So then, O Yahweh our God, rescue us, please, from his hand, that all of the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Yahweh, you alone are God!"

Have you not heard? From long ago I have determined it, from the days of old I have planned it, and now I am bringing it to pass. It shall be turned into a pile of rocks; fortified cities are ruined.

" 'This will be the sign for you: Eat the volunteer plants for the year, and in the second year, the volunteer plants that spring up from that. But [in] the third year, sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Those who survive from Judah's household will again put down deep roots and bear fruit extensively,

For from Jerusalem a remnant shall go out and survivors from Mount Zion; the zeal of Yahweh will do this.

Isaiah had not gone out from the middle of the city when the word of Yahweh came to him, saying,

“Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the Lord’s temple.

I will add to your days fifteen years, and from the hand of the king of Assyria I will deliver you and this city. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of David my servant." '"

Now Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, "What is to be the sign that the LORD is healing me and that I'll be going up to the LORD's Temple three days from now?"

Isaiah said, "This [is] the sign for you from Yahweh that Yahweh will do the thing that he has promised: Shall the shadow advance ten steps or shall it return ten steps?"

Then Isaiah the prophet made prayer to the Lord, and he made the shade go back ten degrees from its position on the steps of Ahaz.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?" Hezekiah said, "From a far land; they have come from Babylon."

Then Isaiah replied to Hezekiah, "Listen to this message from the LORD:

'Your sons who went out from you, whom you brought forth, will be taken, and they shall be eunuchs in the temple 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 did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, according to the detestable things of the nations that Yahweh had driven out from the presence of the {Israelites}.

He put the image of the Asherah that he had made in the temple which Yahweh had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this temple and in Jerusalem which I have chosen from all of the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

I will not again make the feet of Israel wander from the land which I have given to their ancestors, if they only observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, as far as the law that Moses my servant commanded them."

But they would not hearken, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations that Jehovah had destroyed from before the children of Israel.

And I will put away from me the rest of my heritage, and give them up into the hands of their haters, who will take their property and their goods for themselves;

because they have done evil in my eyes and were provoking me from the day that their ancestors came out from Egypt up to this day.'"

Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he filled Jerusalem {from one end to another}, apart from his sin which he caused Judah to sin by doing evil in the eyes of Yahweh.

Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother [was] Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz from Jotbah.

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

Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother [was] Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath.

"Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and let them count the money being brought to the temple of Yahweh which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people,

But no accounting is to be required from them for the money put into their hands since they work with integrity.”

Then Shaphan the scribe informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." Then Shaphan read from it in the king's presence.

"Go, seek an oracle from the Lord for me and the people -- for all Judah. Find out about the words of this scroll that has been discovered. For the Lord's fury has been ignited against us, because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this scroll by doing all that it instructs us to do."

Say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to seek an oracle from the Lord: "This is what the Lord God of Israel says concerning the words you have heard:

Because thy heart was tender and thou wilt be humble from before Jehovah in thy hearing what I spake against this place, and against its inhabitants to be for desolation, and for a curse, and thou wilt rend thy garments and weep before me; and I also heard, says Jehovah.

Then the king went up [to] the temple of Yahweh, and all of the men of Judah and all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem [were] with him, [including] the priests, the prophets, and all of the people from smallest to greatest; and in their {hearing} he read all of the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been found in the temple of Yahweh.

And the king commandeth Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out from the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that are made for Baal, and for the shrine, and for all the host of the heavens, and he burneth them at the outside of Jerusalem, in the fields of Kidron, and hath borne their ashes to Beth-El.

He brought out the Asherah image from the temple of Yahweh outside of Jerusalem to the Wadi of the Kidron and burnt it {there}; then he pulverized [it] to dust and threw its dust upon the tombs of the children of the people.

Then he brought all of the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests from Geba up to Beersheba burned incense. He tore down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were on the left of each gate of the city.

He kept the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun from coming to the temple of Yawheh at the side room of Nathan-Melech the eunuch, which [was] in the court; and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire.

The altars which [were] on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the temple of Yahweh, the king tore down and ran from there and threw their ashes into the Wadi Kidron.

The king also defiled the high places that were across from Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the detestable idol of the Sidonians; for Chemosh, the detestable idol of Moab; and for Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.

When Josiah turned and saw the tombs which [were] there on the hill, he sent and took the bones from the tombs and burned [them] on the altar. [Thus] he defiled them according to the word of Yahweh that the man of God had proclaimed who had proclaimed these things.

Then he said, "What [is] this gravestone that I [am] seeing?" The men of the city said to him, "[This is the] tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel."

So Josiah said, "Let him rest and let no man move his bones." So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

For they had not kept this Passover from the days of the judges who had judged over Israel {or} [during] the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

However, Yahweh did not turn from the fierceness of his great anger which was kindled against Judah because of all of the provocations [with] which Manasseh had provoked him.

Yahweh had said, "Even Judah I will remove from my face, as I have removed Israel; I will reject this city that I have chosen, even Jerusalem and the house [of] which I said, 'My name shall be there'!"

So his servants drove him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, and they brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. The name of his mother [was] Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

Then Pharaoh Neco confined him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, from reigning in Jerusalem, and imposed a levy on the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

The silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh; however, he taxed the land to give the silver {to meet the demands of Pharaoh}. Each according to assessment, he exacted [payment] of the silver and the gold from the people of the land to give to Pharaoh Neco.

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother [was] Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah from Rumah

The LORD sent raiding parties from the Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites against Jehoiakim. He sent them against Judah to destroy it, in keeping with the message from the LORD that he had spoken through his servants, the prophets.

Surely, it was {on the command} of Yahweh against Judah to remove them from his sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done.

The king of Egypt did not again come out from his land, for the king of Babylon had taken [territory] from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. The name of his mother [was] Nehushta daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.

Then he took from there all of the treasures of the temple of Yahweh and the treasures of the palace of the king. He cut up all of the vessels of gold which Solomon the king of Israel had made in the temple of Yahweh, as Yahweh had foretold.

He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; the mother of the king, the wives of the king, his court officials, and the citizenry of the land he caused to go into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother [was] Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

For it happened because of the anger of Yahweh, in Jerusalem and in Judah, until they were cast out from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook him in the Arabah of Jericho, and all of his army scattered from him.

And the bronze pillars in the house of Jehovah, and the bases, and the bronze sea in the house of Jehovah, the Chaldeans broke into pieces and carried the bronze from them to Babylon.

From the city he took one court official who [was] chief officer over the men of war, five men {from the king's council} who were found in the city, the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men from the people of the land being found in the city.

Then the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath; thus Judah was removed from its land.

When all the captains of the armies, along with their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, these men visited Gedaliah at Mizpah: Nethaniah's son Ishmael, Kareah's son Johanan, Tanhumeth the Netophathite's son Seraiah, and Jaazaniah, who was descended from the Maacathites.

But it happened in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama from the offspring of the kingship came, and ten men with him, and they struck down Gedaliah so that he died with the Judeans and with the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

Then all the people, from youngest to oldest, and the commanders of the troops, went [to] Egypt, for they were afraid of the presence of the Chaldeans.

It happened in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month on the twenty-seventh of the month, lifted Evil-Merodach king of Babylon in the year that he became king, the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah from the house of imprisonment.

His allowance was continually given to him from the king, {a portion every day} all the days of his life.

the Pathrusim, the Casluhim (from whence the Philistines descended), and the Caphtorim.

When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned in his place.

When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.

When Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah reigned in his place.

When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth-by-the-River reigned in his place.

The sons of Judah: Er, Onan and Shelah; [these] three were born to him from Bathshua the Canaanite. Now Er, Judah's firstborn, [was] evil in the sight of Yahweh, and he put him to death.

And Geshur and Aram took Havvoth-Jair from them, Kenath and its villages, sixty cities. All these [were] the {descendants} of Makir, the father of Gilead.

And the families of Kiriath-Jearim: the Ithrites, the Puthites, the Shumathites, and the Mishraites. From these descended the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites.

And the families of the scribes who lived [at] Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Sucathites. These [were] the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Recab.

These were the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: The firstborn was Amnon, whose mother was Ahinoam from Jezreel; the second was Daniel, whose mother was Abigail from Carmel;

All are sons of David, apart from sons of the concubines, and Tamar their sister.

And Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that you would surely bless me and enlarge my border. And may your hand be with me, that you would keep me from evil so that it might not harm me!" And God granted what he asked.

The sons of Shelah the son of Judah: Er the father of Lecah, and Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of those who worked fine linen, from the house of Ashbea,

Jokim, the men of Cozeba, and Joash and Saraph, both of whom ruled in Moab and Jashubi Lehem. (This information is from ancient records.)

And they found fertile and good pasture, and the land [was] very broad, quiet, and at ease, for the former inhabitants there [were] from Ham.

And some of them from the Simeonites went to Mount Seir, five hundred men. And Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi, [were] under their leadership.

though Judah became strong among his brothers and a chief [came] from him, but the birthright belonged to Joseph).

and eastward he dwelt as far as the entrance to the wilderness from the river Euphrates; for their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead.

And in the days of Saul they made war with the Hagarites, and they will fall by their hand: and they dwelt in their tents upon all the face from the sunrising to Gilead.

And their brothers from the house of their fathers: Michael, and Meshullam, and Sheba, and Jorai, and Jachan, and Zia, and Heber, seven.

The sons of Reuben and the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh from the sons of strength, men lifting up shield and sword, and bending the bow, and accustomed to war; forty and four thousand and seven hundred and sixty going forth to war.

They captured 50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep, 2,000 donkeys, and 100,000 war captives from their possessions.

For many fell down wounded, for the war was from God. And they dwelt in their stead even to the exile.

And the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land, from Bashan as far as Baal-Hermon and Senir, and mount Hermon; they were many.

And they trespass against the God of their fathers, and go a-whoring after the gods of the peoples of the land whom God destroyed from their presence;

And these are they whom David stationed over the parts of the song of the house of Jehovah, from the resting of the ark,

These are the ones who served along with their sons: From the Kohathites: Heman the musician, son of Joel, son of Samuel,

Their relatives the Levites [who were not descended from Aaron] were appointed for all the other kinds of service of the tabernacle of the house of God.

These were the places assigned to Aaron’s sons from the Kohathite family for their settlements in their territory, because the first lot was for them.

And from the tribe of Benjamin, Geba with its pasturelands, Alemeth with its pasturelands, and Anathoth with its pasturelands. All their cities [were] thirteen cities throughout their clans.

To the Kohathites who remained from the family of the half-tribe, the half of Manasseh, [were given] by lot ten cities.

The Gershomites were assigned 13 towns from the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and Manasseh in Bashan according to their families.

The Merarites were assigned by lot 12 towns from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulun according to their families.

They allotted these previously named cities from the territory of the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin.