites, the people of the land, were there.

And the people of Jebus said to David, You will not come in here. But still, David took the strong place of Zion, which is the town of David.

And David went up, with all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath-jearim in Judah, to get up from there the ark of God, over which the holy Name is named, the name of the Lord whose place is between the winged ones.

And David made all Israel come together at Jerusalem, to take the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had got ready for it.

And said to them, You are the heads of the families of the Levites: make yourselves holy, you and your brothers, so that you may take the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place which I have made ready for it.

Then they took in the ark of God and put it inside the tent which David had put up for it; and they made offerings, burned offerings and peace-offerings before God.

Keep in mind the great works which he has done; his wonders, and the decisions of his mouth;

He has kept his agreement in mind for ever, the word which he gave for a thousand generations;

The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac;

Let the sea be thundering with all its waters; let the field be glad, and everything which is in it;

To give burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of burned offerings morning and evening, every day, as it is ordered in the law of the Lord which he gave to Israel;

And I will make a resting-place for my people Israel, planting them there, so that they may be in the place which is theirs and never again be moved; and never again will they be made waste by evil men, as they were at first,

O Lord, there is no one like you, and no other God but you, as is clear from everything which has come to our ears.

And from Tibhath and from Cun, towns of Hadadezer, David took a great store of brass, of which Solomon made the great brass water-vessel and the brass pillars and vessels.

Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are offered to you: say which of them you will have, so that I may do it to you.

For the House of the Lord, which Moses had made in the waste land, and the altar of burned offerings, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.

And David said, Solomon my son is young and untested, and the house which is to be put up for the Lord is to be very great, a thing of wonder and glory through all countries; so I will make ready what is needed for it. So David got ready a great store of material before his death.

And all will go well for you, if you take care to keep the laws and the rules which the Lord gave to Moses for Israel: be strong and take heart; have no fear and do not be troubled.

Now give your heart and soul to the worship of the Lord your God; and get to work on the building of the holy place of the Lord God, so that you may put the ark of the Lord's agreement and the holy vessels of God in the house which is to be made for the name of the Lord.

Four thousand were door-keepers; and four thousand gave praise to the Lord with the instruments which I made, said David, for giving praise.

Now the divisions into which the sons of Aaron were grouped were these: the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

To Hosah, the door on the west, by the door of Shallecheth, at the footway which goes up, watch by watch.

Shelomoth and his brothers were responsible for all the store of holy things which David the king and the heads of families, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and the captains of the army, had given to the Lord.

Now the number of the children of Israel, that is, the heads of families, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and the men in authority who were servants of the king in anything to do with the divisions which came in and went out month by month through all the months of the year, in every division were twenty-four thousand.

O Lord our God, all this store, which we have made ready for the building of a house for your holy name, comes from your hand and is yours.

And give to Solomon my son a true heart, to keep your orders, your rules, and your laws, and to do all these things, and to put up this great house for which I have made ready.

Together with all his rule and his power, and the events which took place in his time, in Israel and in all the kingdoms of other lands.

Then Solomon, and all the men of Israel with him, went to the high place at Gibeon, because the Tent of meeting of God, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the waste land, was there.

But the ark of God had been moved by David from Kiriath-jearim to the place which he had made ready for it, for he had put up a tent for it at Jerusalem.

And the altar of brass which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the Tent of the Lord; and Solomon and all the people went to give worship there.

And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, which he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem.

And the house which I am building is to be great, for our God is greater than all gods.

To get trees for me in great numbers, for the house which I am building is to be great and a wonder.

Then Solomon made a start at building the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where the Lord had been seen by his father David, in the place which David had made ready in the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

And he made the ten bases and the ten washing-vessels which were on the bases;

All the pots and the spades and the meat-hooks and their vessels, which Huram, who was as his father, made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass.

And Solomon made all the vessels used in the house of God, the gold altar and the tables on which the holy bread was placed,

So all the work which Solomon did for the house of the Lord was complete. And Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of God.

Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel, all the chiefs of the tribes and the heads of families of the children of Israel, to come to Jerusalem and take the ark of the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David, which is Zion.

They took up the ark and the Tent of meeting and all the holy vessels which were in the Tent; all these the priests, the Levites, took up.

Nothing was in the ark but the two flat stones which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made an agreement with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt.

So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which you may be for ever present.

And there I have put the ark, in which is the agreement of the Lord, which he made with the people of Israel.

For you have kept the word which you gave to your servant David, my father; with your mouth you said it and with your hand you have made it come true this day.

So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, make your word come true which you said to your servant David.

But is it truly possible that God may be housed with men on earth? see, heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be your resting-place: how much less this house which I have made:

Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your servant and to his prayer for grace, O Lord my God, and give ear to the cry and the prayer which your servant makes before you;

That your eyes may be open to this house day and night, to this place of which you have said that you would put your name there; to give ear to the prayer which your servant may make, turning to this place.

Then give ear from heaven, and let the sin of your people Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.