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!

Hast thou not heard long ago that I have done it? And that from ancient days I formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

while their inhabitants, lacking strength, stand dismayed and confused. They were like vegetation out in the fields, and like green herbs just as grass that grows on a housetop dries out before it can grow.

Because you are raging against me, and your arrogance has come up in my ears, I will put my nose ring in your nose and my bridle in your mouth. And I will turn you back on the way that you have come.

" '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.

And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward;

For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, And out of mount Zion they that escape: The zeal of Jehovah of hosts shall do this.

By the way that he came to her he shall return; but to this city, he shall not come," declares Yahweh.

It happened in that night that an angel of Yahweh went out, and he struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of Assyria. When they got up early in the morning, look! All of them [were] dead corpses.

It happened that he [was] worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, and Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword. Then they escaped [into] the land of Ararat, and Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

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."

"O Yahweh, please remember how I went about before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and [remember] the good that I have done in your eyes." Then Hezekiah {wept bitterly}.

And it came to pass before Isaiah had gone out into the middle city that the word of Jehovah came to him saying,

Then Isaiah said, “Bring a cake of figs. And they brought it and placed it on the [painful] inflammation, and he recovered.”

Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What is the sign that Yahweh will heal me that I shall go up on the third day [to] the temple of Yahweh?"

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?"

And Hezekiah said, "It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees. Therefore I will not that: but let the shadow go backward ten degrees."

And Isaiah the prophet calleth unto Jehovah, and He bringeth back the shadow by the degrees that it had gone down in the degrees of Ahaz -- backward ten degrees.

At that time, Berodak-Baladan the son of Baladan king of {Babylon} sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been ill.

Hezekiah heard about them and showed them all of the house of his treasure, both the silver and the gold, the spices, the good olive oil, the room of his weapons, and all that could be found in his treasuries. There was nothing that he did not show them in his palace and in all of his kingdom.

Then he asked, "What did they see in your palace?" And Hezekiah said, "All that is in my palace they have seen; there is nothing that I did not show them in my treasuries."

'Look, days [are] coming when all that is in your palace will be carried off; [even] all that your ancestors have stored up until this day, to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says Yahweh.

And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be chamberlains in the palace of the king of Babylon.

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of Yahweh which you have spoken [is] good," and he thought, "Is it not that peace and security shall be in my days?"

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}.

And he built again the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars to Baal and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

And he made his son to pass through the fire, and practised augury, and used enchantments, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.

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 Manasseh did not listen and tempted them to do evil more than the nations that Yahweh destroyed before the presence of the {Israelites}.

Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols;

therefore thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.

I'll stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line that is Samaria and the plumb line that is Ahab's dynasty. Then I'll wipe Jerusalem like one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down!

And though I leave a remnant of mine inheritance, yet I will deliver them into the hands of them that hate them, and they shall be robbed and spoiled of all their enemies:

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 innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

The remainder of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin that he committed, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did Manasseh his father.

and he walked in all the way that his father had walked in, and served the idols that his father had served, and worshipped them;

But the people of the land smote all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.

The remainder of the acts of Amon that he did, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in all the way of David his father, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Jehovah, saying,

Go up to Hilkijah the high priest, that he may sum up the money which is brought into the house of Jehovah, which the doorkeepers have gathered of the people,

and let them give it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and let them give it to those that do the work in the house of Jehovah, to repair the breaches of the house,

that is, [have them give the money] to the carpenters and the builders and the masons—and to buy timber and cut stones to repair the house (temple).

But no reckoning was made with them of the money that was given into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.

And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again and said, Thy servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of Jehovah.

And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his garments.

"Go, inquire of Yahweh for me and for the people and for all of Judah concerning the words of this scroll [that was] found. For the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us [is] great because our ancestors did not listen to the words of this scroll to do according to all that is written concerning us!"

And she said to them, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: Tell the man that sent you to me,

"Thus says Yahweh, 'Look I am bringing evil to this place and upon its inhabitants, [according to] all of the words of that scroll that the king of Judah has read

Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my fury is kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.

And to the king of Judah who sent all of you to inquire of Yahweh, thus you shall say to him, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, '[Concerning] the words that you have heard,

Because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before Jehovah, when thou heardest what I spoke against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and didst rend thy garments and weep before me, I also have heard thee, saith Jehovah.

Therefore look, I am gathering you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your tombs in peace. Your eyes will not see all of the disaster that I am bringing onto this place.'" '" Then they {reported the word} to the king.

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 stood on the dais, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart, and with all his soul, to establish the words of this covenant that are written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.

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 abolished the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah, and the environs of Jerusalem; and them that burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

He broke down the houses of the sodomites, that were in the house of Yahweh, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.

howbeit, the priests of the high places came not up unto the altar of Yahweh, in Jerusalem, save only that they did eat unleavened bread in the midst of their brethren;

And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no man might cause his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

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.

And the king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Jehovah, and he shattered them, removing them from thence, and cast the powder of them into the torrent of Kidron.

And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

Moreover, the altar which [was] in Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin, had built, even that altar and the high place, [Josiah] tore down. Then he burned down the high place and crushed [the] pole of Asherah worship to dust and burned it with fire.

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."

And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. And they saved his bones, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.

And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke Jehovah to anger, Josiah removed, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.

And he sacrificed upon the altars all the priests of the high places that were there, and burned men's bones upon them. And he returned to Jerusalem.

For there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

Moreover, the mediums and the spiritists, the household gods and the idols, and all of the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah removed in order to establish the words of the law written on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found [in] the temple of Yahweh.

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.

Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.

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'!"

The remainder of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done.

And Pharaoh-Nechoh had him bound at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and laid a tribute upon the land of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

And, the silver and the gold, did Jehoiakim give unto Pharaoh, howbeit he assessed the land, that he might give the silver at the bidding of Pharaoh, - every man, according to his assessment, exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, that he might give it to Pharaoh-necoh.

He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that his ancestors had done.

So Yahweh sent against him raiding bands of Chaldeans, raiding bands of Aram, raiding bands of Moab, and raiding bands of the {Ammonites}. He had sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahweh that he had spoken by the hand of 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.

Also, [for] the blood of the innocent that he had shed--and he filled Jerusalem [with] innocent blood--Yahweh was not willing to forgive.

The remainder of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, [are] they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?

And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt, from the torrent of Egypt to the river Euphrates.

He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that his father had done.

At that time, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came [to] Jerusalem, and the city came under the siege.

And he brought out thence all the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of Jehovah, as Jehovah had said.

And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and artificers and smiths a thousand, all that were strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.

He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh [just] like all that Jehoiakim had done.

For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

It happened that in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came, he and his army, against Jerusalem. He encamped against it and built siege works against it all around.

On the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

The enemy broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king's garden. (The Babylonians were all around the city.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.

In the fifth month, on the seventh of the month, that is, the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, a commander of the imperial guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came [to] Jerusalem.

And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the captain of the body-guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

And Nebuzar-adan the captain of the body-guard carried away captive the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters that had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.