And on the fourth day, they assembled in the Valley of Berakah, for there they blessed Yahweh. Therefore the name of that place is called the Valley of Berakah up to this day.

And they came to Jerusalem with harps, stringed instruments, and trumpets to the house of Yahweh.

And the fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the earth when they heard that Yahweh had fought against the enemies of Israel.

Now the rest of the words of Jehoshaphat, [from] the first to the last, behold, they [are] written in the chronicles of Jehu the son of Hanani, which [are] recorded in the scroll of the kings of Israel.

He joined with him to build ships to go to Tarshish. And they built the ships in Ezion Geber.

In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and they set up a king of their own.

And they came up against Judah and invaded it and carried away all the possessions found in the house of the king, and also his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz his youngest son.

He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he departed with no [one's] regret. And they buried him in the city of David, but not in the burial sites of the kings.

And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh as the house of Ahab [had done], for they were his counselors to his destruction after the death of his father.

And he searched for Ahaziah and captured him. And he was hiding in Samaria. And they brought him to Jehu and put him to death. And they buried him, for they said, "He [is] the descendant of Jehoshaphat, who sought Yahweh with his whole heart." And the house of Ahab had no one to exercise power over the kingdom.

And they went around in Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the heads of the {families} of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

Let no one enter into the house of Yahweh except the priests and the ministering Levites. They themselves may enter, for they [are] holy, but all the people shall keep the requirements of Yahweh.

And the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And they each took his men [who were] {coming off duty on the Sabbath} with {the ones going out to duty on the Sabbath}, for Jehoiada the priest did not dismiss the working groups.

Then they brought out the son of the king and set upon him the crown and [gave him] the statute and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him and said, "{Long live the king}!"

And they laid hands on her, and she went into the entrance of the Horse Gate of the house of the king, and they killed her there.

And Jehoiada {made} a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they should be Yahweh's people.

Then all the people went to the house of Baal and broke it down. And they smashed his altars and his images, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.

And he took the commanders of hundreds, the noblemen, the governors over the people, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of Yahweh. And they came through the upper gate [to] the house of the king, and they set the king upon the throne of the kingdom.

Then the king commanded, and they made a chest and put it at the gate outside the house of Yahweh.

And {they issued a proclamation} in Judah and in Jerusalem to bring to Yahweh the tax [that] Moses the servant of God [had levied] upon Israel in the wilderness.

And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and they brought [their tax] and threw [it] into the chest until [it was] finished.

And whenever he brought the chest to the appointee of the king by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that [there was] much money [in it], then the secretary of the king and the officer of the chief priest came and emptied the chest, then they took it and returned it to its place. Thus they did day by day and gathered money in abundance.

And the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of Yahweh. And they hired stonemasons and skilled craftsmen to restore the house of Yahweh, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of Yahweh.

So those doing the work labored, and the restoration for the work made progress under their hand. And they restored the house of God to its position and strengthened it.

And when they had finished, they brought the remainder of the money before the king and Jehoiada, and they used it [for] objects for the house of Yahweh, objects for the service and the burnt offerings, dishes, and objects of gold and silver. And they were offering burnt offerings in the house of Yahweh regularly, all the days of Jehoiada.

And they buried him in the city of David with the kings, for he did good in Israel and with respect to God and his house.

And they forsook the house of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors and served the Asherahs and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem on account of this guilt.

But he sent prophets among them, to bring them back to Yahweh. And they testified against them, and they did not obey.

Then they conspired against him and stoned him [with] stones at the command of the king in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh.

And it happened at the turn of the year [that] the army of Aram went up against him, and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the commanders of the people from among the people, and all the war booty they sent to the king of Damascus.

Though the army of Aram came with few men, Yahweh gave a very large army into their hand, for they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. And they inflicted punishment on Joash.

And when they were going away from him (for they had left him with many wounds), his servants conspired against him on account of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest. So they killed him on his bed and he died. And they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him at the burial sites of the kings.

And [as for] his sons, the many oracles against him, and [his repair of] the foundation of the house of God, behold, they [are] written in the story of the scroll of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

Then Amaziah dismissed the troops that came to him from Ephraim to go to their home. And {they became very angry} with Judah, and they returned to their home {in great anger}.

Now the {troops} captured ten thousand [others] alive, and they brought them to the top of the rock and threw them from the top of the rock. So all of them were smashed [to pieces].

As for the {troops} Amaziah had sent back from going with him to war, they raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-Horon. And they struck [down] three thousand of them and plundered much booty.

But Amaziah did not listen, for it [was] from God that he might give them into the hand [of enemies], because they sought the gods of Edom.

And Joash the king of Israel captured Amaziah the king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-Shemesh. And they brought him [to] Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits.

Now the remainder of the words of Amaziah, [from] the first [to] the last, behold, are they not written in the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel?

And from the time that Amaziah turned away from Yahweh, they had plotted a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem. And he fled to Lachish, but they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there.

And they carried him on the horses and buried him with his ancestors in the city of Judah.

And they stood against King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but [it is] for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully. There will be no honor for you from Yahweh God."

When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him, behold, he [was] leprous in the forehead. So they rushed him away from there, and he also hastened to go out, for Yahweh had smitten him.

And Uzziah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him with his ancestors in the burial field which belonged to the kings, because, they said, "He [was] leprous." And Jotham his son reigned in his place.

Now the remainder of the words of Jotham and all his wars and his ways, behold, they are written upon the scroll of the kings of Israel and Judah.

And Jotham slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city of David. And his son Ahaz became king in his place.

And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, killed in one day one hundred and twenty thousand in Judah, all men of strength, because they forsook Yahweh the God of their ancestors.

And the Israelites captured two hundred thousand of their brothers, women, sons, and daughters. And they also plundered much booty from them and brought the booty to Samaria.

And they said to them, "You shall not bring the captives here, for [it is] as guilt [against] Yahweh upon us. You yourselves plan to add to our sins and to our guilt, but our guilt is very great, and [there is] great anger against Israel."

Then the men designated by name arose and took the captives and from the plunder clothed all their nakedness. So they clothed them, gave them sandals, gave them food to eat, gave them water to drink, anointed them, and guided them with the donkeys [provided] for all those who stumbled, and brought them to Jericho, the city of the palm trees, next to their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria.

And the Philistines sent raids into the cities of the Shephelah and the Negeb of Judah. And they captured Beth-Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Socoh with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages. And they settled there.

He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, "Because the gods of the king of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them so that they will help me." But they were {a disaster} to him and to all Israel.

Now the remainder of his words and all his ways, [from] the first [to] the last, behold, they are written upon the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel.

And Ahaz slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him to the burial site of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son became king in his place.

For our ancestors acted unfaithfully and did evil in the sight of Yahweh our God, and have forsaken him and turned away their faces from the dwelling place of Yahweh. {They have turned their backs} [on it].

They also shut the doors of the portico and extinguished the lamps. And they did not burn incense or offer burnt offerings in the sanctuary to the God of Israel.

and they gathered their brothers and sanctified themselves, and they went in according to the command of the king because of the words of Yahweh, to purify the house of Yahweh.

And the priests went into the inner [part] of the house of Yahweh to purify [it]. And they brought out all the impurity that they found in the temple of Yahweh [out] to the courtyard of the house of Yahweh. And the Levites took [them] to bring [them] outside to the Wadi Kidron.

And they began to sanctify themselves on the first day of the first month. And on the eighth day of the month they came to the portico of Yahweh. And they sanctified the house of Yahweh for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.

And they went into the inner [part] to King Hezekiah and said, "We have cleansed all the house of Yahweh: the altar of burnt offering, all its objects, the table of the rows [of bread] and all its objects,

and all the objects that King Ahaz discarded in his reign when he sinned, we have prepared and sanctified. Look, they [are] before the altar of Yahweh."

And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a purification offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the descendants of Aaron, the priests, to offer [them] on the altar of Yahweh.

And they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests received the blood and threw it toward the altar. Then they slaughtered the rams and threw the blood toward the altar, and then they slaughtered the lambs and threw the blood toward the altar.

Then they brought the goats of the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they laid hands upon them.

Then King Hezekiah and the princes commanded the Levites to praise Yahweh with the words of David and Asaph the seer. So they offered praise with joy, and they bowed down and worshiped.

But the priests were too few, and they were not able to offer all the burnt offerings, so their brothers, the Levites, strengthened them to finish the work, and until the [rest of] the priests consecrated themselves. (For the Levites [were] {more conscientious} to sanctify themselves than the priests.)

but they were not able to make it at that time, for the priests had not consecrated themselves {in sufficient numbers}, and the people had not been assembled in Jerusalem--

So they let the decree stand, {to make a proclamation} throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, to come to make a Passover feast to Yahweh the God of Israel.

And it happened [that] the runners were passing from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and up to Zebulun, but they were laughing at them and mocking them.

And they rose up and removed the altars that [were] in Jerusalem. And they removed all the incense altars and threw [them] away in the Wadi Kidron.

And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were disgraced, so they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of Yahweh.

Then they stood at their positions according to custom, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests were sprinkling the blood from the hand of the Levites.

For a majority of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves. But they ate the Passover sacrifice {otherwise than prescribed}, but Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, "May the good Yahweh make atonement unto

And Hezekiah spoke to the heart of all the Levites {who were skilled at service} to Yahweh. So they ate the feast seven days, offering peace offerings and giving thanks to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.

Then the whole assembly decided to make seven more days [of feasting], so they made seven [more] days with joy,

Then he said to the people, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to give a gift for the priests and the Levites, so that they might be strong in the law of Yahweh.

And the word spread. The Israelites gave abundantly [from] the firstfruits of grain, new wine, olive oil, honey, and all [kinds of] grains from the field. And they brought tithes of everything in abundance.

Then the people of Israel and Judah who were living in the cities of Judah, they also brought a tithe of cattle and sheep and a tithe of consecrated objects to Yahweh their God. And they gave heaps [upon] heaps.

In the third month the heaps began to pile up, and in the seventh month they ceased.

When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed Yahweh and his people Israel.

And Hezekiah commanded to prepare chambers in the house of Yahweh, and they were prepared.

Then they brought the offerings and tithes and holy objects faithfully. And over them [as] leader [was] Conaniah the Levite. And Shimei his brother [was] second [in rank].

And [they were] enrolled with all their little ones, their wives, their sons, and their daughters for the whole assembly because of their faithfulness. And they sanctified themselves in holiness.

he took counsel with his commanders and his mighty warriors to block off the waters of the springs that [came] from outside the city, and they helped him.

Then many people were gathered, and they blocked off all the springs and the river that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, "Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?"

Then they called with a great voice in Judean to the people of Jerusalem who [were] upon the wall to frighten them and terrify them, so that they could take the city captive.

And they spoke about the God of Jerusalem as about the gods of the peoples of the earth, the works of the hands of humankind.

Then King Hezekiah and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, prayed concerning this. And they cried to the heavens.

Now the remainder of the words of Hezekiah and his loyal love, behold, they are written in the visions of Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, upon the scroll of the kings of Judah and Israel.

And Hezekiah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the upper [part] of the burial sites of the descendants of David. And all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. And Manasseh his son became king in his place.

And Yahweh spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not listen.

So Yahweh brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria upon them, and they took Manasseh captive with hooks, and they bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.

Now the remainder of the words of Manasseh and his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, they [are] in the words of the kings of Israel.

And his prayer, and [how] he responded to him, all his sin and his unfaithful acts, and the places where he built the high places and set up Asherahs and idols before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the words of the seers.

And Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in his house. And Amon his son became king in his place.

And they came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave the money that was brought for the house of God, which the Levites, the guardians of the threshold, had gathered from the hand of Manasseh, Ephraim, and from the whole remnant of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And they delivered [it] into the hand of the workmen who were appointed in the house of Yahweh, and they [in turn] gave it to those doing the work who [were] at work in the house of Yahweh, to repair [and] restore the house.

And they dispensed [it] to the skilled craftsmen and the builders to buy stone [for] hewing and timber for the seams and for binding the houses that the kings of Judah had destroyed.

And when they brought out the money that had been brought [to] the house of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priest found a scroll of the law of Yahweh by the hand of Moses.

And Shaphan brought the scroll to the king and {also informed} the king, saying, "All that was put into the hand of your servants they are doing.