The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his palace.

But the people of the land killed all who conspired against the king and made Josiah his son king in his place.

They buried him in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in place of him.

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.

He did right in the eyes of Yahweh, and he walked in all of the way of David his ancestor and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

"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,

and let them give it into the hand of those appointed doers of the work at the temple of Yahweh. Let them give it to the doers of the work who [are] at the temple of Yahweh to repair the breach of the temple:

to the skilled craftsmen, to the builders, to the masons, and to buy timber and hewing stones to repair the temple.

Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the scroll of the Torah in the temple of Yahweh," and Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it.

Shaphan the secretary came to the king and returned the king a word, and he said, "Your servant poured out the money found in the temple, and they have given it into the hand of the doers of the work appointed [over] the temple of Yahweh."

Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Acbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the servant of the king, saying,

"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!"

So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah the son of Harhas, the keeper of the robes. Now she [was] living in Jerusalem in the second district. Then they spoke to her,

and she said to them, "Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel, 'Say to the man who 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 abandoned me and they have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to anger with all of the works of their hands. My wrath shall be kindled against this place and 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 you have a responsive heart, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh when you heard how I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants to become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before my face, I have also heard, declares Yahweh.

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.

So the king sent [word], and all of the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him.

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.

Then the king stood by the pillar, and he {made} a covenant before Yahweh, to go after Yahweh and to keep his commands and his warnings and his statutes, with all of [his] heart and with his all of his soul, to keep the words of this covenant written on this scroll. Then all of the people {joined} in the covenant.

Then the {king} commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the second priests, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all of the objects made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and then he carried their ashes to Bethel

He removed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained [to] burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem and who offered incense to, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.

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 high places which [were] east of Jerusalem, which [were] on the south of the Mountain of Destruction which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab and for Molech the detestable thing of the {Ammonites}, the king defiled.

He also broke into pieces the stone pillars and cut down the Asherah poles and covered their sites [with] human bones.

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."

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.

Moreover, all of the shrines of the high places which [were] in the towns of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [Yahweh], Josiah removed, and he did to them like all of the deeds he had done in Bethel

Then he slaughtered all of the priests of the high places who [were] there, on the altars, and he burned the bones of the humans on them. Then he returned [to] Jerusalem.

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.

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.

There was not a king like him before him, who turned to Yahweh with all of his heart and with all of his soul and with all of his might according to the law of Moses, nor did one arise like him afterwards.

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?

In his days, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to meet him, and he killed him at Megiddo as soon as he saw him.

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.

Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father, and he changed his name to Jehoiakim. Then he took Jehoahaz and brought [him] to Egypt, and he died there.

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

In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up [because] Jehoiakim had become his servant [for] three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.

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.

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?

So Jehoiakim slept with his ancestors, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.

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.

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

Jehoiachin king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his court officials. The king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.

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 all of Jerusalem: all of the commanders, ten thousand of the skilled warriors, and the artisans; no one was left over except the poorest of the people of the land.

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:

of all of the skilled men, seven thousand, and [of] the skilled craftsmen and the artisans, one thousand. All of the mighty warriors {fit for war} the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.

Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his uncle king in his place and changed his name [to] Zedekiah.

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.

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.

In the ninth month, the famine became severe in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land.

Then the city was breached, and all of the men of war [entered] by night by way of the gate between the wall which was by the garden of the king, and the Chaldeans [were] against the city all around, so he left by the way of the Arabah.

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.

So they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and {they passed sentence on him}.

They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; then they blinded the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in bronze fetters and brought him [to] Babylon.

He burned the temple of Yahweh, the palace of the king, and all of the houses of Jerusalem; every large house he burned with fire.

He and all the army of [the] Chaldeans who [were with] the imperial guard tore down the wall of Jerusalem all around.

The remainder of the people left in the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the remainder of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard deported.

But the poor of the land the commander of the imperial guard left for the vineyards and for tilling.

The bronze pillars which [were in] the temple of Yahweh, the water carts, and the bronze sea that was in the temple of Yahweh, the Chaldeans broke into pieces and carried their bronze to Babylon.

The pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the dishes, and the vessels of bronze with which they served there, they took.

The firepans and the basins, whatever was gold, the commander of the imperial guard took [for] the gold and whatever was silver, [for] the silver.

The two pillars, the one sea, and the water cart which Solomon had made for the temple of Yahweh, there was no weighing to the bronze of all of these vessels.

The height of the one pillar [was] eighteen cubits; a bronze capital was on it, with the height of the capital [being] three cubits. The latticework and pomegranates on the capital all around were bronze, and likewise on the latticework for the second pillar.

Then the commander of the imperial guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and three of the threshold keepers.

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.

Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

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 of the commanders of the troops heard, they and the men, that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, [even] Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan the son of Kareah, Seriah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.

Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and he said to them, "You must not be afraid because of the Chaldeans. Settle in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and may it go well with you."

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.

He spoke {kindly} to him, and he gave him a better seat than the seat of the kings who [were] with him in Babylon.

So he changed the clothes of his imprisonment, and he ate food continually in his presence all the days of his life.

Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Diphath, and Togarmah.

The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rhodanim.

The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raamah, and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

And Cush fathered Nimrod; he himself began to be mighty on earth.

And Mizraim fathered the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim,

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

And Canaan fathered Zidon his firstborn, and Heth,

and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites,

the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites.