But in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not made good the damaged parts of the house.

Then King Jehoash sent for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said to them, Why have you not made good what is damaged in the house? now take no more money from your neighbours, but give it for the building up of the house.

So the priests made an agreement to take no more money from the people, and not to make good what was damaged in the house.

And to the wall-builders and the stone-cutters, and to get wood and cut stone for building up the broken parts of the house of the Lord, and for everything needed to put the house in good order.

And they did not get any statement of accounts from the men to whom the money was given for the workmen, for they made use of it with good faith.

Then he said; Let the window be open to the east: and he got it open. Then Elisha said, Let the arrow go; and he let it go. And he said, The Lord's arrow of salvation, of salvation over Aram; for you will overcome the Aramaeans in Aphek and put an end to them.

Then the man of God was angry with him and said, If you had done it five or six times, then you would have overcome Aram completely; but now you will only overcome them three times.

And while they were putting a dead man into the earth, they saw a band coming; and they put the man quickly into the place where Elisha's body was; and the dead man, on touching Elisha's bones, came to life again, and got up on his feet.

And Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, took again from Ben-hadad, the son of Hazael, the towns which he had taken from Jehoahaz his father in war. Three times Jehoash overcame him and got back the towns of Israel.

He was the builder of Elath, which he got back for Judah after the death of the king.

He got back the old limits of Israel from the way into Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, as the Lord had said by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet of Gath-hepher.

For the Lord saw how bitter was the trouble of Israel, and that everyone was cut off, he who was shut up and he who went free, and that Israel had no helper.

Then Menahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria, and attacking Shallum, son of Jabesh, in Samaria, put him to death and made himself king in his place.

Then Menahem sent destruction on Tappuah and all the people in it, and its limits, from Tirzah, because they would not let him come in; and he had all the women who were with child cut open.

In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Menahem, the son of Gadi, became king over Israel, and was ruling in Samaria for ten years.

And Menahem got the money from Israel, from all the men of wealth, fifty silver shekels from every man, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria went back without stopping in the land.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king; he was ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as David his father did.

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.

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 the wrath of the Lord came on Israel because they had done evil against the Lord their God, who took them out of the land of Egypt from under the yoke of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had become worshippers of other gods,

And the children of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things which were not right, building high places for themselves in all their towns, from the tower of the watchmen to the walled town.

And they did not give ear, but became stiff-necked, like their fathers who had no faith in the Lord their God.

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

Then the king of Assyria took men from Babylon and from Cuthah and Avva and Hamath and Sepharvaim, and put them in the towns of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; so they got Samaria for their heritage, living in its towns.

So they said to the king of Assyria, The nations whom you have taken as prisoners and put in the towns of Samaria, have no knowledge of the way of the god of the land: so he has sent lions among them, causing their death, because they have no knowledge of his way.

Then the king of Assyria gave orders, saying, Send there one of the priests whom you took away, and let him be living there and teaching the people the way of the god of the land.

But the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt with his great power and his outstretched arm, he is your God, to whom you are to give worship and make offerings:

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.

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.

He had faith in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him.

Because they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord their God, but went against his agreement, even against everything ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and they did not give ear to it or do it.

And at that time Hezekiah had the gold from the doors of the Lord's house, and from the door-pillars plated by him, cut off and gave it to the king of Assyria.

And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only be given before this altar in Jerusalem?

Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice in the Jews' language, Give ear to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria;

But the people kept quiet and gave him no answer: for the king's order was, Give him no answer.

It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, sent to say evil things against the living God, and will make his words come to nothing: so then make your prayer for the rest of the people.

So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king of Assyria was making war against Libnah, for it had come to his ears that he had gone away from Lachish.

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.

And Hezekiah made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.

Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord, and let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see; take note of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living God.

But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hands, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you and only you, O Lord, are God.

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.

You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods; I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods.

And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food this year from what comes up of itself; and in the second year from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will put in your seed and get in the grain and make vine-gardens and take of their fruit.

By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get into this town, says the Lord.

And that night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men; and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.

And it came about, when he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to death with the sword; and they went in flight into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son became king in his place.

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.

Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, The Lord, the God of David your father, says, Your prayer has come to my ears, and I have seen your weeping; see, I will make you well: on the third day you will go up to the house of the Lord.

Then Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. So they took it and put it on his wound, and he got better.

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?

For this cause, says the Lord, the God of Israel, I will send such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of all to whom the news comes will be burning.

Turning away from the Lord, the God of his fathers, and not walking in his ways.

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;

And let it be given to the overseers of the work of the Lord's house, to give to the workmen who are making good what was damaged in the house of the Lord;

To the woodworkers and the builders and the stone-cutters; and for getting wood and cut stones for the building up of the house.

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.

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.

And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, Say to the man who sent you to me,

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,

Then the king sent and got together all the responsible men of Judah and of Jerusalem.

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.

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

Then Josiah, turning round, saw on the mountain the places of the dead, and he sent and had the bones taken out of their places and burned on the altar, so making it unclean, as the Lord had said by the man of God when Jeroboam was in his place by the altar on that feast-day. And he, turning his eyes to the resting-place of the man of God who had given word of these things, said:

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.

And the king gave orders to all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it says in this book of the law

And Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, taxing the land by his orders to get the money; the people of the land had to give silver and gold, everyone as he was taxed, to make the payment to Pharaoh-necoh.

Then all the people, small and great, and the captains of the forces, got up and went away to Egypt, for fear of the Chaldaeans.

Dan, Joseph and Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

And Jabez made a prayer to the God of Israel, saying, If only you would truly give me a blessing, and make wider the limits of my land, and let your hand be with me, and keep me from evil, so that I may not be troubled by it! And God gave him his desire.

And they came to some good fertile grass-land, in a wide quiet country of peace-loving people; for the people who were living there before were of the offspring of Ham.

And they put to death the rest of the Amalekites who had got away safely, and made it their living-place to this day.

And the sons of Gad were living opposite to them, in the land of Bashan as far as Salecah:

And they were helped against them, so that the Hagarites, and those with them, were given into their power. For they sent up prayers to God in the fight, and he gave ear to them, because they put their faith in him.

And a very great number went to their death, because the war was God's purpose. And they went on living in their place till they were taken away as prisoners.

And they did evil against the God of their fathers, worshipping the gods of the people of the land, whom God had put to destruction before them.

And the God of Israel put an impulse into the heart of Pul, king of Assyria, and of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, who took them away as prisoners, all the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to Halah and Habor and Hara and to the river of Gozan, to this day.

And their brothers the Levites were responsible for all the work of the Tent of the house of God.

But Aaron and his sons made offerings on the altar of burned offering, and on the altar of perfume, for all the work of the most holy place, and to take away the sin of Israel, doing everything ordered by Moses, the servant of God.

And to the sons of Merari, by their families, twelve towns were given by the Lord's decision, out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun.

And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its outskirts, and Mahanaim with its outskirts,

And Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God;

And their brothers, heads of their families, a thousand and seven hundred and sixty: able men, doing the work of the house of God.

For the four chief door-keepers, who were Levites, had a special position, looking after the rooms and the store-houses of the house of God.

Their sleeping-rooms were round the house of God, for they had the care of it, and were responsible for opening it morning by morning.

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.

In the past, when Saul was king, it was you who went at the head of Israel when they went out or came in; and the Lord your God said to you, You are to be the keeper of my people Israel, and their ruler.

So the three, forcing a way through the Philistine army, got water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town, and took it back to David; but David would not take it, but made an offering of it, draining it out to the Lord,

Saying, By my God, far be it from me to do this! How may I take as drink the life-blood of these men who have put their lives in danger? so he did not take it. These things did the three great men of war.

And David went out to them, and said to them, If you have come in peace to give me help, my heart will be united with yours; but if you have come to give me up to those who would take my life, though my hands are clean from wrongdoing, then may the God of our fathers see it and give you punishment.

Then the spirit came on Amasai, who was chief of the captains, and he said, We are yours, David, we are on your side, O son of Jesse: may peace be with you and peace be with your helpers; for God is your helper. Then David took them into his army and made them captains of the band.

And from day to day more supporters came to David, till he had a great army like the army of God.

And David said to all the men of Israel who had come together there, If it seems good to you and if it is the purpose of the Lord our God, let us send to all the rest of our brothers, everywhere in the land of Israel, and to the priests and the Levites in their towns and the country round them, and get them to come together here to us;

And let us get back for ourselves the ark of our God: for in the days of Saul we did not go to it for directions.

So David sent for all Israel to come together, from Shihor, the river of Egypt, as far as the way into Hamath, to get the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.

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 they put the ark of God on a new cart, and took it out of the house of Abinadab; and Uzza and Ahio were the drivers of the cart.

Then David and all Israel made melody before God with all their strength, with songs and corded instruments of music, and with brass instruments and horns.

And the wrath of the Lord, burning against Uzza, sent destruction on him because he had put his hand on the ark, and death came to him there before God.

And so great was David's fear of God that day, that he said, How may I let the ark of God come to me?