till I come and fetch you to as good a land as yours is: a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees, of oil and of honey. And ye shall live and not die. And hearken not unto Hezekiah for he will beguile you, saying: the LORD shall deliver us.'

Then king Hezekiah heard that, he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

Furthermore he sent Eliakim, steward of the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and the elders of the priests clothed in sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

And they said to him, "Thus sayeth Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of tribulation, rebuking and railing. Even as when the children are ready to be born, and the mothers have no power to be delivered.

O that the LORD thy God would hear all the words of Rabshakeh whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to rail on the living God, and to rebuke him with words which the LORD thy God hath heard. Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left."

When the servants of king Hezekiah were come to Isaiah,

Isaiah said to them, "So shall you say to your master: 'Thus sayeth the LORD: be not afraid of the words thou heardest, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have railed on me.

For I will send him a blast that he shall hear tidings, and so return to his own land: And I will overthrow him with the sword even in his own land.'"

"Thus say to Hezekiah king of Juda, 'Let not thy God carry thee out of the way, in whom thou so trustest, saying: Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Hath the gods of the heathen delivered them which mine ancestors have destroyed: as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?

When Hezekiah had received the letter of the hand of the messenger and had read it, he went into the house of the LORD and laid it abroad before the LORD.

LORD, bow thine ears and hear; Open LORD thine eyes and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to rail on the living God.

and have set fire on their gods. For they were no gods - but the work of the hands of man; even wood and stone. And therefore they destroyed them.

Whom hast thou railed on, and whom hast thou reviled? Against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and hast lift up thine eyes so high? Even against the holy one of Israel!

By the hand of thy messengers thou hast railed on the Lord and said, 'With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, even along by the sides of Lebanon, and have cut off the high Cedar trees, and the lusty fir trees thereof, even to the wood of Carmel that belongeth thereto!

And the inhabiters of them shall be of little power, and faint-hearted and confounded. They shall be like the grass of the field and green herbs, and as the hay on the tops of the houses which withereth afore it come to any height.

I know where thou dwellest, and thy coming out and going in know I too; and how thou settest up thy bristles against me.

And because thou settest up thy bristles against me, and that thy raging is come up to mine ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy nose and a bit in thy lips, and will bring thee back again the same way thou camest.

And this shall be a sign unto thee: In this year, eat that which is fallen. In the second year, such as groweth of itself. In the third year, sow and reap and plant vineyards; and eat the fruit thereof.

For I will defend this city and save it, for mine own sake and for David my servant's sake."

And the selfsame night the Angel of the LORD went out and smote, in the host of the Assyrians, a hundred and four score and five thousand. And when they were up early in the morning: behold, they were all dead corpses.

And as he was in his devotion kneeling in the house of Nisroch his God, Adrammelech and Sharezer smote him with the sword. And they escaped into the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

About that time Hezekiah was sick unto the death. And the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus sayeth the LORD: put thine household in an order, for thou shalt die and not live."

"Oh LORD, remember yet how I have walked before thee truly and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight," and wept a great pace.

And I will lengthen thy days yet fifteen years, and will deliver both thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city for mine own sake, and for David my servant's sake."

And Isaiah said, "Bring a lump of figs." And they brought and put it on the sore, and he recovered.

And Isaiah the Prophet called to the LORD, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward by which it had gone down, in the dial of Ahaz.

And Hezekiah hearkened unto them and showed them all that was in the spicery house, and his silver and gold and odours and precious ointments and his armory and all that was found in his treasure: there was nothing in his house or in all his realm, that he showed them not.

And he said, "What have they seen in thy house?" And Hezekiah said, "All that is in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasure that I have not showed them."

Behold, the day shall come, that all that is in thine house and that thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried to Babylon, and nothing shall be left, sayeth the LORD.

And of thy sons that proceeded out of thee, which thou begattest, shall there be carried away, and shall be made chamberlains in the palace of the king of Babylon."

And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "Welcome be the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken: so that peace and truth be kept in my days."

The remnant of the deeds of Hezekiah and all his power, and how he made a pool and a conduit and brought the water into the city, are written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

And Hezekiah laid him to rest with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem: his mother's name was Hephzibah.

And he built altars in the very house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem I will put my name."

And he built altars unto all the host of heaven, even in two courts of the house of the LORD.

And he offered his son in fire, and observed dismal days; and used witchcraft and maintained workers with spirits, and tellers of fortunes - and wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD to anger him.

And he put an image of a grove that he had made, even in the very temple of which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house and in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever.

And I will stretch over Jerusalem the squaring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab. And I will wipe out Jerusalem, as a man would wipe a dish, and when he hath wiped it, turneth it upside down.

And thereto Manasseh shed innocent blood exceeding abundantly, in so much that he replenished Jerusalem in all corners, beside his sin wherewith he made Judah sin and to do evil in the sight of the LORD.

The rest of the acts of Manasseh and all he did and his sin that he sinned, are written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

And Manasseh laid him to sleep with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, even in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

Amon was twenty two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the Idols that his father served, and bowed himself to them.

And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers and walked not in the way of the LORD.

And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew him in his own house.

But the people of the land slew all that conspired against king Amon, and made Josiah his son king in his room.

The rest of the acts of Amon which he did are written in the Chronicle of the Kings of Judah.

And they buried him in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.

Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

And he did that seemed right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and bowed neither to the righthand nor to the left.

And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the book of the law in the temple of the LORD." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

And then Shaphan the scribe went to the king and brought him word again, and said, "Thy servants poured out the silver that was found in the temple, and have delivered it unto the workmen that have the oversight of the house of the LORD."

"Go ye and seek of the LORD for me, and the people, and for all Judah; concerning the words of this book that is found. For it is a great wrath of the LORD that is kindled upon us, that our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do in all points as it is written therein."

And Hilkiah the high priest and Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went unto Huldah the Prophetess, wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah the son of Harahas keeper of the robes - which Prophetess dwelt in Jerusalem in the second ward - and communed with her.

thus sayeth the LORD: behold I will bring evil upon this place and on the dwellers therein - even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read -

Because thine heart did melt and thou meekedest thyself before me, the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place and the inhabiters of the same, how that it should be destroyed and made accursed: and tearest thy clothes and weepest before me: of that also I have heard sayeth the LORD.

And therefore, see, I will receive ye unto thy fathers and will fetch thee unto thy grave in peace, thine eyes shall see none of the evil which I will bring upon this place." And they brought the king word again.

And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabiters of Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the Prophets and all the people both small and great. And he read in the ears of them all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the LORD.

And the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the LORD that they should walk after the LORD, and keep his commandments and his witnesses and his ordinances with all their hearts and all their souls, and make good the words of the said covenant that were written in the foresaid book. And all the people consented to the covenant.

And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the inferior priests and the keepers of the door, to bring out of the temple of the LORD, all the vessels that were made for Baal and for the grove and for all the host of heaven. And he burnt them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried the ashes of them into Bethel.

And he put down the Chemarims which the kings of Judah had set to burn offerings in the hill altars in the cities of Judah round about Jerusalem and also them that burnt sacrifices unto Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

And he brake down the cells of the male whores that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove little houses for the grove.

And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the hill altars where the priests did burn sacrifice, even from Geba to Beersheba. And he brake down the hill altars of the Gates, that were in the entering of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left hand of the gate of the city.

Nevertheless, the priests of the hill altars came not up at the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, save only they did eat of the sweet bread among their brethren.

And he defiled Tophet also, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, because no man should offer his son or his daughter in fire to Moloch.

He put down the horses that the kings of Israel had given to the son at the entering of the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain which was the ruler of the suburbs, and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire.

And the altars that were on the top of the parlour of Ahaz which the king of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king brake down, and ran thence and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

And the hill altars that were before Jerusalem on the righthand of the mount Nashith, which Solomon king of Israel built to Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians and to Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and to Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, the king defiled:

And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the graves that were in the mount and sent and fetched the bones out of the graves and burnt them upon the altar and polluted it according to the word of the LORD that the man of God had proclaimed, which openly had denounced the same things.

And thereto all the houses of the hill altars of the cities of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made, to anger withal, Josiah put out of the way and did to them in all points as he did in Bethel.

And the king commanded all the people, saying, "Keep the feast of passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant."

And in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this passover holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.

And thereto workers with spirits, soothsayers, Images of witchcraft, idols and all other abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah put out of the way to make good the words of the law, which were written in the book that Helkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

The rest of the deeds of Josiah and all he did are written in the book of the Stories of the Kings of Judah.

In his days, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went against the king of Assyria to the river of Euphrates. And king Josiah went against him, and was slain of him at Megiddo when he had seen him.

And his servants carried him dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in his father's room.

And Jehoahaz was twenty three years old when he began to reign and reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

And he did that displeased the LORD, in all things as his fathers had done.

And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath in the time of his reign in Jerusalem, and put the land to a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away - which, when he came to Egypt, died there.

Jehoiakim was twenty five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned an eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

And he did that was evil-favored in the sight of the LORD, like in all things as did his fathers.

In his days came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years, and then turned and rebelled against him.

The rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all he did, are written in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.

And Jehoiakim laid him to sleep with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.

Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

And he did that displeased the eyes of the LORD in all points as his father did.

In his time came the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to Jerusalem and the city was besieged.

And Jehoiachin the king of Judah came out to the king of Babylon, with his mother, his servants, his lords and his chamberlains. And the king of Babylon took him, in the eighth year of his reign.

And he carried out thence all the treasure of the house of the LORD, and the treasure of the king's house, and brake all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made, in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.

And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father's brother, king in his stead, and changed his name and called him Zedekiah.

Zedekiah was twenty one years old when he began to reign and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, in all points like to Jehoiakim.

Therefore, in the ninth year of his reign, the tenth day of the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon with all his power to Jerusalem: and pitched against the town and made engines against it on every side.

And the ninth day of the fourth month of that year, there was so great hunger in the city, that there was no sustenance for the people of the land.

And thereto the city was broken up: wherefore all the men of arms fled by night, by a way through a gate, between two walls hard on the king's garden: the Chaldeans lying about the city. And the king went straight toward the desert.

And the host of the Chaldeans followed after him, and took him in the desert of Jericho, all his army being scattered away from him.

And when they had taken him, they brought him to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon to Riblah, where they reasoned with him.