And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and you people of Jerusalem. Believe in Jehovah your God, and so you shall be established. Believe His prophets, and so you shall be blessed.

And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that Jehovah fought against the enemies of Israel.

And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was quiet. For his God gave him rest round about.

But, the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts to the God of their fathers.

And the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah until this day. The same time Libnah revolted from under his hand, because he had forsaken Jehovah, the God of his fathers.

And a writing came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, So says Jehovah, the God of David your father, Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah,

And by coming to Jehoram, the destruction of Ahaziah was of God. He went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Jehovah had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.

And he was with them six years, hidden in the house of God. And Athaliah reigned over the land.

And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said to them, Behold, the king's son shall reign, as Jehovah has said of the sons of David.

And a third part shall be at the king's house. And a third part shall be at the gate of the foundation. And all the people shall be in the courts of the house of Jehovah.

And Jehoiada the priest delivered to the commanders of hundreds King David's spears and bucklers and shields, which were in the house of God.

And they laid hands on her; and she came to the entrance of the Gate of the Horses, beside the king's house, and they executed her there.

And he took the commanders of hundreds, and the nobles, and the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from the house of Jehovah. And they came through the Upper Gate into the king's house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom.

And all the people of the land rejoiced. And the city was quiet after they had killed Athaliah with the sword.

And he gathered together the priests and the Levites and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather silver from all Israel to repair the house of your God from year to year. And see that you hasten the matter. And the Levites did not hasten it.

For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, have broken up the house of God. And also all the dedicated things of the house of Jehovah they have given to Baals.

And the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of Jehovah.

And they gave a call in Judah and in Jerusalem, to bring in to Jehovah the collection that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.

And the workmen worked, and the work was completed by them, and they set the house of God in its proper state and made it strong.

And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward His house.

And they left the house of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and served Asherahs and idols. And wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guilt.

And the Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood above the people and said to them, So says God, Why do you transgress the commandments of Jehovah so that you cannot be blessed? Because you have forsaken Jehovah, He has also forsaken you.

For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men, and Jehovah delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the God of the fathers. And they executed judgment against Joash.

And as to his sons, and the greatness of the burdens on him, and the repairing of the house of God, behold, they are written in the story of the Book of the Kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

But a man of God came to him saying, O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for Jehovah is not with Israel, with all the sons of Ephraim.

But if you will go, do it! Be strong for the battle, for God shall make you fall before the enemy, for God has power to help and to throw down.

And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, Jehovah is able to give you much more than this.

And it happened as he talked with him, the king said to him, Have we made you of the king's counsel? Stop! Why should you be stricken? And the prophet stopped. And he said, I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.

But Amaziah would not hear; for it was from God, so that He might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought after the gods of Edom.

And Jehoash the king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits.

And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels which were found in the house of God with Obed-edom, and the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria.

And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. As long as he sought Jehovah, God blessed him.

And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who lived in Gurbaal, and the Meunites.

And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate, and at the Turning, and fortified them.

But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to ruin. For he sinned against Jehovah his God, and went into the temple of Jehovah to burn incense on the altar of incense.

And they withstood Uzziah the king and said to him, It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the temple, for you have sinned. Nor shall it be for your honor from Jehovah God.

And Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death, and lived in a separate house a leper. For he was cut off from the house of Jehovah. And Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land.

He built the Upper Gate of the house of Jehovah, and on the wall of Ophel he built much.

And Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before Jehovah his God.

And Jehovah his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria. And they struck him and carried away a great captivity, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter.

And Pekah the son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand in Judah in one day, all mighty men, because they had forsaken Jehovah, the God of their fathers.

But a prophet of Jehovah was there, whose name was Oded. And he went out before the army that came to Samaria and said to them, Behold, because the Lord God of your fathers was angry with Judah, He has delivered them into your hands, and you have killed them in a rage which reaches up to Heaven.

And now you intend to keep under the sons of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen to you. Are there not with you, even with you, sins against Jehovah your God?

And Ahaz gathered the vessels of the house of God and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of Jehovah. And he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem.

And in each separate city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger Jehovah, the God of his fathers.

And he said to them, Hear me, Levites, now sanctify yourselves and sanctify the house of Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filthiness out of the holy place.

For our fathers have sinned and did the evil in the eyes of Jehovah our God, and have forsaken Him, and have turned away their faces from the house of Jehovah, and have turned their backs.

Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel.

And it is in my heart to make a covenant with Jehovah, the God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us.

And he set the Levites in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, with harps, and with lyres, according to the command of David, and of Gad the king's seer and Nathan the prophet. For the commandment was by the hand of Jehovah by His prophets.

And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people. For the thing happened suddenly.

And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to Jehovah, the God of Israel.

And they established a decree to send a notice throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to Jehovah, the God of Israel at Jerusalem. For not many of them had done as it was written.

And the runners went with the letters from the king and his rulers to Israel and Judah, and according to the command of the king, saying, O sons of Israel, turn again to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to the remnant of you who have escaped out of the hands of the king of Assyria.

And do not be like your fathers and like your brothers who sinned against Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and He made them for a horror, as you see.

And do not be stiffnecked like your fathers. Yield yourselves to Jehovah and enter into His temple which He has sanctified forever. And serve Jehovah your God, so that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you.

For if you turn again to Jehovah, your brothers and your sons will have mercies before those who lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land. For Jehovah your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.

Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the command of the king and of the rulers, by the Word of Jehovah.

And they stood in their place in their manner, according to the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood from the hand of the Levites.

For many of the people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not been cleansed, but ate the Passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, May the good LORD pardon everyone

who prepares his heart to seek God, Jehovah, the God of his fathers, though not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.

And Hezekiah spoke comfortably to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of Jehovah. And they ate the appointed things seven days, offering peace offerings and making confession to Jehovah, the God of their fathers.

And when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the images in pieces, and cut down the Asherahs, and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, also in Ephraim and Manasseh, even to the end. And all the sons of Israel returned, each to his possession, into their own cities.

And the sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated to Jehovah their God, and laid it up by heaps.

and brought in the offerings and the tithes and the things dedicated to God faithfully. And over them was Cononiah the Levite ruler, and Shimei his brother the next.

And Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were overseers under the hand of Cononiah and Shimei his brother, at the command of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.

And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper toward the east, was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the sacrifices of Jehovah and the most holy things.

And Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and did the good and the right and the true before Jehovah his God.

And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

And he set commanders of war over the people and gathered them to himself in the street of the gate of the city. And he spoke to their heart, saying,

With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is Jehovah our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Does not Hezekiah persuade you to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, Jehovah our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

Who among all the gods of those nations that my fathers completely destroyed is able to deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand?

And now do not let Hezekiah deceive you or persuade you in this way, nor yet believe him. For no god of any nation was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand?

And his servants spoke still more against Jehovah God, and against His servant Hezekiah.

He also wrote letters to revile Jehovah, the God of Israel, and to speak against Him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall not the God of Hezekiah deliver His people out of my hand.

And they spoke against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of the hands of man.

And Jehovah sent an angel to cut off all the mighty men of power, and the leaders and commanders in the camp of the king of Assyria. And he returned with shame of face to his own land. And he came into the house of his god, and those from his own bowels killed him there with the sword.

But Hezekiah did not give again according to the good done to him, for his heart was lifted up. And there was wrath on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.

And he provided himself cities, and possessions of flocks and herds, in abundance. For God had given him very many things.

But, in regard to the ambassadors of the rulers of Babylon who sent to him to ask about the wonder that was done in the land, God left him in order to try him, to know all that was in his heart.

And he set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.

And when he was in affliction, he sought Jehovah his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

And he prayed to Him, and He was entreated of him, and heard his prayer, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. And Manasseh knew that Jehovah is God.

And after this he built a wall outside the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the Fish Gate, and went around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. And he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.

And he repaired the altar of Jehovah and sacrificed on it peace offerings and thank-offerings. And he commanded Judah to serve Jehovah, the God of Israel.

But the people still sacrificed in the high places, but only to Jehovah their God.

And the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel;

For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. And in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherahs, and the carved images, and the molten images.

And they broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence. And he cut down the images which were on high above them, and the Asherahs. And the carved images and the molten images he also broke in pieces and made dust from them, and scattered on the graves of the ones who had sacrificed to them.

And he broke down the altars and the Asherahs, and had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the idols in all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

And in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of Jehovah his God.

And they came to Hilkiah the high priest, and they delivered the silver that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin, and they returned to Jerusalem.

They gave to the artisans and builders, to buy cut stone and timber for joints, and beams to build up the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.

And she answered them, So says Jehovah, the God of Israel, Tell the man who sent you to me,

And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, so shall you say to him, So says Jehovah, the God of Israel whose words you have heard,

Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before your God when you heard His words against this place and against its people, and humbled yourself before Me, and tore your garments and wept before Me, I have even heard also, says Jehovah.

And he caused all who were found in Jerusalem and in Benjamin, and the people of Jerusalem, to stand to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the territories that belonged to the sons of Israel. And he made all that were present in Israel to serve, to serve Jehovah their God. All his days they did not depart from following Jehovah, the God of their fathers.

And he said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to Jehovah, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. It shall not be a burden on your shoulders. And serve Jehovah your God and His people Israel,