Meanwhile, King Hazael of Aram had been oppressing Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz,

and Jehovah doth favour them, and pity them, and turn unto them, for the sake of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and hath not been willing to destroy them, nor to cast them from His presence as yet.

And Hazael king of Syria died, and Ben-Hadad his son reigned in his stead.

And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father in the war. Three times did Joash beat him, and recovered the cities of Israel.

And it cometh to pass, when the kingdom hath been strong in his hand, that he smiteth his servants, those smiting the king his father,

Then doth Rezin king of Aram go up, and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, to Jerusalem, to battle, and they lay siege to Ahaz, and they have not been able to fight.

So King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria [in] Damascus, and he saw the altar which [was] in Damascus, so King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the builder's plan of the altar and the {exact model of how it had been made}.

Then Ahaz removed the covered walkway for use on the Sabbath that they had built in the Temple. Because of the king of Assyria, he also removed the outside entrance from the LORD's Temple that had been built exclusively for the king.

And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, but not as the kings of Israel that had been before him.

But they would not listen. Instead, they were stubborn, just like their ancestors had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God.

That Jehovah sheweth himself very angry against Israel, and turneth them aside from His presence; none hath been left, only the tribe of Judah by itself.

Finally, the Lord removed Israel from His presence just as He had declared through all His servants the prophets. So Israel has been exiled to Assyria from their homeland until today.

They feared Jehovah, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

But they wouldn't listen. Instead, they did what they had been doing before.

He, removed the high places, and brake in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Sacred Stem, - and beat in pieces the serpent of bronze that, Moses, had made, because, until those days, had the sons of Israel been burning incense thereunto, so he called it Nehushtan.

In Jehovah, God of Israel, he hath trusted, and after him there hath not been like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among any who were before him;

And Jehovah hath been with him, in every place where he goeth out he acteth wisely, and he rebelleth against the king of Asshur, and hath not served him;

and they capture it at the end of three years; in the sixth year of Hezekiah -- it is the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel -- hath Samaria been captureth,

Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even against the Holy One of Israel.

And their inhabitants are feeble-handed, They were broken down, and are dried up, They have been the herb of the field, And the greenness of the tender grass, Grass of the roofs, And blasted corn -- before it hath risen up!

And it hath continued -- The escaped of the house of Judah That hath been left -- to take root beneath, And hath made fruit upward.

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.

In those days hath Hezekiah been sick unto death, and come unto him doth Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet, and saith unto him, 'Thus said Jehovah: Give a charge to thy house, for thou art dying, and dost not live.'

O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping.

And it cometh to pass -- Isaiah hath not gone out to the middle court -- that the word of Jehovah hath been unto him, saying,

And Hezekiah saith, 'It hath been light for the shadow to incline ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow turn backward ten degrees.'

At that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present unto Hezekiah: for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

and Hezekiah hearkeneth unto them, and sheweth them all the house of his treasury, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the good ointment, and all the house of his vessels, and all that hath been found in his treasuries; there hath not been a thing that Hezekiah hath not shewed them, in his house, and in all his dominion.

And he saith, 'What saw they in thy house?' and Hezekiah saith, 'All that is in my house they saw; there hath not been a thing that I have not shewed them among my treasures.'

Lo, days are coming, and borne hath been all that is in thy house, and that thy father have treasured up till this day, to Babylon; there is not left a thing, said Jehovah;

and of thy sons who go out from thee, whom thou begettest, they take away, and they have been eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'

At this, Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, "What you've spoken from the LORD is good," because he had been thinking, "Why not, as long as there's peace and security in my lifetime"?"

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 I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipeth a pan, wiping it and turning it upside down.

'And I have left the remnant of Mine inheritance, and given them into the hand of their enemies, and they have been for a prey and for a spoil to all their enemies,

because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.’”

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;

Go up unto Hilkiah, the high priest, that he pour out the silver that hath been brought into the house of Yahweh, - which the keepers of the entrance-hall have gathered from the people,

And Shaphan the scribe cometh in unto the king, and bringeth the king back word, and saith, 'Thy servants have poured out the silver that hath been found in the house, and give it into the hand of the doers of the work, the inspectors, in the house of Jehovah.'

“Go, inquire of the Lord for my sake and for the sake of the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book which has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord which has been kindled against us, because our fathers have not listened to and obeyed the words of this book, so as to act in accordance with everything that is written concerning us.”

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;

because that they have forsaken Me, and make perfume to other gods, so as to provoke Me to anger with every work of their hands, and My wrath hath been kindled against this place, and it is not quenched.

therefore, lo, I am gathering thee unto thy fathers, and thou hast been gathered unto thy grave in peace, and thine eyes do not look on any of the evil that I am bringing in on this place;' and they bring the king back word.

And the king went up into the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of Jehovah.

And the king commanded Hilkijah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring forth out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that had been made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of the heavens; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel.

And he put an end to the false priests, who had been put in their positions by the kings of Judah to see to the burning of offerings in the high places in the towns of Judah and the outskirts of Jerusalem, and all those who made offerings to Baal and to the sun and the moon and the twelve signs and all the stars of heaven.

He also demolished the temples of the cultic male prostitutes that had been operating in the LORD's Temple, where the women had been doing weaving for the Asherah.

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.

Josiah also defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom (son of Hinnom), so that no man could make his son or his daughter pass through the fire [as a burnt offering] for Molech.

He did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They had been at the entrance of the Lord’s temple in the precincts by the chamber of Nathan-melech the court official, and he burned up the chariots of the sun.

The stone pillars were broken to bits and the wood pillars cut down, and the places where they had been were made full of the bones of the dead

Furthermore, he even broke down the altar that had been at Bethel as well as the high place constructed by Nebat's son Jeroboam, who had caused Israel to sin. He demolished its stones, pulverized them to dust, and burned the Asherah.

Josiah also removed all of the temples on the high places that had been in the cities of Samaria and that the kings of Israel had erected, thereby provoking the LORD. He treated Samaria just as he had Bethel.

Then the king commanded all of the people, saying, "Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as has been written on the scroll of this covenant.

Surely there hath not been made like this passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, even all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah;

but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, hath this passover been made to Jehovah in Jerusalem.

Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums, the necromancers, the household gods, the idols, and every despicable thing that could be seen in the territory of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he might confirm the words of the Law that had been written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the LORD's Temple.

And before him there had been no king like him that turned to Jehovah with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there his like.

only, by the command of Jehovah it hath been against Judah to turn them aside from His presence, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did,

And the king of Egypt hath not added any more to go out from his own land, for the king of Babylon hath taken, from the brook of Egypt unto the river Phrat, all that had been to the king of Egypt.

And he hath removed all Jerusalem, and all the chiefs, and all the mighty ones of valour -- ten thousand is the removal -- and every artificer and smith, none hath been left save the poor of the people of the land.

for, by the anger of Jehovah it hath been against Jerusalem and against Judah, till he cast them out from His presence, that Zedekiah rebelleth against the king of Babylon.

on the ninth of the month -- when the famine is severe in the city, and there hath not been bread for the people of the land,

And the force of the Chaldeans pursue after the king, and overtake him in the plains of Jericho, and all his force have been scattered from him;

The captain of the guard also confiscated the fire pans, basins, and whatever had been crafted of pure gold and pure silver.

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 it cometh to pass, in the seventh month, come hath Ishmael son of Nathaniah, son of Elishama of the seed of the kingdom, and ten men with him, and they smite Gedaliah, and he dieth, and the Jews and the Chaldeans who have been with him in Mizpah.

And all the people rise, from small even unto great, and the heads of the forces, and come in to Egypt, for they have been afraid of the presence of the Chaldeans.

And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his rule, took Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison;

and his allowance -- a continual allowance -- hath been given to him from the king, the matter of a day in its day, all days of his life.

And to Eber have been born two sons, the name of the one is Peleg, for in his days hath the land been divided, and the name of his brother is Joktan.

Sons of Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah, three have been born to him of a daughter of Shua the Canaanitess. And Er, first-born of Judah, is evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and He putteth him to death.

The son of Carmi was Achar, the troubler of Israel, who violated the ban.

And the sons of Jerahmeel the firstborn of Hezron were, Ram the firstborn, and Bunah, and Oren, and Ozem, and Ahijah.

Six have been borne to him in Hebron, and he reigneth there seven years and six months, and thirty and three years he hath reigned in Jerusalem.

And Jabez was more honoured than his brethren; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him with pain.

And Jabez calleth to the God of Israel, saying, 'If blessing Thou dost bless me, then Thou hast made great my border, and Thy hand hath been with me, and Thou hast kept me from evil -- not to grieve me;' and God bringeth in that which he asked.

And the sons of Shimon: Amnon, and Rinnah, Ben-hanan, and Tilon. And the sons of Ishi: Zoheth, and Ben-zoheth.

And Elioenai, and Jaakobah, and Jeshohaiah, and Asaiah, and Adiel, and Jesimiel, and Benaiah,

They found fertile and rich pasture; the land was very broad, undisturbed and peaceful. Indeed some Hamites had been living there prior to that.

And these who are written by name come in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and smite their tents, and the habitations that have been found there, and devote them to destruction unto this day, and dwell in their stead, because pasture for their flock is there.

As to sons of Reuben, first-born of Israel -- for he is the first-born, and on account of his profaning the couch of his father hath his birthright been given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel, and he is not to be reckoned by genealogy for the birthright,

for Judah hath been mighty over his brother, and for leader above him, and the birthright is to Joseph.

These are the men who served, including their descendants: From the descendants of Kohath, there was Heman the singer, who had been fathered by Joel, who had been fathered by Samuel,

who had been fathered by Elkanah, who had been fathered by Jeroham, who had been fathered by Eliel, who had been fathered by Toah,

who had been fathered by Zuph, who had been fathered by Elkanah, who had been fathered by Mahath, who had been fathered by Amasai,

who had been fathered by Elkanah, who had been fathered by Joel, who had been fathered by Azariah, who had been fathered by Zephaniah,

who had been fathered by Tahath, who had been fathered by Assir, who had been fathered by Ebiasaph, who had been fathered by Korah,

who had been fathered by Izhar, who had been fathered by Kohath, who had been fathered by Levi, who had been fathered by Israel.

There was also his brother Asaph, who stood to Heman's right. Asaph had been fathered by Berechiah, who had been fathered by Shimea,

who had been fathered by Michael, who had been fathered by Baaseiah, who had been fathered by Malchijah,

who had been fathered by Ethni, who had been fathered by Zerah, who had been fathered by Adaiah,

who had been fathered by Ethan, who had been fathered by Zimmah, who had been fathered by Shimei,

who had been fathered by Jahath, who had been fathered by Gershom, and who had been fathered by Levi.

To Heman's left were their relatives who were Merari's sons: Ethan, who had been fathered by Kishi, who had been fathered by Abdi, who had been fathered by Malluch,

who had been fathered by Hashabiah, who had been fathered by Amaziah, who had been fathered by Hilkiah,

The son of Amzi, the son of Bani, the son of Shamer,

who had been fathered by Mahli, who had been fathered by Mushi, who had been fathered by Merari, who had been fathered by Levi,

along with their relatives, descendants of Levi who had been appointed for all the service of the tent of the Temple of God.

But Aaron and his descendants offered sacrifices on the altar for burnt offerings and on the altar for incense as they had been assigned to do in the most holy sanctuary. They made atonement for Israel, just as God's servant Moses had ordered.