David's last days. The intrigues of Adonijah

1- 1 King David was an old man well on in years though they laid coverlets over him he could not keep warm. 2 So his servants said to him, "Let some young girl be found for my lord the king, to wait on the king and look after him; she shall lie on him and this will keep my lord the king warm." 3 Having searched for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel, they found Abishag of Shunem and brought her to the king. 4 The girl was of great beauty. She looked after the king and waited on him but the king had no intercourse with her. 5 Now Adonijah, Haggith's son, was ambitious; he thought he might be king; accordingly he produced a chariot and team with fifty men to run in front of him. 6 At no time in his life had his father ever crossed him by asking, "Why do you behave like this?" He was also very handsome; his mother had given birth to him after Absalom. 7 He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar who rallied to Adonijah's cause; 8 but neither Zadok the priest, nor Shimei and his companions, David's champions, supported Adonijah.

9 One day when Adonijah was sacrificing sheep and oxen and fattened calves at the sliding Stone which is inside the Fuller's Spring, he invited all his brothers, the royal princes, and all the men of Judah in the king's service; 10 but he did not invite the prophet Nathan, or the champions, or his brother Solomon.

The intrigues of Nathan and Bathsheba

11 Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, "Have you not heard that unknown to our lord David, Adonijah, Haggith's son, has become king? 12 Well, this is my advice to you if you want to save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. 13 Go straight in to King David and say, 'My lord king, did you not make your servant this promise on oath: Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne? How is it, then, that Adonijah is king?" 14 And while you are still talking to the king, I will come in after you and confirm what you say."

15 So Bathsheba went to the king in his room(he was very old and Abishag of Shunem was in attendance on him). 16 She knelt down and did homage to the king, and the king said, "What is your wish?" 17 "My lord," she answered, "you swore this to your servant by Yahweh your God, 'Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne.' 18 And now here is Adonijah king and you, my lord king, knowing nothing about it. 19 He has sacrificed quantities of oxen and fattened calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the army commander; but he has not invited your servant Solomon. 20 Yet you are the man, my lord king, to whom all Israel looks, to name for them the successor of my lord the king. 21 And when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, my son Solomon and I will be made to suffer for this."

22 She was still speaking when the prophet Nathan entered. 23 "The prophet Nathan is here." They told the king; and he came into the king's presence and bowed down to the ground on his face before the king. 24 "My lord king," said Nathan, "is this then your decree: 'Adonijah is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne?' 25 For he has gone down today and sacrificed quantities of oxen and fattened calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the army chiefs, and the priest Abiathar; and they are there now, eating and drinking in his presence and shouting, 'Long live king Adonijah!' 26 He has not, however, invited me your servant, Zadok the priest, Banaiah son of Jehoiada, or your servant Solomon. 27 Is this with my lord the king's approval? Or have you not told those loyal to you who is to succeed to the throne of my lord the king?"

Solomon is consecrated king at David's nomination

28 Then King David spoke. "Call Bathsheba to me," he said. And she came into the king's presence and stood before him. 29 Then the king swore this oath, "As Yahweh lives, who has delivered me from all adversary, 30 just as I swore to you by Yahweh the God of Israel that your son Solomon should be king after me and take my place on the throne, so I will bring it about this very day." 31 Bathsheba knelt down, her face to the ground, and did homage to the king. "May my lord King David liver for ever!" she said. 32 Then King David said, "Summon Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan and Benaiah son of Jehoiada." So they came into the king's presence. 33 "Take the royal guard with you," said the king, "mount my son Solomon on my own mule ans escort him down to Gihon. 34 There Zadok the priest and the prophet Nathan are to anoint him king of Israel; then sound the trumpet and shout, 'Long live King Solomon!" 35 Then you are to follow him up and he is to come and take his seat on my throne and be king in place of me, for he is the man I have appointed as ruler of Israel and of Judah." 36 Benaiah son of Jehoiada answered the king. "Amen!" he said, "And may Yahweh too say Amen to the words of my lord the king! 37 As Yahweh has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon and make his throne even greater than the throne of my lord King David!"

38 Then Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites went down; they mounted Solomon on King David's mule and escorted him to Gihon. 39 Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the Tent and anointed Solomon. They sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, "Long live King Solomon!" 40 The people all followed him up, with pipes playing and loud rejoicing and shouts to split the earth.

Adonijah is afraid

41 Adonijah and his guests, who had by then finished their meal, all heard the noise. Joab too heard the sound of the trumpet and said, "What is that noise of uproar in the city?" 42 While he was still speaking, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest arrived. "Come in," Adonijah said, "you are an honest man, so you must be bringing good news." 43 "Yes," Jonathan answered, "our lord King David has made Solomon king. 44 The king sent Zadok the priest with him, and the prophet Nathan and Benaiah son of Jehoiada and the Cherethites; they mounted him on the king's mule, 45 and Zadok the priest and the prophet Nathan anointed him king at Gihon; and they went up from there with shouts of joy and the city is now in an uproar; that was the noise you hear. 46 What is more, Solomon is seated on the royal throne. 47 And further, the king's officers have been to congratulate our lord King David with the words, 'May your God make the name of Solomon more glorious even than yours, and his throne more exalted than your own!' And the king bowed down on his bed, 48 and then said, 'Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has allowed my eyes to see one of my descendants sitting on my throne today.'"

49 At this, all Adonijah's guests, taking fright, rose and made off in their several directions. 50 Adonijah, in terror of Solomon, rose too and ran off to cling to the horns of the altar. 51 Solomon was told, "You should know that Adonijah is in terror of King Solomon and is now clinging to the horns of the altar, saying, 'Let King Solomon first swear to me that he will not have his servant put to the sword.'" 52 "Should he bear himself honourably," Solomon answered, "not one hair of his shall fall to the ground; but if he is found malicious, he shall die." King Solomon then sent for him to be brought down from the altar; he came and did homage to King Solomon; Solomon said to him, "Go to your house."

David's testament. His death

2- 1 As David's life drew to its close he laid this charge on his son Solomon, 2 "I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong and show yourself a man. 3 Observe the injunctions of Yahweh your God, following his way and keeping his laws, his commandments, his cstoms and his decrees, as it stands written in the Law of Moses, that so you may be successful in all you do and undertake, 4 so that Yahweh may fulfill the promise he made me, 'if your sons are careful how they behave, and walk loyally before me with all their heart and soul, you shall never lack for a man on the throne of Israel.'

5 "You know too what Joab son of Zeruiah did for me, and what he did to the two commanders of the army of Israel, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether; how he murdered them, how in time of peace he took vengeance for the blood shed in war, staining the belt around my waist and the sandals on my feet with innocent blood. 6 You will be wise not to let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace. 7 As regards the sons of Barzillai of Gilead, treat themkindly, let them be among those who eat at your table, for they were as kind to me when I was fleeing from your brother Absalom. 8 You also have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim. He called down a terrible curse on me the day I left for Mahanaim, but he came down to meet me at the Jordan and I swore to him by Yahweh I would not put him to the sword. 9 But you, you must not let him go unpunished; you are a wise man and will know to deal with him to bring his gray head down to Sheol in blood."

10 So David slept with his ancestors and was buried in the Citadel of David. 11 David's reign over Israel forty years: he reigned in Hebron for seven years, and in Jerusalem for thirty-three.

The death of Adonijah

12 Solomon was seated upon the throne of David, and his sovereignty was securely established.

13 Adonijah's, Haggith's son, went to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon and bowed down before her. "Do you bring peace?" she asked. He answered, "Yes, peace." 14 Then he said, "I have something to say to you." "Speak," she replied, 15 "You know," he said, "that the kingdom should have come to me, and that all Israel expected me to be king; but the crown eluded me and fell to my brother, since it came to him by Yahweh. 16 Now I have one request to make you; do not refuse me." "Speak," she said. 17 He went on, "Please ask King Solomon - for he will not refuse you - to give Abishag of Shunem in marriage." 18 "Very well," Bathsheba replied, "I will speak to the king about you." 19 So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah; the king rose to meet her and bowed before her; he then sat on his throne; a seat was brought for the mother of the king, and she sat down at his right hand. 20 She said, "I have one small request to make you; do not refuse me." "My mother," the king answered, "make your request, for I will not refuse you." 21 "Let Abishag of Shunem," she said, "be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah." 22 King Solomon answered his mother, "And why," he said, "do you request Abishag of Shunem for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him, since he is my elder brother and Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah are on his side." 23 And King Solomon swore to Yahweh: "May God do this to me and more," he said, "if Adonijah does not pay for these words of his with his life! 24 As Yahweh lives who has set me securely on the throne of David my father, and who, as he promised, has given im a dynasty, Adonijah shall be put to death this very day." 25 And King Solomon commissioned Benaiah son of Jehoiada to strike him down, and he died.

The fate of Abiathar and Joab

26 As for Abiathar the priest, the king said to him, "Go to Anathoth to your estate. You deserve to die, but I am not going to put you to death now, since you carried the ark of Yahweh in the presence of David my father and shared all my father's hardships." 27 Solomon deprived Abiathar of the priesthood of Yahweh, thus fulfilling the oracle Yahweh uttered against the House of Eli at Shiloh.

28 When the news reached Joab - for Joab had lent his support to Adonijah, though 32 he had not supported Absalom - he fled to the Tent of Yahweh and clung to the horns of the altar. 29 King Solomon was told, "Joab has fled to the Tent of Yahweh; he is there beside the altar." Then Solomon sent word to Joab, "What reason did you have for fleeing to the altar?" Joab replied, "I was afraid of you and fled to Yahweh." Then Solomon sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada. "Go," he said, "and strike him down." 30 Accordingly Benaiah went to the Tent of Yahweh. "By order of the king," he said, "come out!" "No," he said, "I will die here." So Benaiah brought back word to the king, "This is what Joab said, and the answer he gave me." 31 "Do as he says," the king replied. "Strike him down and bury him, and so rid me and my family today of the innocent blood Joab has shed. Yahweh will bring his blood on his own head, because he struck down two more honourable and better men tan he, and put to the sword, without my father David's knowledge, Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah. 33 May their blood come down on the head of Joab and his descendants for ever, but may David, his descendants, his dynasty, his throne, have peace for ever from Yahweh." 34 Whereupon Benaiah son of Jehoiada went out, struck Joab and put him to death; he was buried at his home in the wilderness. 35 In his place as head of the army the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada and, in place of Abiathar, Zadok the priest.

The disobedience and death of Shimei

36 The king had Shimei summoned to him. "Built yourself a house in Jerusalem," he told him, "you are to live there; do not move anywhere else. 37 The day you go out and cross the wadi Kidron, be sure you will certainly die. Your blood will be on your own head." 38 "Very well," Shimei answered the king, "your servant will do as my lord the king orders." And for a long time Shimei lived in Jerusalem.

39 But when three years had gone by, it happened that two of Shimei's slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath; Shimei was told, "Your slaves are in Gath." 40 At this, Shimei set about saddling his donkey and went to Achish at Gath to find his slaves. He went off and brought his slaves back from Gath. 41 Solomon was informed that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back.

42 The king had Shimei summoned to him. "Did I not make you swear by Yahweh," he said, "and did I not solemnly warn you: The da you go out to go anywhere else, be sure you will certainly die? 43 Why did you not keep the oath of Yahweh and the order I laid on you? 44 You know all the evil you did to my father David," the king went on. "Yahweh will bring wickedness down on your head. 45 But may King Solomon be blessed, and may the throne of David be kept before Yahweh for ever." 46 The king gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he went out and struck down Shimei; and he died.

And now the sovereignty was securely in the hands of Solomon.

Introduction

3- 1 Solomon allied himself by marriage with Pharaoh king of Egypt; he married Pharaoh's daughter, and took her to the Citadel of David until he could complete the building of his palace and the Temple of Yahweh and the wall surrounding Jerusalem. 2 The people, however, were still sacrificing on the high places, because at that time a dwelling place for the name of Yahweh had not yet been built. 3 Solomon loved Yahweh; he followed the precepts of David his father, except that he offered sacrifice and incense on the high places.

Solomon's dream at Gibeon

4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, since that was the greatest of the high places - Solomon offered a thousand holocausts on that altar. 5 At Gibeon Yahweh appeared in a dream to Solomon during the night. God said, "Ask what you would like me to give you." 6 Solomon replied, "You showed great kindness to your servant David, my father when he lived his life before you in faithfulness and justice and integrity of heart; you have continued this great kindness to him by allowing a son of his to sit on his throne today. 7 Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king in succession to David my father. But I am a very young man, unskilled in leadership. 8 Your servant finds himself in the midst of this people of yours that you have chosen, a people so many its number cannot be counted or reckoned. 9 Give your servant a heart to understand how to discern between good and evil, for who could govern this people of yours that is so great?" 10 It pleased Yahweh that Solomon should have asked for this. 11 "Since you have asked for this," Yahweh said, "and not asked for long life for yourself or riches or the lives of your enemies, but have asked for a discerning judgment for yourself, 12 here and now I do what you ask. I give you a heart wise and shrewd as none before you has had and none will have after you. 13 What you have not asked I shall give you too; such riches and glory as no other king ever had. 14 And I will give you long life, if you follow my ways, keeping my laws and commandments, as your father David followed them." 15 Then Solomon awoke; it was a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh; he offered holocausts and communion sacrifices, and held a banquet for all his servants.

The judgment of Solomon

16 Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 "If it please you, my lord," one of the women said, "This woman and I live in the same house, and while she was in the house I gave birth to a child. 18 Now it happened on the third day after my delivery that this woman also gave birth to a child. We were alone together; there was no one else in the house with us; just the two of us in the house. 19 Now one night this woman's son died; she overlaid him. 20 And in the middle of the night she got up and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep; she put him to her breast and put her own dead son to mine. 21 When I got up to suckle my child, there he was, dead. But in the morning I looked at him carefully, and he was not the child I had borne at all." 22 Then the other woman spoke. "That is not true! My son is the live one, yours is the dead one"; and the first retorted, "That is nor true! Your son is the dead one, mine is the live one." And so they wrangled before the king. 23 "This one says," the king observed. "'My son is the one who is alive,' while the other says, 'That is not true! Your son is the dead one, mine is the live one.' 24 Bring me a sword," said the king; and a sword was brought into the king's presence. 25 Cut the living child in two," the king said. "And give half to one, half to the other." 26 At this the woman who was the mother of the living child addressed the king, for she burned with pity for her son. "If you please, my lord," she said, "let them give her the child; only do not let them think of killing it!" But the other said, "He shall belong to neither of us. Cut him up." 27 Then the king gave his decision. "Give the child to the first woman," he said, "and do not kill him. She is his mother." 28 All Israel came to hear of the judgment the king had pronounced, and held the king in awe, recognizing that he possessed divine wisdom for dispensing justice.

Solomon's high officials

4- 1 King Solomon was king over all Israel, 2 and these were his high officials:

Azariah son of Zadok, priest,

3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, sons of Shisha, secretaries,

Jehoshaphat son of Ahild, recoder.

4 (Benaiah son of Jehoiada, commander of the army.

Zadok and Abiather, priests.)

5 Azariah son of Nathan, chief administrator.

Zahud son of Nathan, Friend of the King,

6 and his brother, master of the palace.

Eliab son of Joab, commander of the army.

Adoram son of Abda, in charge of forced labour.

Solomon's administrators

7 Solomon had twelve administrators for the whole of Israel who saw to the provisioning of the king and his household; each had to provide for one month in the year.

8 These are their names:

. . son of Hur, in the mountain country of Ephraim.

9 . . . son of Deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-shemesh,

Aijalon as far as Beth-hanan.

10 . . . son of Hesed, in Arubboth; his district was Socoh

and all the land of Hepher.

11 . . . son of Abinadab: the wholw region of Dor.

Taphath, Solomon's daughter, was his wife.

12 Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo

as far as the other side of Jokmeam, and

all Beth-shean below Jezreel, from Beth-shean

as far as Abel Meholah, which is beside Zarethan.

13 . . . son of Geber, in Ramoth-gilead; his district was

the Encampment of Jair, son of Manasseh, which

are in Gilead; he had the region of Argob, which

is in Bashan, sixty fortified towns, walled-in

and with bolts of bronze.

14 Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim,

15 Ahimaaz in Naphtali; he too married a daughter of Solomon, Basemath.

16 Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and in the highlands.

17 Johoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar.

18 Shimai son of Ela, in Benjamin.

19 Geber son of Uri, in the land of Gad, the land of Shion

king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan.

In addition, there was one governor in the land.

5- These administrators provided the food for Solomon and for all those who were admitted by him to the royal table, each for a period of a month; they saw t it that nothing was wanting. They also provided the barley and straw for the horses and draft animals, where required, each according to his own assignment. The daily provisions for Solomon were: thirty measures of fine flour and sixty measures of meal, ten fatten oxen, twenty free-grazing oxen, one hundred sheep, beside deer and gazelles, roebucks and fatten cuckoos. For he was maser of all Transeuphrates - of all the kings of Transeuphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza - and he enjoyed peace on all his frontiers. Judah and Israel lived in security, each man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, throughout the lifetime of Solomon.

Judah and Israel were like the sand of the sea for number; they ate and drank and lived happily. Solomon extended his power over all the kingdoms from the river to the land of the Philistines and the Egyptian border. They brought tribute and served him all his life long. For his chariots Solomon had four thousand stalls and twelve thousand horses.

Solomon's fame

Yahweh gave Solomon immense wisdom and understanding, and a heart as vast as the sand on the seashore. The wisdom of Solomon surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the East, and all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than any other, wiser than the Ezrahite, wiser than Heman and Calcol and Darda, the cantors. He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He talk about plants from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing of the wall; and he could talk of animals, and birds and reptiles and fish. Men from all nations came to hear Solomon's wisdom, and he received gifts from all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.

Preparations for building the Temple

Hiram the king of Tyre sent an embassy to Solomon, having learned that he had been anointed king in succession to his father and because Hiram had always been a friend of David. And Solomon sent this message to Hiram, "You are aware that David my father was unable to build a temple for the name of Yahweh, his God, because his enemies waged war on him from all sides, until Yahweh should put them under his control. But now Yahweh my God has given me rest on every side: not one enemy, no calamities. I therefore plan to build a temple for the name of Yahweh my God, just as Yahweh said to David my father, 'Your son whom I will place on your throne to succeed you shall be the man to build a temple for my name.' So now have cedar from Lebanon cut down for me; my servants will work with your servants, and I will pay for the hire of your servants at whatever rate you fix. As you know, we have no one as skilled in felling trees as the Sidonians." When Hiram heard what Solomon had said, he was delighted. "Now blessed be Yahweh," he said, "who has given David a wise son to rule over this great people!" And Hiram sent word to Solomon, "I have received your message. For my part, I will supply all you want in the way of cedar wood and juniper. Your servants will bring these down from Lebanon to the sea, and I shall have them towed by sea to anyplace you name; I shall discharge them there, and you will take them over. For your part, you will see to the provisioning of my household as I direct. So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar wood and juniper he wanted, while Solomon gave twenty thousand kors of wheat to feed his household, and twenty thousand kors of pure oil. Solomon gave Hiram tis every year. Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised him; good relations persisted between Solomon and Hiram, and the two of them concluded a treaty.

King Solomon raised a levy throughout Israel for forces labour: the levy numbered thirty thousand men. He sent these to Lebanon in relays, ten thousand a month; they spent one month and two months at home. Adoram was in charge of the forced labour. Solomon had also seventy porters and eighty thousand quarrymen in the mountains, as well as the administrators''officials who supervised the work, three thousand three hundred of them in charge of the men employed in the work. At the king's orders they quarried huge stones, special stones, for the laying of the temple foundations, dressed stones. Solomon's workmen and Hiram's workmen and the Giblites cut and assembled the wood and stone for the building of the Temple.

The Tempe building

6- 1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over the Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the Temple of Yahweh. 2 The Temple that King Solomon built was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and twenty-five in height. 3 The Ulam in front of the Hekal of the Temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the Temple and ten cubits wide along the length of the Temple. 4 He made windows for the Temple with frames and latticework. 5 He also built an annex against the Temple wall, around the Hekal and the Debir, and made side tiers all around. 6 The lower story was five cubits wide, the middle one six cubits, and the third seven cubits, for around the Temple on the outside he had placed offsets so that this was not attached to the Temple walls. 7 (The building of the Temple was done with quarry-dressed stone; no sound of hammer or pick or any iron tool was to be heard in the Temple while it was being built.) 8 The entrance to the lower story was at the right-hand corner of the Temple, and access to the middle story above was by trap doors, and so from the middle story to the third. 9 He built the Temple, completed it, and covered it with cedar wood. 10 He built the annex on to the whole length of the Temple; it was five cubits high and was attached to the Temple by beams of cedar wood. 11 and the word of Yahweh came to Solomon, 12 "Tis house you are building . . . if you follow my statutes and obey my ordinances and faithfully follow me commandments, I will fulfil that promise I made about you to your father David. 13 And I will make my home among the sons of Israel, and never forsake Israel my people." 14 Solomon built the Temple, and completed it.

Interior furnishings. The Holy of Holies

15 He lined the inside of the Temple walls with panels of cedar wood - panelling them on the inside from the floor of the Temple to the rafters in the roof - and laid the floor of the Temple with juniper planks. 16 The twenty cubits measured from the end of the Temple he built of cedar planks from floor to rafters, and this part was reserved as the Debir, the Holy of Holies. 17 The Temple measured forty cubits - in front of the Debir. 18 There was cedar wood around the inside of the Temple, ornamentally carved with gourds and rosettes; all was cedar, with no stone showing. 19 In the inner part of the Temple he designed a Debir, to contain the ark of the covenant of Yahweh. 20 The Debir was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty high, and he plated it on the inside with pure gold. He made an altar of cedar wood 21 in front of the Debir and plated it with gold. 22 He plated the whole Temple with gold, the whole Temple entirely.

The cherubs

23 In the Debir he made two cherubs of olive wood . . . It was ten cubits high. 24 One cherub's wing was five cubits long and the other wing five cubits: ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip. 25 The other cherub also measured ten cubits; both cherubs had the same measurements and the same shape. 26 The height of one cherub was the same as the other's. 27 He placed the cherubs in the middle of the inner chamber; their wings spread out so that the wing of one touched one of the walls and the wing of he other touched the other wall, while their wings met in the middle of the chamber, wing to wing. 28 And he plated the cherubs with gold. 29 All around the Temple walls he carved figures of cherubs, palm trees and rosettes, both inside and outside. 30 He plated the floor of the Temple with gold, both inside and outside.

The doors. The court

31 He made the door of the Debir with uprights of olive wood, and five-sided door jambs, 32 and the two leaves of olive wood. He carved figures of Cherubs, palm trees and rosettes which he plated with gold; he put a gold surface on the cherubs and palm trees. 33 Similarly, he made uprights of olive wood for the door of the Hekal, and four-sided door jambs, 34 and the two leaves of juniper: one leaf had two ribs binding it, and the other two ribs binding it. 35 He carved cherubs, palm trees and rosettes, which he plated with gold laid evenly over the carvings.

36 He built the wall of the inner court in three courses of dressed stone and one course of cedar beams.

The date

37 In the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, the foundations of the Temple were laid; 38 in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul - that is, the eighth month - the Temple was completed exactly as it had been designed. Solomon took seven years to built it.

Solomon palace

7- 1 As regards his palace, Solomon spent thirteen years on it before the building was completed. 2 He built the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon, a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, on four rows of cedar wood pillars with cedar capitals on the pillars. 3 It was panelled in cedar on the upper part as far as the planks above the pillars. 4 There were three rows of architraves, forty-five in all, that is, fifteen in each row, facing one another from three sides. 5 Al the doors and uprights were of rectangular design, facing one another from three sides. 6 And he made the Hall of Pillars, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide . . . With a porch in front. 7 He also made the Hall of the throne where he used to dispense justice, that is, the Hall of Justice; it was panelled in cedar from floor to rafters. 8 His own living quarters, in the other court and inward from the Hall, were the same construction. And there was a house similar to his Hall for the daughter of Pharaoh whom he had taken in marriage.

9 All these buildings were of special stones cut to measure, trimmed on the inner and outer sides with the saw, right from the foundations to the wood course 10 - their foundations were of special stones, huge stones of ten and eight cubits, 11 and, above these, special stones, cut to measure, and cedar wood - 12 and, on the outside, the great court had three courses of dressed stone around it and one course of cedar beams; so also had the inner court of the Temple of Yahweh and the vestibule of the Temple.

Hiram, the bronze worker

13 King Solomon sent for Hiram of Tyre; 14 he was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali but his father had been a Tyrian, a bronze worker. He was a highly intelligent craftsman, skilled in all types of bronze work. He came t King Solomon and did all this work for him:

The bronze pillars

15 He cast two bronze pillars; the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a cord twelve cubits long gave the measurement of its girth; so also was the second pillar. 16 He made two capitals of cast bronze for the tops of the pillars; the height of one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other five cubits. 17 He made two sets of filigree to cover the moulding of the two capitals surmounting the pillars, one filigree for one capital and one filigree for the other capital. 18 He also made pomegranates: two rows of them around each filigree, 19 four hundred in all. 20 applied on the raised moulding behind the filigree; there were two hundred pomegranates around one capital and the same around the other capital. 21 The capitals surmounting the pillars were flower-shaped. He set up the pillars in front of the vestibule of the sanctuary; he set up the right-hand pillar and named it Jachin; he set up the left-hand pillar and named it Boaz. 22 So the work on the pillars was completed.

The bronze "Sea"

23 He made the Sea of cast metal, ten cubits from rim to rim, circular in shape and five cubits high; a cord thirty cubits long gave the measurement of the girth. 24 Under its rim and encircling it were gourds; they went around the Sea over a length of thirty cubits; the gourds were in two rows, of one and the same casting with the rest. 25 It rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, three facing east; on these, their hindquarters all turned inward, stood the Sea. 26 It was a hand's breadth in thickness, and its rim was shaped like the rim of a cup, like a flower. It held two thousand baths.

The wheeled stands and the bronze basins

27 He made the ten stands of bronze; each stand was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three high. 28 They were designed as follows; they had an undercarriage and crosspieces to the undercarriage. 29 On the crosspieces of the undercarriage were lions and bulls and cherubs, and on top of the undercarriage was a support; under the lions and oxen there were scrolls in the style of . . . 30 Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles; its four feet had shouldering under the basin, and the shouldering were cast . . . 31 Its mouth measured one and a half cubits from where the shouldering met the top; its mouth was round like a rest for a vessel, and on the mouth there were engravings too; the crosspieces, however, were rectangular and not round. 32 The four wheels were under the crosspieces. The axles of the wheels were inside the stand; the height of the wheels was one and a half cubits. 33 The wheels were designed like chariot wheels: their axles, felloes, spokes and naves had all been cast. 34 There were four shoulderings at the four corners of each stand: the stand and the shoulderings were all of a piece. 35 At the top of the stand there was a support, circular in shape and half a cubit high; and on top of the stand there were lugs. The crosspieces were of a piece with the stand. 36 On the bands he engraved cherubs and lions and palm leaves . . . And scrolls right around. 37 He made the ten stands like this: the same casting and the same measurements for all.

38 He made ten bronze basins; each basin held forty baths and each basin measured four cubits, one basin to each of the ten stands. 39 He arranged the stands, five on the right-hand side of the Temple, five on the left-hand side of the Temple; the Sea he placed on the right-hand side of the Temple to the southeast.

The utensils. Summary

40 Hiram made the ash containers, the scoops and the sprinkling bowls. He finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the Temple of Yahweh:

41 two pillars; the two mouldings of the capitals surrounding the pillars; the two sets of filigree to cover the two mouldings of the capitals surrounding the pillars; 42 the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of filigree; the pomegranates of each set of filigree were in two rows;

43 the ten stands and the ten basins on the stands;

44 the one Sea and the twelve oxen beneath the Sea;

45 the ash containers, the scoops, the sprinkling bowls.

All these furnishings made by Hiram for King Solomon for the Temple of Yahweh were of burnished bronze. 46 He made them by the process of sand casting, in the Jordan area between Succoth and Zarethan. 47 There were so many of them, that the weight of the bronze was never calculated.

48 Solomon placed all the furnishings he had made in the Temple of Yahweh; the golden altar and the table for the loaves of offering, which was of gold; 49 the lampstands, five on the right and five on the left in front of the Debir, of pure gold; the floral work, the lamps, the extinguishers, of gold; 50 the basins, knives, sprinkling bowls, incense boats, censers, of pure gold; the doors sockets for the inner shrine - that is, the Holy of Holies - and for the Hekal, of gold.

51 So all the work that King Solomon did for the Temple of Yahweh was completed, and Solomon brought what his father David had consecrated, the silver and the gold and the vessels, and put them in the treasury of the Temple of Yahweh.

The ark brought to the Temple

8- 1 Then Solomon called the elders of Israel together in Jerusalem to bring the ark of covenant of Yahweh up from the Citadel of David, which is Zion. 2 All the men of Israel assembled around King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, at the time of the feast (that is, the seventh month), 3 and the priests took up the ark 4 and the Tent of Meeting with all the sacred vessels that were in it. 5 In the presence of the ark, King Solomon and all Israel sacrificed sheep and oxen, countless, innumerable. 6 The priests brought the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, in the Debir of the Temple, that is, in the Holy of Holies, under the cherubs' wings. 7 For there where the ark was placed the cherubs spread out their wings and sheltered the ark and its shafts. 8 These were long enough for their ends to be seen from the Holy Place in front of the Debir, but not from outside. 9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets Moses had place in it at Horeb, the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh had made with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt; they are still there today.

The Lord takes possession of his Temple

10 Now when the priests came out of the sanctuary, the cloud filled the Temple of Yahweh, 11 and because of the cloud the priests could no longer perform their duties: the glory of Yahweh filled Yahweh's Temple.

12 Then Solomon said:

"Yahweh has chosen to dwell in the thick cloud.

13 Yes, I have built you a dwelling,

a place for you to live in for ever."

Solomon addresses the people

14 Then the king turned and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel stood. 15 He said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has carried out by his hand what he promised with his mouth to David my father when he said, 16 'From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt I chose ne city, in any tribes of Israel, to have a house built where my name might make its home; but I chose David, to rule over Israel my people.' 17 My father David had set his heart on building a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, 18 but Yahweh said, "You have set your heart on building a house for my name, and in this you have done well; 19 and yet, you are not the man to build the house; your son, born of your own body, shall build the house for my name.' 20 Yahweh has kept the promise he made: I have succeeded David my father and am seated on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised; I have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, 21 and have made a place in it for the ark containing the covenant that Yahweh made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."

Solomon prayer for himself

22 Then (in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel) Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh and, stretching out his hands toward heaven, 23 said, "Yahweh, God of Israel, not in heaven above nor on earth beneath is such a God as you, true to your covenant and your kindness toward your servants when they walk wholeheartedly in your way. 24 You have kept the promise you made to your servant David my father; what you promised with your mouth, today you have carried out by your hand. 25 And now, Yahweh, God of Israel, keep the promise you made to your servant David when you said, 'You shall never lack for a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful how they behave, walking before me as you yourself have done.' 26 So now, God of Israel, let the words come true which you spoke to your servant David my father. 27 Why, te heavens and their own heavens cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built! 28 Listen to the prayer and entreaty of your servant, Yahweh my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer your servant makes to you today. 29 Day and night let you eyes watch over this house, over this place of which you have said, 'My name shall be there.' Listen to the prayer that your servant will offer in this place.

Solomon's prayer for the people

30 "Here the entreaty of your servant and of Israel your people as they pray in this place. From heaven where your dwelling is, hear; and, as you hear, forgive.

31 "If a man sins against his neighbour, and the neighbour calls down a curse on him and makes him swear an oath before your altar in this Temple, 32 hear from heaven, and act; decide between your servants: pronounce the wicked one guilty, bringing his conduct down on his own head; and vindicate the innocent, rewarding him as his innocence deserves.

33 "When your people Israel are defeated by the enemy because they have sinned against you, if they return to you and praise your name and pray to you and entreat you in this Temple, 34 hear from heaven; forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land you gave to their ancestors.

35 "When the heavens are shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray in this place and praise your name and, having been humbled by you, repent of their sin, 36 hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servant and of your people Israel - show them the good way they ought to follow - and send rain on your land which you have given your people for an inheritance.

37 "Should there be famine in the land, or pestilence, blight or mildew, locust or caterpillar; should this people's enemy lay siege to one of its city gates; if there is any plague or sickness; 38 if anyone feel remorse in his own heart and pray or make entreaty, stretching out his hands toward this Temple, 39 hear from heaven where your home is; forgive and act, dealing with each as his conduct deserves; for you know every heart, - you alone know the hearts of all mankind - 40 and so they may come to revere you as long as they live in the land you gave to our fathers.

Supplementary section

41 "And the foreigner too, not belonging to your people Israel, if he comes from a distant country for the sake of your name - 42 for men will hear of your name, of your mighty hand and outstretched arm - if he comes and prays in this Temple, 43 hear from heaven where your home is, and grant all the foreigner asks, so that all the peoples of the earth may come to know your name and, like your people Israel, revere you, and know that your name is given to the Temple I have built.

44 "If your people go out to war against their enemies on the way that you send them, and if they turn toward the city you have chosen and toward the Temple I have built for your name, and pray to Yahweh, 45 hear from heaven their prayer and their entreaty, and uphold their cause.

46 "If they sin against you - for there is no man who does not sin - and you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and their conquerors lead them captive to a country far or near, 47 if in the land of their exile they come to themselves and repent, and in the country of their conquerors they entreat you saying, 'We have sinned, we have acted perversely and wickedly.' 48 and if they turn again to you with all their heart and soul in the country of the enemies who have deported them, and pray to you, turning toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen, and toward the Temple I have built for your name, 49 hear from heaven where your home is, 50 forgive your people the sins they have committed against you and all the crimes they have been guilty of, grant them to win favour with their conquerors so that they may have pity on them; 51 for they are your people and your heritage whom you brought out of Egypt, that iron furnace.

Conclusion of the prayer and blessing of the people

52 "Be always watchful for the entreaty of your servant and of your people Israel, always hearing them when they call to you. 53 For it was you who set them apart from all the peoples of the earth to be your own heritage, as you declared through Moses your servant when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh."

54 hen Solomon had finished offering this whole prayer and entreaty, he rose from where he was kneeling with hands stretched out toward heaven before the altar of Yahweh, 55 and stood erect. And in a loud voice he blessed the whole assembly of Israel. 56 "Blessed be Yahweh," he said, "Who has granted rest to his people Israel, keeping all his promises of good that he made through Moses his servant, not one has failed. 57 May Yahweh our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he never desert us or cast us off. 58 May he turn our hearts toward him so that we may follow all his ways and keep the commandments, and laws, and ordinances he gave to our ancestors. 59 May these words of mine, of my entreaty before Yahweh, be present with Yahweh our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of Israel his people, as each day requires, 60 so that all the peoples of the earth may come to know that Yahweh is God indeed, and that there is no other. 61 May your hearts be wholly with Yahweh our God, following his laws and keeping his commandments as at this present day."

The sacrifices on the feast of Dedication

62 The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before Yahweh. 63 Solomon offered twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep as communion sacrifices to Yahweh; and so the king and all the Israelites dedicated the Temple of Yahweh. 64 On the same day the king consecrated the middle of the court lying in front of the Temple of Yahweh; and there he offered the holocaust, oblations and fatty parts of the communion sacrifices, since the bronze altar that stood before Yahweh was too small to hold the holocaust, oblation and the fatty parts of the communion sacrifices. 65 And so at that time, Solomon celebrated the feast, and all the Israelites with him, a great gathering from the Pass of Hamath to the wadi of Egypt, before Yahweh our God for seven days. 66 Then, on the eighth day, he dismissed the people, who blessed the king and went to their homes, rejoicing and happy in heart for all the goodness Yahweh had shown to David and to his people Israel.

Yahweh appears a second time

9- 1 When Solomon had finished building the Temple of Yahweh and the royal palace and all he had a mind to build, 2 Yahweh appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 Yahweh said to him, "I grant your prayer and the entreaty you have made before me. I consecrate this house you have built: I place my name there for ever; my eyes and my heart shall be always there. 4 For your part, if you walk before me with innocence of heart and honesty, like David your father, if you do all I order you and keep my laws and my ordinances, 5 I will make your royal throne secure over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said: You shall never lack for a man on the throne of Israel. 6 But if you turn away from me, you or your sons, and do not keep the commandments and laws I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut Israel off from the land I have given them, and I will cast out from my presence this Temple that I have consecrated for my name, and Israel shall become a proverb and a byword among all nations. 8 As for this exalted Temple, all who pass by will be astounded; they will whistle and say, 'Why has Yahweh treated this country and this Temple like this?' 9 And the answer will be, 'Because they deserted Yahweh their God who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them; that is why Yahweh has brought all these disasters on them.'"

The bargain with Hiram

10 At the end of the twenty years it took Solomon to erect the two buildings, the Temple of Yahweh and the royal palace 11 (Hiram king of Tyre had provided Solomon with as much cedar wood, juniper wood and gold as he had wanted),King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee. 12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to view the towns Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. 13 He said, "What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?" And to this day they are called "the land of Cabul." 14 Hiram sent the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.

Forced labour for Solomon's building programme

15 This is an account of the forced labour King Solomon levied for the building of the Temple of Yahweh, his own place, the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer 16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt went up and captured Gezer, he burned it down and massacred the Canaanites living there; he then gave the town as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife, 17 and Solomon rebuilt Gezer). Lower Beth-horon, 18 Baalath, Tamar in the wilderness, inside the country, 19 all the garrison towns owned by Solomon, all the towns for his chariots and horses, and all it pleased Solomon to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and in all the countries subject to him. 20 All those who survived of the Amorite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite and Jebusite peoples, who were not Israelites, 21 their descendants who were left in the country after them, those on whom the Israelites had not been able to enforce the ban, these Solomon conscripted as slave labourers, as they are still. 22 However, Solomon did not impose slave labour on the Israelites; these served as fighting men: they were his guards officers, equerries, chariot and cavalry commanders. 23 These were the administrators' officials who supervised Solomon's work: five hundred and fifty of them in charge of the people employed in the work. 24 After Pharaoh's daughter had moved from the Citadel of David to the house which he had built for her, he then built the Millo.

The maintenance of the Temple

25 Three times a year Solomon offered holocausts and communion sacrifices on the altar he had built for Yahweh . . . And he kept the Temple in good repair.

Solomon as shipowner

26 King Solomon equipped a fleet at Ezion-geber, which is near Elath on the shores of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. 27 For this fleet Hiram sent men of his, sailors who knew the sea, to serve with Solomon's men. 28 They went to Ophir and from there they brought back four hundred and twenty talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.

The queen of Sheba visits Solomon

10- 1 The fame of Solomon having reach the queen of Sheba . . . She came to test him with difficult questions. 2 She brought immense riches to Jerusalem with her, camels laden with spices, great quantities of gold, and precious stones. On coming to Solomon, she opened her mind freely to him; 3 and Solomon had an answer for all her questions, not one of them was too obscure for the king to expound. 4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built, 5 the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organization of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cupbearers, and the holocausts he offered in the Temple of Yahweh, it left her breathless, 6 and she said to the king, "What I heard in my own country about you and your wisdom was true, then! 7 Until I came and saw it with my own eyes I could not believe what they told me, but clearly they told me less than half: for wisdom and prosperity you surpass the report I heard. 8 How happy your wives are! How happy are these servants of yours who wait on you always and hear your wisdom! 9 Blessed be Yahweh your God who has granted you his favour, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because of Yahweh's everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to deal out law and justice." 10 And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones; no such wealth of spices ever came again as those given to King Solomon by the queen of Sheba. 11 And the fleet of Hiram, which carried gold from Ophir, also brought cargoes of algummim wood and precious stones. 12 The king made supports with the algummim wood for the Temple of Yahweh and for the royal palace, and lyres and harps for the musicians; no more of this algummim wood has since come or been seen to this day. 13 And King Solomon in his turn, presented the queen of Sheba with all expressed a wish for, besides those presents he made her out of his royal bounty. Then she went home, she and her servants, to her own country.

Solomon wealth

14 The wright of gold coming to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, 15 not counting what came in from merchants' dues and traders' profits, and from all the foreign kings and the governors of he country. 16 King Solomon made three hundred great shields of beaten gld, and plated each shield with six hundred shekels of gold; 17 also three hundred small shields of beaten gold, and plated each of these with three minas of gold; and he put them in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon. 18 The king also made a great ivory throne, and plated it with refined gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and bulls' heads at the back of it, and arms at either side of the seat; two lions stood beside the arms, 20 and twelve lions stood on either side of the six steps. No throne like this was ever made in any other kingdom.

21 All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the furnishings in the Hall of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was thought little of in the time of Solomon. 22 And the king also had a fleet of Tarshish at sea with Hiram's fleet, and once every three years the fleet of Tarshish would come back laden with gold and silver, ivory, apes and baboons. 23 For riches and for wisdom King Solomon outdid all the kings of the earth. 24 The whole world sought audience of Solomon to hear the wisdom God had implanted in his heart 25 and each would bring his own present: gold vessels, silver vessels, robes, armour, spices, horses and mules; and this went on year after year.

Solomon's chariots

26 Solomon built up a force of chariots and horses; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses; these he stationed in the chariot towns and near the king in Jerusalem. 27 In Jerusalem the king made silver common as pebbles, and cedars plentiful as the sycamores of the lowlands. 28 Solomon's horses were imported from Cilicia; the king's agents took delivery of them from Cilicia at fixed rate. 29 A chariot was imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels, a horse for a hundred and fifty. These were exported through the king's agents to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram in the same way.

Solomon's wives

11- 1 King Solomon loved many foreign women: not only Pharaoh's daughter but Maobites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites, 2 from those peoples of whom Yahweh had said to the Israelites, "You are not to go to them nor they to you, or they will surely sway your hearts to their gods." But Solomon was deeply attached to them. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal rank, and three hundred concubines. 4 When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with Yahweh his God as his father David's had been. 5 Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination. 6 He did what was displeasing to Yahweh, and was not a wholehearted follower of Yahweh, as his father David had been. 7 Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the god of Moab on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom the god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifices to their gods.

9 Yahweh was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from Yahweh the God of Israel who had twice appeared to him 10 and who had then forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry out Yahweh's order. 11 Yahweh therefore said to Solomon, "Since you behave like this and do not keep my covenant or the laws I laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. 12 For your father David's sake, however, I will not do this during your lifetime, but will tear it out of your son's hands. 13 Even so, I will not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I will leave your son one tribe."

Solomon's foreign enemies

14 Yahweh raised an enemy against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, of the kingly stock of Edom. 15 After david had crushed Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, had gone to bury the dead and he had slaughtered the entire male population of Edom 16 (Joab stayed there with all Israel for six months until he had exterminated the entire male population of Edom), 17 but Hadad with a number of Edomites in his father's service had fled to Egypt. Hadad had been only a boy at the time. 18 They set out from Midian, and on reaching Paran, took number of men from Paran with them and went on to Egypt, to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who provided him with a house, undertook to maintain him, and assigned him an estate. 19 Hadad became a great favourite of Pharaoh who gave him his own wife's in marriage, the sister of the Great Lady Tahpenes. 20 The sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son whom Tahpenes brought up in Pharaoh's palace, Genubath living with Pharaoh's children. 21 But when news reached Hadad in Egypt that David slept with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, he said to Pharaoh, "Give me leave to return to my own country." 22 "Do you want for anything here with me," said Pharaoh, "that you now ask to return to your own country?" "No," he replied, "but please let me go." This is where the harm of Hadad comes from: he loathed Israel and ruled Edom.

23 God raised a second enemy against Solomon, Rezon son of Eliada. He had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. 24 A number of men having rallied to him, he had become leader of a marauding band (which was then massacred by David). Rezon captured Damascus and settled there and became king of Damascus. 25 He was hostile to Israel as long as Solomon lived.

The revolt of Jeroboam

26 Jeroboam was the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah; the name of his mother, a widow, was Zeruah; he was in Solomon's service bur revolted against the king. 27 This is the account of his revolt.

Solomon was building the Millo and closing the breach in the Citadel of David his father. 28 Now this Jeroboam was a man of rank; Solomon noticing how the young man set about his work, put him in charge of all the forced labour of the House of Joseph. 29 One day when Jeroboam had gone out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh accosted him on the road. Ahijah was wearing a new cloak; the two of them were in the open country by themselves. 30 Ahijah took the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve strips, 31 saying to jeroboam. "Take ten strips for yourself, for thus Yahweh speaks, the God of Israel, 'I am going to tear the kingdom from Solomon's hand and give ten tribes to you. 32 He shall keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel; 33 for he has forsaken me to worship Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemoth the god of Moab, Milcom the god of the Ammonites; he has not followed my ways by doing what is right in my eyes or keeping my laws and ordinances as his father David did. 34 But I will not take the kingdom out of his own hands, since I have made him a prince for as long as he lives, for the sake of my servant David who kept my commandments and laws. 35 I will, take the kingdom from the hand of his son, giving the ten tribes to you. 36 I will keep one tribe to give to his son, so that my servant David may always have a lamp in my presence in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen as a dwelling place for my name. 37 You nonetheless I will take t rule over as much as you wish, and you shall be king of Israel. 38 If you listen to all my orders and follow my ways, by doing what is right in my eyes and keeping my laws and commandments as my servant David did, then I will be with you and will build you as enduring a House as the one I built for David. I will give Israel to you, 39 thus humbling the descendants of David; but not for ever.'"

40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam but he made off and fled to Egypt, tp Shishak king of Egypt, and remained in Egypt until Solomon's death.

The end of the reign of Solomon

41 The rest of the history of Solomon, his entire career, his wisdom, is not all this recorded in the Book of the acts of Solomon? 42 Solomon's reign in Jerusalem over all Israel lasted forty years. 43 Then Solomon slept with his ancestors and was buried in the Citadel of David his father; Rehoboam his son succeeded him.

The assembly at Shechem

12- 1 As soon as Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news - he was still in Egypt, where he had taken refuge from King Solomon - he returned from Egypt. 2 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for it was to Shechem that all Israel had gone to proclaim him king, 3 and they said this to him, 4 "Your father gave us a heavy burden to bear; Lighten your father's harsh tyranny now, and the weight of the burden he laid on us, and we will serve you." 5 He said to them, "Go away for three days and then come back to me." And the people went away.

6 King Rehoboam consulted the elders, who had been in the service of his father Solomon while he was alive. "What reply," he asked, "do you advise me to give the people?" 7 Act as servant of this people now," they said, "humour them, treat them fairly, and they will be your servant for ever." 8 But he rejected the advice given him by the elders and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service. 9 How do you advise us," he asked, "to answer this people who have said to me, "Lighten the burden your father imposed on us?'" 10 The young men who had grown up with him replied," Give this answer to these people who have said, Your father gave us a heavy burden to bear, you must lighten it for us,' say this to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins! 11 So then, my father made you bear a heavy burden. I will make it heavier still. My father beat you with whips; I am going to beat you with loaded scourges.'"

12 On the third day all the people came to Rehoboam in obedience to the king's command: "Come back to e on the third day." 13 The king, rejecting the advice given him by the elders, gave the people a harsh answer, 14 speaking to them as the young men had recommended. "My father made you bear a heavy burden," he said, "but I will make it heavier still. My father beat you with whips; I am going to beat you with loaded scourges." 15 The king in fact took no notice of the people's wishes, and this was brought about by Yahweh to carry out the promise he had spoken through Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam son of Nebat. 16 hen all Israel saw that the king took no notice of their wishes, they gave him this answer:

"What share have we in David?

We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.

To your tents, Israel!

Henceforth look after your own house, David!"

And Israel went off to their tents. 17 Rehoboam, however, reigned over those sons of Israel who lived in the towns of Judah. 18 King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was in charge of forced labour, but the Israelites stoned him to death; whereupon King Rehoboam was obliged to mount his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 And Israel has been separated from the House of David until the present day.

The political schism

20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king of all Israel; no one remained loyal to the House of David, except the tribe of Judah.

21 Rehoboam went to Jerusalem and mustered the whole House of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors, to fight the House of Israel and win the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon. 22 But the word of Yahweh came to Shemaiah the man of God, 23 "Say this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole House of Judah, to Benjamin and to the rest of the people, 24 "Yahweh says this: o not go to fight against your brothers, the sons of Israel; let everyone go home, for what has happened is my doing.'"

25 Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the mountain country of Ephraim, and lived there. Then, leaving there, he fortified Penuel.

The religious schism

26 Jeroboam thought to himself, "As things are, the kingdom will revert to the House of David. 27 If this people continues to go up to the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, the people's heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will put me to death." 28 So the king thought this over and then made two golden calves; he said to the people, "You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, Israel; these brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" 29 He set up one in Bethel 30 and the people went in procession all the way to Dan in front of the other. 31 He set up the temple of the high place and appointed priests from ordinary families who were not sons of Levi. Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth of the month, like the feast taht was kept in Judah, and he went up to the altar. That was how he behaved in Bethel, sacrificing to the claves he had made; and at Bethel he put the priests of the high places he had established. 33 On the fifteenth of the eighth month, the month he had deliberately chosen, he went up to the altar he had made; he instituted a feast for the Israelites, and went up to the altar to offer incense.

The condemnation of the altar in Bethel

13- 1 There came to Bethel at Yahweh's command a man of God from Judah, just as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer the sacrifice, 2 and at Yahweh's command this man denounced the altar. "Altar, altar," he said, "Yahweh says this, 'A son shall be born to the House of David, Josiah by name, who shall immolate on you the priests of the high places who have offered sacrifice on you, and on you shall be born the bones of men.'" 3 At the same time he gave a sign. "This is the sign," he said, "that Yahweh has spoken, 'This altar here will burst apart and the ashes that are on it will be scattered.'" 4 When the king heard how the man of God denounced the altar of Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, Seize him!" But the hand stretched out against the man withered, and he could not draw it back, 5 and the altar burst apart and the ashes from the altar were scattered, in accordance with the sign given by the man of God at Yahweh's command. 6 The king said to the man of God, "I beg you to placate Yahweh your God, and so restore me the use of my hand." The man of God placated Yahweh; the king's hand was restored as it had been before. 7 The king then said to the man of God, "Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a present"; 8 but the man of God answered the king, "Were you to give me half your house, I would not go with you. I will eat and drink nothing here, 9 for I have had Yahweh's order: 'You are to eat or drink nothing, nor to return by the way you came.'" 10 And he left by another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

The man of God and the prophet

11 Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel and his sons came to tell him all that the man of God had done in Bethel that day; and the words he had said to the king, they told these to their father too. 12 "Which road did he take?" Their father asked. His sons showed him the road that the man of God who came from Judah had taken. 13 Saddle the donkey for me," he said to his sons; they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted. 14 He followed the man of God and found him sitting under a terebinth. "Are you the man of God," he said, "who came from Judah?" "I am," he replied. 15 "Come home with me," he said, "and take some food." 16 "I cannot go back with you," he answered, "or eat or drink anything here, 17 for I have received Yahweh's order: 'You are not to eat or drink nothing there, nor to return by the way you came.'" 18 "I too am a prophet like you," the other replied, "and an angel told me this by Yahweh's order: 'Bring him back with you to your house to eat and drink.'" He was lying to him. 19 The man of God went back with him; he ate and drank at his house.

20 As they were sitting at table a word came to the prophet who had brought him back, 21 and he addressed the man of God who came from Judah. "Yahweh says this," he said, "Since you have defied Yahweh's command and not obeyed the orders Yahweh your God gave you, 22 but have come back and eaten and drunk where he forbade you to eat or drink, your corpse will never reach the tomb of your ancestors.'" 23 After he had eaten and drunk, the prophet saddled the donkey for him, and he turned about and went away. 24 A lion met him on the road and killed him; his corpse lay stretched out on the road; the donkey stood there beside it; the lion stood by the corpse too. 25 People going by saw the corpse lying on the road and the lion standing by the corpse, and went and spoke about it in the town where the old prophet lived. 26 When the prophet who had made the man turn back heard about it, he said, "That is the man of God who defied Yahweh's command! Yahweh has handed him over to the lion, which has mauled and killed him, just as Yahweh had foretold it would." 27 He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me," and they saddled it. 28 He set off and found the man's corpse lying of the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had neither eaten the corpse nor mauled the donkey. 29 The prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and put it on the donkey and brought it back to the town where he lived to hold mourning for him and bury him. 30 He laid the corpse in his own tomb, and they raised the mourning cry for him, "Alas, my brother!" 31 After burying him, the prophet said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the same tomb as the man of God, lay my bones beside his. 32 For the word he uttered at Yahweh's command against the altar of Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true."

33 Jeroboam did not give up his wicked ways after this incident, but went on appointing priests for the high places from the common people. He consecrated as priests of the high places any who wished to be. 34 Such conduct made the House of Jeroboam a sinful House, and caused its ruin and extinction from the face of the earth.

Continuation of the reign of Jeroboam I (931 - 910)

14- 1 At that time Ahijah, Jeroboam's son, fell sick, 2 and Jeroboam said to his wife, "Come, please disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as Jeroboam's wife, and go to Shiloh; the prophet Ahijah is there, the man who said I was to be king over this people. 3 Go to him, and take ten loaves and some savoury food and a jar of honey; he will tell you what will happen to the child." 4 Jeroboam's wife did this: she set out, went to Shiloh and came to Ahijah's house. Now Ahijah could not see, his eyes dimmed with age, 5 bur Yahweh had told him, "Jeroboam's wife is now on her way to ask you for an oracle about her son, as he is sick. You will tell her such and such. When she comes, she will pretend to be some other woman." 6 So when Ahijah heard her footsteps at the door, he called, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why pretend to be someone else? I have bad news for you. 7 Go and tell Jeroboam, 'Yahweh says this, the God of Israel: I raised you from the people and made you leader of my people Israel; 8 I tore the kingdom from the House of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart doing only what is right in my eyes; 9 you have done more evil than all your predecessors, you have gone and made yourself other gods, idols of cast metal, provoking my anger, and you have turned your back on me. 10 For this I will bring disaster on the House of Jeroboam, I will wipe out every male belonging to the family of Jeroboam, fettered or free in Israel, I will sweep away the House of Jeroboam as a man sweeps dung away till none is left. 11 Those of Jeroboam's family who die in the city, the dogs will eat; and those who die in the open country, the birds of the air will eat, for Yahweh has spoken.' 12 Now get up and go home; at the moment your feet enter the town, the child will die. 13 All Israel will mourn for him, and bury him; and he alone of Jeroboam's household will go to the tomb, for it is in him alone of the House of Jeroboam that anything pleasing to Yahweh, the God of Israel, is found. 14 Yahweh will raise a king for himself over Israel to wipe out the House of Jeroboam. 15 Yahweh will make Israel shake as a reed shakes in the water, he will uproot Israel from this prosperous land which he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the river for provoking Yahweh to anger by making their sacred poles. 16 He will abandon Israel for the sins Jeroboam has committed and made Israel commit." 17 Jeroboam's wife rose and left. She arrived at Tirzah, and when she crossed the threshold of the house, the child was already dead. 18 They buried him, and all Israel mourned him, just as Yahweh had foretold through his servant Ahijah the prophet.

19 The rest of the history of Jeroboam, what wars he waged, how he governed, these may be found recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 20 Jeroboam's reign lasted twenty-two years; then he slept with his ancestors; his son Nadab succeeded him.

The reign of Rehoboam (931 - 913)

21 In Judah Rehoboam son of Solomon became king; he was forty-one years old when he came to the throne and he reign for seven years in Jerusalem, the city which Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to give his name a home there. His mother's name was Naamah, the Ammonitess. 22 He did what was displeasing to Yahweh, arousing his resentment more than his ancestors did by all the sins they committed, 23 they who had built themselves high places, and had set up pillars and sacred poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 24 There were even men in the country who were sacred prostitutes. He copied all the shameful practices of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed for the sons of Israel.

25 In the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak the king of Egypt marched on Jerusalem. 26 He took all the treasures from the Temple of Yahweh and the treasures from the royal palace, he took everything, including all the golden shields that Solomon had made; 27 in place of them King Rehoboam had bronze shields made, entrusting them to the care of the officers of the guard who guarded the king's palace gate. 28 Whenever the king went to the Temple of Yahweh, the guard would carry them, returning them to the guardroom afterward.

29 The rest of the history of Rehoboam, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the kings of Judah? 30 Rehoboam and Jeroboam were at war with each other throughout their reign. 31 Then Rehoboam slept with his ancestors and was buried in the Citadel of David; his son Abijam succeeded him.

The reign of Abijam in Judah (913 -911)

15- 1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam became king of Judah 2 and reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah, daughter of Absalom. 3 He followed the sinful example of his father before him in everything; his heart was not wholly with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his ancestor had been. 4 However, for David's sake, Yahweh his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, assuring him sons after him and keeping Jerusalem secure; 5 for David had done what is right in the eyes of Yahweh and had never in all his life disobeyed whatever he ordered him.

6 7 The rest of the history of Abijam, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? Abijam and Jeroboam were at war with each other. 8 Then Abijam slept with his ancestors and they buried him in the Citadel of David; his son Asa succeeded him.

The reign of Asa in Judah (911 - 870)

9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah 10 and reigned for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah, daughter of Absalom. 11 Asa did what is right in the eyes of Yahweh, as his ancestor David had done. 12 He drove out of the country the men who had been sacred prostitutes and cleared away all idols his ancestors had made. 13 He even deprived his grandmother of the dignity of queen for making an obscenity for Asherah; Asa cut down her obscenity and burned it in the wadi Kidron. 14 Though the high places were not abolished, the heart of Asa was wholly with Yahweh throughout his life. 15 He deposited the offerings dedicated by his father and his own offerings too, in the Temple of Yahweh, silver and gold and furnishings.

16 Asa and Baasha king of Israel were at war with each other as long as they lived. 17 Baasha king of Israel marched on Judah and fortified Ramah to blockade Asa king of Judah. 18 Asa then took the remaining silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple of Yahweh and the royal palace. Entrusting this to his servants, he sent them with the following message to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon son of Hezion, the king of Aram who lived in Damascus, 19 "An alliance between myself and you, as between my father and your father! With this I send you a gift of silver and gold. Come, break off your alliance with Baasha king of Israel, and he will have to retire from my territory." 20 Ben-hadad agreed, and sent his generals against the towns of Israel; he conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, all Chinneroth, and the whole land of Naphtali too. 21 When Baasha heard this he gave up fortified Ramah and returned to Tirzah. 22 King Asa then summoned the whole of Judah, no one was exempt; they took away the stones and timber with which Baasha had been fortifying Ramah, and with them the king fortified Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.

23 The rest of the history of Asa, all his valour, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? In his old age however he suffered from a disease of the feet. 24 Then Asa slept with his ancestors and was buried in the Citadel of David his ancestor; his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him.

The reign of Nadab in Israel (910 - 909)

25 Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years. 26 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh; he copied his father's example and the sin into which he had led in Israel. 27 Baasha son of Ahijah, of the House of Issachar, plotted against him and murdered him at Gibbethon, a Philistine town which Nadab and all Israel were besieging. 28 Baasha killed Nadab and succeeded him in the third year of Asa king of Judah. 29 No sooner was he king than he butchered the entire House of Jeroboam, not sparing a soul, and wiped it out, just as Yahweh had foretold through his servant Ahijah of Shiloh, 30 because of the sins into which he had led Israel, and because he had provoked the anger of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

31 The rest of the history of Nadab, his entire career, is not all this recorded 32 in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?

The reign of Baasha in Israel (909 - 889)

33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of Israel at Tirzah for twenty-four years. 34 He did what was displeasing to Yahweh; he copied the example of Jeroboam and the sin into which he had led Israel.

16- 1 The word of Yahweh came to Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha, 2 "I raised you from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you have followed Jeroboam's example and led my people Israel into sins that provoke my anger. 3 Now I will sweep away Baasha and his House; I will make your House like the House of Jeroboam son of Nebat. 4 Those of Baasha's family who die in the city, the dogs will eat; and those who die in the open country the birds of the air will eat."

5 The rest of the history of Baasha, his career, his valour, is not all his recorded in the Book of Annals of the Kings of Israel? 6 Then Baasha slept with his ancestors and was buried in Tirzah; his son Elah succeeded him.

7 Furthermore, the word of Yahweh was delivered through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, firstly because of all the evil he did in the sight of Yahweh, provoking him to anger by his actions and becoming like the House of Jeroboam; secondly because he destroyed that House.

The reign of Elah in Israel (886 - 885)

8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel at Tirzah, for two years. 9 Zimri, one of the officers, captain of half his chariotry, plotted against him. While he was at Tirzah, drinking himself senseless in the house of Arza who was master of the place in Tirzah, 10 Zimri came in, struck him down and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, ans succeeded him. 11 On his accession, as soon as he was seatedon the throne, he butchered Baasha's entire family, not leaving him a single male, or any relations, or friends. 12 Zimri destroyed the whole House of Baasha, in accordance with the word which Yahweh had spoken through the prophet Jehu, 13 because of all the sins of Baasha and his son Elah into which they had led Israel, provoking the anger of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with their useless idols.

14 The history of Elah, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?

The reign of Zimri in Israel (885)

15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri became king for seven days, in Tirzah. The people were then encamped in front of Gibbethon, a Philistine town. 16 When news reached the camp of how Zimri had not only plotted against but actually killed the king, all Israel proclaimed Omri, their general, king of Israel in the camp the same day. 17 Omri, and all Israel with him, raised the siege of Gibbethon and laid siege to Tirzah. 18 When Zimri saw that the town was captured, he went into the keep of the royal palace, burned the palace over his own head, and died. 19 This was because of the sin he committed by doing what is displeasing to Yahweh, by copying the example of Jeroboam and the sin into which he had led Israel.

20 The rest of the history of Zimri and the plot he hatched, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?

21 The people of Israel then split into two factions: one half following Tibni son of Ginath to make him king, the other following Omri. 22 But the faction of Omri proved stronger than that of Tibni son of Ginath; Tibni died, and Omri became king.

The reign of Omri in Israel (885 - 874)

23 In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel and reigned for twelve years. He reigned for six years in Tirzah. 24 Then for two talents of silver he bought a hill from Shemer and on it he built a town which he named Samaria after Shemer who had owned the hill. 25 Omri did what is displeasing to Yahweh, and was worse than all his predecessors. 26 In every way he copied the example of Jeroboam son of Nebat and the sins into which he had led Israel, provoking the anger of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with their useless idols.

27 The rest of the history of Omri, his career, his valour, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the kings of Israel? 28 Then Omri slept with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria; his son Ahab succeeded him.

Introduction to the reign of Ahab (874 - 853)

29 Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel for twenty-two years in Samaria. 30 Ahab son of Omri did what is displeasing to Yahweh, and was worse than all his predecessors. 31 The least that he did was the sinful example of Jeroboam son of Nebat: he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and then proceeded to serve Baal and worship him. 32 He erected an altar to him in the temple of Baal which he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also put up a sacred pole and committed other crimes as well, provoking the anger of Yahweh, the God of Israel, more than all the kings of Israel who were his predecessors. 34 It was in his time that Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho; he laid its foundations at the price of Abiram, his first-born; its gates he erected at the price of his youngest son Segub, just as Yahweh had foretold through Joshua son of Nun.

Elijah foretells the drought

17- 1 Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe said to Ahab, "As Yahweh lives, the God of Israel whom I serve, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except at my order."

At the wadi Cherith

2 The word of Yahweh came to him, 3 "Go away from here, go eastward, and hide yourself in the wadi Cherith which lies east of Jordan. 4 You can drink from the stream, and I have ordered the ravens to bring you food there." 5 He did as Yahweh had said; he went and stayed in the wadi Cherith which lies east of Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening, and he quenched his thirst at the stream.

At Zarephath. The miracle of the flour and the oil

7 But after a while the stream dried up, for the country had no rain. 8 And then the word of Yahweh came to him. 9 "Up and go to Zarephath, a Sidonian town, and stay there. I have ordered a widow there to give you food." 10 So he went off to Sidon. And when he reached the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks; addressing her he said, "Please bring a little water in a vessel for me to drink." 11 She was setting off to bring it when he called after her. "Please," he said, "bring me a scrap of bread in your hand." 12 "As Yahweh your God lives," she replied, "I have no baked bred, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then I shall die." 13 But Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son. 14 For thus Yahweh speaks, the God of Israel:

"Jar of meal not be spent,

jug of oil not be emptied,

before the day when Yahweh sends

rain on the face of the earth.'"

15 The woman went and did as Elijah told her and they ate the food, she, himself and her son. 16 The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as Yahweh had foretold through Elijah.

The widow's son raised to life

17 It happened after this that the son of the mistress of the house fell sick; his illness was so severe that in the end he had no breath left in him. 18 And the woman said to Elijah, "What quarrel have you with me, man of God? Have you come here to bring my sins home to me and kill my son?" 19 "Give me your son," he said, and taking him from her lap, carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. 20 He cried out to Yahweh, "Yahweh my God, do you mean to bring grief to the widow who is looking after me by killing her son?" 21 He stretched himself on the child three times and cried out to Yahweh, "Yahweh my God, may the soul of this child, I beg you, come into him again!" 22 Yahweh heard the prayer of Elijah and the soul of the child returned to him again and he revived. 23 Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. "Look," Elijah said, "your son is alive." 24 And the woman replied, "Now I know you are a man of God and the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth itself."

Elijah and Obadiah

18- 1 A long time went by, and the word of Yahweh came to Elijah in the third year, "Go, present yourself to Ahab; I am about to send down rain on the land," 2 So Elijah set off to present himself to Ahab.

As the famine was particularly severe in Samaria, 3 Ahab summoned Obadiah, the master of the palace - Obadiah held Yahweh in great reverence: 4 when Jezebel was butchering the prophets of Yahweh, Obadiah took a hundred of them and hid them, fifty at a time, in a cave, and kept them provided with food and water - 5 and Ahab said to Obadiah, "Come along, we must scour the country, all the springs and all the wadis in the hope of finding grass to keep horses and mules alive, or we shall have to slaughter some of our stock." 6 They divided the country for the purpose of their survey; Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went the other way by himself. 7 While Obadiah was on his way, whom should he meet but Elijah; recognizing him he fell on his face and said, "o it is you, my lord Elijah!" 8 "Yes," he replied, "go and tell your master, 'Elijah is here.'" 9 But Abadiah said, "What sin have I committed, for you to put your servant in Ahab's power and cause my death? 10 As Yahweh your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent in search of you; and when they said, 'He is not there,' he made the kingdom or nation swear on oath that they did not know where you were. 11 And now you say to me, 'Go and tell your master: Elijah is here.' 12 But as soon as I leave you, the spirit of Yahweh will carry you away and I shall not know where; I shall come and tell Ahab; he will not be able to find you, and will kill me. Yet from his youth your servant has revered Yahweh. 13 Has no one told my lord what I did when Jezebel butchered the prophets of Yahweh, how I hid a hundred of them in a cave, fifty at a time, and kept them provided with food and water? 14 And now you say to me, 'Go and tell your master: Elijah is here.' Why, he will kill me!" 15 Elijah replied, "As Yahweh Sabaoth lives, whom I serve, I shall present myself before him today!"

Elijah and Ahab

16 Obadiah went to find Ahab and tell him the news, and Ahab then went to find Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, Ahab said, "So there you are, you scourge of Israel!" 18 "Not I," he replied, "I am not the scourge of Israel, you and your family are; because you have deserted Yahweh and gone after the Baals. 19 Now give orders for all Israel to gather around me on Mount Carmel, and also the four hundred prophets of Baal who eat at Jezebel's table."

The sacrifice on Carmel

20 Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. "How long," he said, "do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If Yahweh is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him." But the people never said a word. 22 Elijah then said to them, "I, I alone, am left as a prophet of Yahweh, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. 23 Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it and lay it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I in turn will prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it. 24 You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of mine; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed." The people all answered, "Agreed!" 25 Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire." 26 They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. "O Ball, answer us!" They cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance around the altar they had made. 27 Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. "Call louder," he said, "for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and will wake up." 28 So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them. 29 Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come closer to me," and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of Yahweh which had been broken down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh had come, "Israel shall be your name," and built an altar in the name of Yahweh. Around the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed. 33 He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood. 34 Then he said, "Fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood"; this they did. He said, "Do it a second time. He said, "Doit a third time"; they did it a third time. 35 The water flowed around the altar and the trench itself was full of water. 36 At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. "Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel," he said, "let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Yahweh, answer me, so that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God and are winning back their hearts."

38 Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the holocaust and the wood and licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. "Yahweh is God," they cried, "Yahweh is God." 40 Elijah said, "Seize the prophets of Baal: do not let them escape." They seized them, and Elijah took them down to the wadi Kishon, and he slaughtered them there.

The drought ends

41 Elijah said to Ahab, "Go back, eat and drink; for I hear the sound of rain." 42 While Ahab went back to eat and drink, Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel and bowed down to the earth, putting his face between his knees. 43 "Now go up," he told his servant, "and look out to the sea." He went up and looked. "There is nothing at all," he said, "Go back seven times," Elijah said. 44 The seventh time, the servant said, "Now there is a cloud, small as a man's hand, rising from the sea," Elijah said, "Go and say to Ahab, 'Harness the chariot and go down before the rain stops you.'" 45 And with that the sky grew dark with cloud and storm, and rain fell in torrents. Ahab mounted his chariot and made for Jezreel. 46 The hand of Yahweh was on Elijah, and tucking up his cloak he ran in front of Ahab as far as the outskirts of Jezreel.

The journey to Horeb

19- 1 When Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had put all the prophets to the sword, 2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, !May the gods do this to me and more, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like the life of one of them!" 3 He was afraid and fled fot his life. He came to Beersheba, a town of Judah, where he left his servant. 4 He himself went on into the wilderness, a day's journey, and sitting under a furze bush wished he wee dead. "Yahweh," he said, "have enough. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." 5 Then he lay down to sleep. But an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." 6 He looked around, and there at his head was a scone baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 7 But the angel of Yahweh came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you." 8 So he got up and ate and drank, and strengthened by the food he walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

The encounter with God

9 There he went into the cave and spent the night init. Then the word of Yahweh came to him saying, "What are you doing here. Elijah?" 10 He replied, "I am filled with jealous zeal for Yahweh Sabaoth, because the sons of Israel have deserted you, broken down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left, and they want to kill me." 11 Then he was told, "Go out and stand on the mountain before Yahweh." Then Yahweh himself went by. There came a mighty wind, so strong it tore the mountain and shattered the rocks before Yahweh. But Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake. But Yahweh was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came the fire. But Yahweh was not in the fire. And after the fire came the sound of a gentle breeze. 13 And when Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then a voice came to him, which said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" 14 He replied, "I am filled with jealous zeal for Yahweh Sabaoth, because the sons of Israel have deserted you, broken down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left and they want to kill me."

15 "Go," Yahweh said, "go back by the same way to the wilderness of Damascus. You are to go and anoint Hazael as king of Aram. 16 You are to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and to anoint Elisha son of Shaphat, of Abel Meholah, as prophet to succeed you. 17 Anyone who escapes the sword of Hazael will be put to death by Jehu; and anyone who escape the sword of Jehu will be put to death by Elisha. 18 But I shall spare seven thousand in Israel: all the knees that have not bent before Baal, all the mouths that have not kissed him."

The call of Elisha

19 Leaving there, he came to Elisha son of Shaphat as he was plowing behind twelve yoke oxen, he himself being with the twelfth. Elijah passed near to him and threw his cloak over him. 20 Elisha left his oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother, then I will follow you," he said. Elijah answered, "Go, go back; for have I done anything to you?" 21 Elisha turned away, took the pair of oxen and slaughtered them. He used the plow for cooking the oxen, then gave to his men, who ate. He then rose, and followedElijah and became his servant.

The siege of Samaria

20- 1 Ben-hadad king of Aram mustered his whole army - thirty-two kings were with him, and horses and chariots - and went up to lay siege to Samaria and storm it. 2 He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel to tell him, "Thus says Ben-hadad, 'Your silver and gold are mine; you may keep your wives and children.'" 4 The king of Israel replied, "As you command, my lord king. Myself and all I have are yours."

5 But the messengers came back and said, "Ben-hadad says this, 'I sent you this order: Hand over your silver and your gold, your wives and your children. 6 Count on it that this time tomorrow I will send my servants to search your house and your servants' houses and lay hands on all they fancy and take it away.'"

7 The king of Israel summoned all the elders of the land and said, "You can see clearly how this man intends to ruin us. He now claims my wives and my children, although I have not refused him my silver and my gold." 8 All the elders and all the people said, "Take no notice. Do not consent." 9 So he gave this answer to Ben-hadad's messengers, "Say to my lord the king, 'all you first required of your servant I will do, but this I cannot do,'" And the messengers went back with the answer.

10 Ben-hadad then sent him the following message, "May the gods do this to me and more if there are enough handfuls of rubble in Samaria for all the people in my following." 11 But the king of Israel returned this answer, "The proverb says: The man who puts on his armour is not the one who can boast, but the man who takes it off." 12 When Ben-hadad heard this message - he was under the awnings drinking with the kings - he gave orders to his servants, "Take post!" And they took up their positions against the city.

Victory for Israel

13 A prophet then arrived looking for Ahab king of Israel, "Yahweh says this," he said. "'You have seen mighty army? This very day I will deliver it into your hands, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.'" 14 "By whose means?" asked Ahab. The prophet replied, "Yahweh says this, By means of the young soldiers.'" "Who is to open the attack?" Ahab asked. "Yourself," the prophet answered.

15 So Ahab inspected the young soldiers of the district governors: there were two hundred and thirty-two. After these he reviewed the whole army, all the Israelites: there were seven thousand. 16 They made a sortie at midday, when Ben-hadad was drinking himself senseless under the awnings, he and the thirty-two kings who were the allies. 17 The young soldiers of the district governors led the sortie. Ben-hadad was informed, "Some men have come out of Samaria." 18 He said, "If they have come out for peace, take them alive; if they have come out for war, take them alive too." 19 So they made a sortie from the town, the young soldiers of the district governors and behind them the army, 20 and each struck down his man. Aram took to flight and Israel pursued; Ben-hadad king of Aram escaped on a chariot horse. 21 Then the king of Israel came out, capturing horses and chariots and inflicting a great defeat on Aram.

Respite

22 The prophet went up to the king of Israel. "Come," he said to him, "take courage and think carefully what you should do, for at the turn of the year the king of Aram will march against you."

23 The servants of the king of Aram said to him, "Their god is a god of the mountains; that is why they have proved stronger than us. But if we fight them on level ground, we shall certainly beat them. 24 This is what you must do: remove all these kings from their posts and appoint commanders instead. 25 You, for your part, must recruit an army as large as the one that deserted you, with as many horses and as many chariots; then if we fight them on the level ground, we will certainly beat them." He listen to their advice and acted accordingly.

The victory of Aphek

26 At the turn of the year, Ben-hadad mustered the Aramaeans and went up to Aphek to fight Israel. 27 The Israelites had also mustered, and marched out to meet them. Encamped opposite them, the Israelites looked like two herds of goats, whereas the Aramaeans filled the countryside.

28 The man of God accosted the king of Israel. "Yahweh says this," he said. "'Since Aram has said that Yahweh is a god of the mountains and not a god of the plains, I will put all this mighty host into your power, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.'" 29 For seven days they were encamped opposite each other. On the seventh day battle was joined and the Israelites slaughtered the Aramaeans, a hundred thousand foot soldiers in one day. 30 The rest fled to Aphek, into the town itself, but the walls fell down on the twenty-seven thousand who remained.

Mow Ben-hadad had fled and taken refuge within the town in an inner room. 31 "Look," his servants said to him, "we have heard that the kings of Israel are merciful kings. Let us put sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life." 32 So they wrapped sackcloth around their waits and put ropes on their heads and went to the king of Israel, and said, "Your servant Ben-hadad says, "Spare my life.'" "So he is still alive?" He answered. "He is my brother." 33 The men took this for a good omen and quickly seized on his words. "Yes," they said, "Ben-hadad is your brother." Ahab said, "Go and fetch him." Then Ben-hadad came out to him and Ahab made him get up into his chariot. 34 Ben-hadad said, "I will restore the towns my father took from your father and you may set up bazaars for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. Myself, by the terms of this treaty, you will be set free." So Ahab made a treaty with him and let him go free.

A prophet condemns Ahab's policy

35 At Yahweh's order a member of the brotherhood of prophets said to a companion of his, "Strike me," but the man refused to strike him. 36 So he said to him, "Since you have disobeyed the order of Yahweh, the very moment you leave me a lion will kill you." And no sooner had he left him than he met a lion, which killed him. 37 The prophet then went to find another man and said, "Strike me," and the man struck him and wounded him. 38 The prophet then went and stood waiting for the king on the road, disguising himself with his headband over his eyes. 39 As the king passed, he called out to him, "Your servant was making his way to where the fight was thickest when someone left the fighting to bring a man to me, and said, 'Guard this man; if he is found missing, your life will pay for his, or else you will have to pay on talent of silver.' 40 But while your servant was busy with or thing and another, the man disappeared." The king of Israel said, "That is your sentence, then. You have pronounced it yourself." 41 At this the man quickly pulled off the headband covering his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. 42 He said to the king, "Yahweh says this, 'Since you have let the man escape who was under my ban, your life will pay for his, your people for his people.'" 43 And off went the king of Israel, gloomy and out of temper, on his way back to Samaria.

Naboth refuses to hand over his vineyard

21- 1 This is what happened next: Naboth of Jezreel had a vineyard close by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria, 2 and Ahab said the Naboth, "Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it adjoins my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will give you its worth in money." 3 But Naboth answered Ahab, "Yahweh forbid that you I should give you the inheritance of my ancestor!"

Ahab and Jezebel

4 Ahab went home gloomy and out of temper at the words of Naboth of Jezreel, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." He lay down on his bed and turned his face away and refused to eat. 5 is wife Jezebel came to him. "Why are you so dispirited," she said, "that you will not eat?" 6 He said,"I have been speaking to Naboth of Jezreel; I said: Give me your vineyard either for money or, if you prefer, for another vineyard in exchange. But he said, 'I will not give you my vineyard.'" 7 Then his wife Jezebel said, "You make a fine king for Israel, and no mistake! Get up and eat; cheer up, and you will feel better; I will get you the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel myself."

Naboth is murdered

8 So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, sending them to the elders and nobles who lived where Naboth lived. 9 In the letters she wrote, "Proclaim a fast, and put Naboth in the forefront of the people. 10 Confront him with a couple of scoundrels who will accuse him like this, 'You have cursed God and the king.' Then take him outside and stone him to death."

11 The men of Naboth's town, the elders and nobles who lied in his town, did what Jezebel ordered, what was written in the letters she had sent them. 12 They proclaimed a fast and put Naboth in the forefront of the people. 13 Then the two scoundrels came and stood in front of him and made their accusation, "Naboth has cursed God and the king." They led him outside the town and stoned him to death. 14 They then sent word to Jezebel, "Naboth has been stoned to death." 15 When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, "Get up!" Take possession of the vineyard which Naboth of Jezreel would not give you for money, for Naboth is no longer alive, he is dead." 16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up to go to the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel and take possession of it.

Elijah pronounces God's sentence

17 Then the word of Yahweh came to Elijah the Tishbite, 18 "Up! Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, in Samaria. You will find him in Naboth's vineyard; he has gone down to take possession of it. 19 You are to say to him, 'Yahweh says this: You have committed murder; now you usurp as well. For this - and Yahweh says this - in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick your blood too.'" 20 Ahab said to Elijah, "So you have found me out, O my enemy!" Elijah answered, "I have found you out. For your double dealing, and since you have done what is displeasing to Yahweh, 21 I will now bring disaster down on you; I will sweep away your descendants, and wipe out every male belonging to the family of Ahab, fettered or free in Israel. 22 I will treat your House as I treated the House of Jeroboam son of Nebat and of Baasha son of Ahijah, for provoking my anger and leading Israel into sin. 23 (Against Jezebel too Yahweh spoke these words: The dogs will eat Jezebel in the Field of Jezreel.) 24 Those of Ahab's family who die in the city, the dogs will eat; and those who die in the open country, the birds of the air will eat."

25 And indeed there never was anyone like Ahab for double dealing and for doing what is displeasing to Yahweh, urged on by Jezebel his wife. 26 He behaved in the most abominable way, adhering to idols, just as the Amorites used to do whom Yahweh had dispossessed for the sons of Israel.

Ahab repents

27 When Ahab heard those words, he tore his garments and put sackcloth next his skin and fasted; he slept in the sackcloth; he walked with slow steps. 28 Then the word of Yahweh came to Elijah the Tishbite, 29 "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring disaster in his days; I will bring disaster down on his House in the days of his son,"

Ahab plans a campaign against Ramoth-gilead

22- 1 There was a lull for three years, with no fighting between Aram and Israel. 2 Then, in the third year, Jehoshaphat king of Judah paid a visit to the king of Israel. 3 The king of Israel said to his officers, "You are aware that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us? And yet we do nothing to wrest it away from the king of Aram." 4 He said to Jehoshaphat, "Will you come with me and fight at Ramoth-gilead?" Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, "I am as ready as you, my men as your men, my horses as your horses."

The spurious prophets predict success

5 Jehoshaphat, however, said to the king of Israel, "First, please consult the word of Yahweh." 6 So the king of Israel called the prophets together, about four hundred of them. "Should I march to attack Ramoth-gilead," he asked, "or should I refrain?" "March," they replied, "Yahweh will deliver it into the power of the king." 7 But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there no other prophet of Yahweh here for us to consult?" 8 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, "There is one more man through whom we can consult Yahweh, but I hate him because he never has a favourable prophecy for me, only unfavourable ones; he is Micaiah son of Imlah." "The king should not say such things," Jehoshaphat said. 9 Accordingly the king of Israel summoned one of the eunuchs and said, "Bring Micaiah son of Imlah immediately."

10 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were both sitting on their thrones in full regalia, at the threshing floor outside the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets raving in front of them. 11 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made himself iron horns. "Yahweh says this," he said. "With these you will gore the Amaraeans till you make and end of them.'" 12 And all the prophets prophesied the same. "March to Ramoth-gilead," they said, "and conquer. Yahweh will deliver it into the power of the king."

The prophet Micaiah predicts defeat

13 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said, "Here are all the prophets ass one man speaking favourably to the king. Try to speak like one of them and foretell success." 14 But Micaiah answered, "As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that will I utter!" 15 When he came to the king, the king said, "Micaiah, should we march to attack Ramoth-gilead, or should we refrain?" He answered, "March and conquer, Yahweh will deliver it into the power of the king." 16 But the king said, "How often must I put you on oath to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh?" 17 Then Micaiah spoke:

"I have seen all Israel scattered on the mountain

like sheep without a shepherd.

And Yahweh said, 'These have no master,

let each go home unmolested.'"

18 At this the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you that he never gives me favourable prophecies, but only unfavourable ones?" 19 Micaiah went on, "Listen rather to the word of Yahweh. I have seen Yahweh seated on his throne; all the array of heaven stood in his presence, on his right and on his left. 20 Yahweh said, 'Who will trick Ahab into marching to his death at Ramoth-gilead?' At which some answered one way, and some another. 21 Then the spirit came forward and stood before Yahweh. 'I,' he said, 'I will trick him.' 'How?' Yahweh asked. 22 He replied, 'I will go and become a lying spirit into the mouths of all the prophets.' 'You shall trick him,' Yahweh said, 'you shall succeed. Go and do it.' 23 Now see how Yahweh has put a lying spirit into the mouths of all your prophets here. But Yahweh has pronounced disaster on you."

24 Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah came up and struck Micaiah on the jaw. Which way," he asked, "did the spirit of Yahweh leave me, to talk to you?" 25 "That is what you will find out," Micaiah retorted, "the day you flee to an inner room to hide." 26 The king said, "Seize Micaiah and hand him over to Amon, governor of the city, and to Prince Joash, 27 and say, "These are the king's orders: Put this man in prison and feed him on nothing but bread and water until I come back safe and sound.'" 28 Micaiah said, "If you come back safe and sound, Yahweh has not spoken through me."

Ahab falls at Ramoth-gilead

29 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up against Ramoth-gilead. 30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself to go into battle, but I want you to wear your royal uniform." The king of Israel went into battle disguised. 31 The king of Aram had given his chariot commanders the following order: "Do not attack anyone of whatever rank, except the king of Israel." 32 When the chariot commanders caught sight of Jehoshaphat, they said, "That is obviously the king of Israel." And they wheeled to the attack. But Jehoshaphat shouted his war cry 33 and the chariot commanders, realizing that he was not the king of Israel, called off the pursuit.

34 Now one of the men, drawing his bow at random, hit the king of Israel between the corselet and the scale-armour of his breastplate. "Turn about," the king said to his charioteer. "Get me out of the battle; I have been hurt." 35 But the battle grew fiercer as the day went on; the king was held upright in his chariot facing the Aramaeans, and in the evening he died; the blood from the wound flowed into the bottom of the chariot. 36 At sundown a shout ran through the camp. "Every man back to his town, every man back to his country; 37 the king is dead!" They went to Samaria they buried the king. 38 They washed the chariot at the Pool of Samaria; the dogs licked up the blood, and the prostitutes washed in it, in accordance with the word that Yahweh had spoken.

The end of the reign of Ahab

39 The rest of the history of Ahab, his entire career, the ivory house he erected, all the towns he built, is not all this in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? 40 Then Ahab slept with his ancestors; his son Ahaziah succeeded him.

The reign of Jehoshaphat in Judah (870 - 848)

41 Jehoshaphat son on Asa became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. 42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-five years. His mother's name was Azubah, daughter of Shilhi. 43 In every way he followed the example of his father Asa undeviatingly, doing what was right in the eyes of Yahweh. 44 The high places, however, were not abolished; the people still offered sacrifice and incense on the high places. 45 Jehoshaphat was at peace with the king of Israel.

46 The rest of the history of Jehoshaphat, the valour he showed, the wars he waged, is not all this in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 47 The remaining male prostitutes of those whoo had lived in the time of his father Asa, he swept out of the country. 48 There was no king in Edom, 49 and King Jehoshaphat built a ship of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but his ship never reached there; it was wrecked at Ezion-geber. 50 Then Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, "Let my men man the ships with yours." But Jehoshaphat would not agree. 51 Then Jehoshaphat slept with his ancestors and was buried in the Citadel of David, his ancestor; his son Jehoram succeeded him.

King Ahaziah of Israel and the prophet Elijah (853 - 852)

52 Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned for two years. 53 He did what was displeasing to Yahweh, by following the example of his father and mother, and Jeroboam son of Nebat who had led Israel into sin. 54 He served Baal and worship him, and provoked the anger of the God of Israel just as his father had done.

1- 1 After the death of Ahab Moab rebelled against Israel.

2 Ahaziah had fallen from the balcony of his upper room in Samia, and was lying ill; so e sent messengers, saying to them, "Go and consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron and ask whether I shall recover from my illness." 3 But the angel of Yahweh said to Elijah the Tishbite, "Up! Go and intercept the messengers of the king of Samaria, 'Is there no God in Israel, for you to go and consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron? 4 Yahweh says this: The bed you have got into you will not get out of; you are certainly going to die.'" And Elijah set out.

5 The messengers returned to the king, who said, "Why have you come back?" 6 "A man came to meet us," they answered, "and said," 'Go back to the king who sent you and tell him: Yahweh says this: Is there no God in Israel for you to go and consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron? For this, the bed you have got into you will not get out of; you are certainly going to die.'" 7 He said, "This man who met you and said all this, what was he like?" 8 "A man wearing a hair cloak," they answered, "and a leather loincloth." "It was Elijah the Tishbite," he said.

9 He then sent a captain of fifty soldiers with his contingent to Elijah, whom they found sitting on top of the hill; the captain went up to him and said, "Man of God, the king says, 'Come down.'" 10 Elijah answered the captain, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy both you and your fifty men." And fire came down from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty men. 11 The king sent a second captain of fifty to him, again with fifty men, and he too went up and said, "Man of God, this is the king's order: 'Come down at once.'" 12 Elijah answered them, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your fifty men." And fire came down from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty men. 13 Then the king sent a third captain of fifty to him, with another fifty men. The third captain of fifty came up to Elijah, fell to his knees before him and pleaded with him. "Man of God," he said, "let my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours have some value in your eyes. 14 Fire has fallen from heaven and destroyed two captains of fifties, but let my life have some value now in your eyes." 15 The angel of Yahweh said to Elijah, "Go down to him; do not be afraid of him." He rose and accompanied him down to the king, 16 and said to him, "Yahweh says this. 'Since you sent messengers to consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron, the bed you have got into you will not get out of; you are certainly going to die.'"

17 And, in accordance with the word of Yahweh that Elijah had uttered, he died. Since he had no son, his brother Jehoram succeeded him, in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. 18 The rest of the history of Ahaziah, and his career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?

Elijah is taken and Elisha succeeds him

2- 1 This is what happened when Yahweh took Elijah up to heaven in the whirlwind: Elijah and Elisha set out from Gilgal, 2 and Elijah said to Elisha, "Please stay here, for Yahweh is only sending me to Bethel." But Elisha replied, "As Yahweh lives and as you live, I will not leave you!" and they went down to Bethel. 3 The brotherhood of prophets who live in Bethel came out to meet Elisha and said, "Do you know that Yahweh is going to carry your lord and master away today?" "Yes, I know," he said, "be quiet." 4 Elijah said, "Elisha, please stay here, Yahweh is only sending me to Jericho." But he replied, "As Yahweh lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you!" And they went on to Jericho. 5 The brotherhood of prophets who live in Jericho went up to Elisha and said, "Do you know that Yahweh is going to carry your lord and master away today?" "Yes, I know," he said, "be quiet." 6 Elijah said, "Elisha, please stay here, Yahweh is only sending me to the Jordan." But he replied, "As Yahweh lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you!" And they went on together.

7 Fifty of the brotherhood of the prophets followed them, halting some distance away as the two of them stood beside the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water; and the water divided to left and right, and the two of them crossed over dry-shod. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Make your request. What can I do for you before I am taken from you?" Elisha answered, "Let me inherit double share of your spirit." 10 "Your request is a difficult one," Elijah said. "If you see me while I am being taken from you, it shall be as you ask; if not, it will not be so." 11 Now as they walked on, talking as they went, a chariot of fire appeared and horses of fire, coming between the two of them; and Elijah went up to heaven in the whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw it, and shouted, "My father! Chariot of Israel and its chargers!" Then he lost sight of him, and taking hold of his clothes he tore them in half. 13 He picked up the cloak of Elijah which had fallen, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

14 He took the cloak of Elijah and struck the water. "Where is Yahweh, the God of Elijah?" he cried. He struck the water, and it divided to right and left, and Elisha crossed over. 15 The brotherhood of prophets saw him in the distance, and said, "The spirit of Elijah has come to rest on Elisha"; they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. 16 "Look," they said, "your servants have fifty strong men with them; let them go and look for your master; the spirit of Yahweh may have taken him up and thrown him down on a mountain or into a valley." "Send no one," he replied. 17 But they so shamed him with their insistence that he consented. So they sent fifty men who searched for three days without finding him. 18 They then came back to Elisha who had stayed in Jericho; he said, "Did I not tell you not to go?"

Two miracle of Elisha

19 The men of the town said to Elisha, "The town is pleasant to live in, as my lord indeed can see, but the water is foul and the country suffers from miscarriages." 20 "Bring me a new bowl," he said, "and put some salt in it." They brought it to him. 21 Then he went to the place the water came from and threw salt into it. "Thus Yahweh speaks," he said, "'I make this water wholesome: neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it any more.'" 22 And the water was made wholesome, and is so today, exactly as Elisha had said it would be.

23 From there he went to Bethel, and while he was on the road up, some small boys came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go up, baldhead!" They shouted. "Go up, baldhead!" 24 He turned around and looked at them: and he cursed them in the name of Yahweh. And two she-bears came out of the wood and savaged forty-two boys. From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and then returned to Samaria.

Introduction to the reign of Jehoram in Israel (852 - 841)

3- 1 Jehoram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned for twelve years. 2 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, though not like his father and mother, for he did away with the pillar of Baal that his father had made. 3 Nonetheless, he continued to practice the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel, and did not give them up.

The expedition of Israel and Judah against Moab

4 Mesha king of Moab was a sheep breeder and used to pay the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams in tribute. 5 But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

6 At once King Jehoram went out of Samaria and mustered all Israel. After this he sent word to the king of Judah, " 7 "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you join with me fighting Moab?" "I will," he replied. "I am as ready as you are, my men as your men, my horses as your horses," 8 and added"which way are we to attack?" "Through the wilderness of Edom," the other answered.

9 So they set out, the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom. They followed a devious route for seven days, until there was no water left for the troops or for the beasts in their baggage train. 10 "Alas!" The king of Israel exclaimed, "Yahwe has summoned us three kings, only to put us into the power of Moab." 11 But the king of Judah said, "Is there no prophet of Yahweh here for us to consult Yahweh through him?" One of the king of Israel's servants answered, "Elisha son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah." 12 "The word of Yahweh is with him," the king of Judah said. So they went to him, the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom. 13 But Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What business have you with me? Go to the prophets of your father and your mother." "No," the king of Israel answered."Yahweh has summoned us three kings, only to put us into the power of Moab." 14 Elisha replied, "As Yahweh Sabaoth lives, whom I serve, if I did not respect Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I should not take notice of you, or so much as look at you. 15 Now bring me someone who can play the lyre." And as the musician played, the hand of Yahweh was laid on him 16 and he said "Yahweh says this, 'Dig ditch on ditch in this wadi,' 17 for Yahweh says, 'You shall see neither wind nor rain, but this wadi shall be filled with water, and you and your troops and your baggage animals shall drink.' 18 But this is only a little thing in the sight of Yahweh, for he will put Moab itself into your power. 19 You shall storm every fortified town, fell every sound tree, block every water spring, ruin all the best fields with stones." 20 Next morning at the time when the oblation was being offered, water came down from the direction of Edom, and the country was filled with it.

21 When the Moabites learned that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were of age to bear arms were called up; they took position on the frontier. 22 In the morning when they got up, the sun was shining on the water; and in the distance the Moabites saw the water as red blood. 23 "This is blood!" they said. "The kings must have fought among themselves and killed one another. So now for the booty, Moab!"

24 But when they reached the Israelite camp, the Israelites launched their attack and the Moabites fled before them, ans as they advanced they cut the Moabites to pieces. 25 They laid the towns in ruins, and each man threw a stone into all the best fields to fill them up, and they blocked every water spring and felled every sound tree. In the end, the was only Kir-hareseth left, which the slingers surrounded and battered. 26 When the king of Moab saw that the battle had turned against him, he mustered seven hundred swordsmen in the hope of breaking a way out and going to the king of Aram, but he failed. 27 Then he took his eldest son who was to succeed him and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. There was bitter indignation against the Israelites, who then withdrew, retiring to their own country.

The widow's oil

4- 1 The wife of a member of the prophetic brotherhood appealed to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead," she said, "and you know how your servant revered Yahweh. A creditor has now come to take my two children and make them his slaves." 2 Elisha said, "What can I do for you? Tell me, what have you in the house?" "Your servant has nothing in the house," she replied, "Except a pot of oil." 3 Then he said, "Go outside and borrow jars from all your neighbours empty jars and not to few. 4 When you come back, shut the door on yourself and your sons, and pour the oil into all these jars, putting each aside when it is full." 5 So she left him; and she shut the door on herself and her sons; they passed her the jars and she went on pouring. 6 When the jars were full, she said to her son, "Pass e another jar." "There are no more," he replied. Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She went and told the man of God, who said, "Go and sell the oils and redeem your pledge; you and your children can live on the remainder."

The woman of Shunem and her son

8 One day as Elisha was on his way to Shunem, a woman of rank who lived there pressed him to stay and eat there. After this he always broke his journey for a meal when he passed that way. 9 She said to her husband, "Look, I am sure the man who is constantly passing our way must be a holy man of God. 10 Let us build him a small room on the roof, and out him a bed in it, and a table and chair and lamp; whenever he comes to us he an rest there." 11 One day when he came, he retired to the upper room and lay down. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, "Call our Shunammitess." He called her, and she came and stood before him. 13 "Tell her this," Elisha said, "Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us, what can we do for you? Is there anything you would like said for you to the king or to the commander of the army?'" But she replied, "I live with my own people about me, 14 What can be done for her then?" he asked. Gehazi answered, "Well, she has no son and her husband is old." 15 Elisha said, "Call her." The servant called her and she stood at the door. 16 "This time next year," he said, "you will hold a son in your arms." But she said, "No, my lord, do not deceive your servant." 17 But the woman did conceive, and she gave birth to a son at the time Elisha had said she would.

18 The child grew up; one day he went out to his father who was with the reapers, 19 and exclaimed to his father, "Oh, my head! My head!" the father told a servant to carry him to his mother. 20 He lifted him up and took him to his mother, and the boy sat on her knee until midday, when he died. 21 She went upstairs, laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him and went out. 22 She called her husband and said, "Send me one of the servants with a donkey. I must hurry to the man of God and back." 23 "Why go to him today?" he asked. "It is not New Moon or sabbath." But she answered, "Never mind." 24 She had the donkey saddled, and said to her servant, "Lead on, go! Do not draw rein until I give the order." 25 She set off and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel; when he saw her in the distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, "Look, here comes our Shunammitess! 26 Now run and meet her, 'Are you well? Is your husband well? Your child well?" "She answered, "Yes." 27 When she came to the man of God there on the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi stepped forward to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her; there is bitterness in her soul and Yahweh has hidden it from me, he has not told me." 28 She said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Do not deceive me?"

29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck up your cloak, take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; if anyone greets you, do not answer him. You are to stretch out my staff over the child." 30 But the child's mother said, "As Yahweh lives and as you yourself live. I will not leave you." Then he stood up and followed her. 31 Gehazi had gone ahead of them and had stretched out the staff over the child, but there was no sound or response. He went back to meet Elisha and told him. "The child has not woken up," he said. 32 Elisha then went to the house, and there on his bed lay the child, dead. 33 He went in and shut the door on the two of them and prayed to Yahweh. 34 Then he climbed onto the bed and stretched himself on top of the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes to his eyes, and his hands on his hands, and as he lowered himself onto him, the child's flesh grew warm. 35 Then he got up and walked to and fro inside the house, and then climbed onto the bed again and lowered himself onto the child seven times in all; then the child sneezed and open his eyes. 36 He then summoned Gehazi. "Call our Shunammitess," he said; and he called her. When she came to him, he said, "Take up your son." 37 She went in and, falling at his feet, bowed down the ground; and taking up her son went out.

The poisoned soup

38 Elisha went back to Gilgal while there was famine in the country. As the brotherhood of prophets were sitting with him, he said to his servant, "Put the large pot on the fire and cook some soup for the brotherhood." 39 One of them went into the fields to gather herbs and came on some wild vine off which he gathered enough gourds to fill his lap. On return, he cut them up into the pot of soup; they did not know what they were. 40 They then poured the soup out for the men to eat, but they had no sooner tasted the soup than they cried, "Man of God, there is death in the pot!2 And they could not eat it. 41 "Bring some meal then," Elisha said. This he threw into the pot, and said, "Pour out for these men, and let them eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot.

The multiplication of loaves

42 A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread from the first fruits, twenty barley loaves and fresh grain in the ear. "Give it to the people to eat." Elisha said." 43 But his servant replied, "How can I serve this to a hundred men?" "Give it to the people to eat," he insisted, "for Yahweh says this. 'They will eat and have some left over.'" 4 He served them; they ate and had some left over, as Yahweh had said.

Naaman is healed

5- 1 Naaman, army commander to the king of Aram, was a man who enjoyed his master's respect and favour, since through him Yahweh had granted victory to the Aramaeans. But the man was a leper. 2 Now on one of their raids, the Aramaeans had carried off from the land of Israel a little girl who had become a servant of Naaman's wife. 3 She said to her mistress, "If only my master would approach the prophet of Samaria. He could cure him of his leprosy." 4 Naaman went and told his master. "This and this," he reported, "Is what the girl from the land of Israel said." 5 "Go by all means," said the king of Aram. "I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six hundred shekels of gold and ten festal robes. 6 He presented the letter to the king of Israel. It read: "With this letter, I am sending my servant Naaman to you for you to cure him of his leprosy." 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his garments. "Am I a god to give death and life," he said "that he sends a man to me to cure him of leprosy? Listen to this, and take note of it and see how he intends to pick a quarrel with me."

8 When Elisha heard that the king of Israel had torn his garments, he sent word to the king. "Why did you tear your garments? Let him come to me, and he will find there is a prophet in Israel." 9 So Naaman came with his team and chariot and drew up at the door of Elisha's house. 10 And Elisha sent him a messenger to say. "Go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will become clean once more." 11 But Naaman was indignant and went off, saying, "Here was I thinking he would be sure to come out to me, and stand there, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the spot and cure the leprous part. 12 Surely Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, are better than any water in Israel? Could I not bathe in them and become clean?" And he turned around and went off in rage. 13 But his servants approached him and said, "My father, if the prophet had asked you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? All the more reason, then, when he says to you, 'Bathe, and you will become clean.'" 14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, as Elisha had told him to do. And his flesh became clean once more like the flesh of a little child.

15 Returning to Elisha with his whole escort, he went in and stood before him. "Now I know," he said, "that there is a man no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now, please, accept a present from your servant." 16 But Elisha replied, "As Yahweh lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing." Naaman pressed him to accept, but he refused. 17 Then Naaman said, "Since your answer is no,' allow your servant to be given as much earth as two mules may carry, because your servant will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any god except Yahweh. 18 Only - and may Yahweh forgive your servant - when my master goes to the temple of Rimmon to worship there, he leans on my arm, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon when he does; may Yahweh forgive your servant this act!" 19 "Go in peace," Elisha answered.

Naaman had gone a small distance, 20 when Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, said to himself, "My master has let this Aramaean Naaman off lightly, by not accepting what he offered. As Yahweh lives, I will run after him and get something out of him." 21 So Gehazi set off in pursuit of Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he jumped down from his chariot to meet him. "Is all well?" he asked. 22 "All is well," he said. "My master has sent me to say, 'This very moment two young men of the prophetic brotherhood have arrived from the highlands of Ephraim. Be kind enough to give tem a talent of silver.'" 23 Please accept two talents," Naaman replied, and pressed him, tying up the two talents of silver in two bags and consigning them to two of his servants who carried them in front of Gehazi. 24 When he reached Ophel, he took them from their hands and put them away in the house. He then dismissed the men, who went away.

25 He, for his part, went and presented himself to his master. Elisha said, "Gehazi, where have you been?" "Your servant has not been anywhere," he replied. 26 But Elisha said to him, "Was not my heart present there when someone left his chariot to meet you? Now you have taken the money, you can buy gardens with it, and olive groves, sheep and oxen, male and female slaves. 27 But Naaman's leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants for ever." And Gehazi left his presence a leper, white as snow.

The ax lost and found

6- 1 The brotherhood of prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we live side by side with you is too confined for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan, then, and each of us cut a beam there, and we will make our living quarters there." He replied, "Go." 3 Be good enough to go with your servants," one of them said, "I will go," he answered, 4 and went with them. On reaching the Jordan they cut down timber. 5 But, as one of them was felling his beam, the iron axhead fell into the water. "Alas, my lord," he exclaimed, "and it was a borrowed one too!" 6 "Where did it fall?" the man of God asked; and he showed him the spot. Then, cutting a stick, Elisha threw it in at that point and made the iron axhead float. 7 "Lift it out," he said; and the man stretched out his hand and took it.

Elisha captures an armed band of Aramaeans

8 The king of Aram was at war with Israel. He conferred with his officers, and said, "You are to attack at such a place." 9 But Elisha sent word to the king of Israel, "Be on your guard at this place, because the Aramaeans are going to attack it." 10 The king of Israel accordingly sent men to the place Elisha had named. And he kept warning the king, and the king stayed on the alert; and this happened more than once or twice.

11 The king of Aram was disturbed in mind at this; he summoned his officers, and said, "Tell me which of you is betraying us to the king of Israel." 12 "No, my lord king," one of his officers replied, "it is Elisha, the prophet in Israel, who reveals to the king of Isrel the words you speak in your bedchamber." 13 "Go and find out where he is," the king said, "so that I can send people to capture him." Word was brought to him, "He is now in Dothan." 14 So he sent horses and chariots there, and a large force; and these, arriving during the night, surrounded the town.

15 Next day, Elisha rose early and went out; and there surrounding the town was an armed force with horses and chariots. "Oh, my lord," his servant said, "what are we to do?" 16 "Have no fear," he replied, "there are more on our side than on theirs." 17 And Elisha prayed. "Yahweh," he said, "open his eyes and make him see." Yahweh opened the servant's eyes, and he saw the mountain covered with horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha.

18 As the Aramaean came down toward him, Elisha prayed to Yahweh, "I beg you to strike this people with blindness." And at the word of Elisha he struck them blind. 19 Then Elisha said to them, "This is not the road, nor is this the town. Follow me; I will lead you to the man you are looking for." But he led them to Samaria. 20 As they entered Samaria, Elisha said, "Yahweh, open the eyes of these men, and let them see." Yahweh opened their eyes and they saw; they were inside Samaria.

21 When the king of Israel saw them, he said, "Shall I kill them, my father?" 22 "Do not kill them," he answered. "Do you put prisoners to death when you have taken them with the sword and your bow? Offer them bread and water for them to eat and drink, and let them go back to their master." 23 So the king provided a great feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them off and they returned to their master. Aramaean raiding parties never invaded the territory of Israel again.

Samaria besieged; the famine

24 It happened after this that Ben-hadad king of Aram mustered his whole army and came to lay siege to Samaria. 25 In Samaria there was a great famine, and so strict was the siege that the head of a donkey sold for eight shekels of silver, and a quarter-kab of wild onions for five shekels of silver.

26 Now as the king was passing along the city wall, a woman shouted. "Help, my lord king!" 27 "May Yahweh leave you helpless!" He retorted. "Where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor? From the wine press?" 28 Then the king asked, "What id the matter?" "This woman here," she answered, "has said tome, 'Give up your son; we will eat him today, and eat my son tomorrow.' 29 So we cooked my son and ate him. Next day, I said to her, 'Give up your son for us to eat.' But she has hidden her son." 30 On hearing the woman's words, the king tore his garments; the king was walking on the wall, and the people saw that underneath he was wearing sackcloth next his body. 31 Ma God do this to me and more," he said, "if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!"

Elisha foretells imminent relief

32 Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead but, before the man arrived, Elisha had said to the elders, "Do you see how this born assassin has given orders to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door against him. Is not the sound of his master's step following behind him?" 33 Even has he spoke, the king arrived. "This misery plainly comes from Yahweh." he said, "why should I still trust in Yahweh?" 7- 1 "Listen to the word of Yahweh," Elisha said. "Yahweh says this, 'By this time tomorrow a measure of finest flour will sell for one shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel, at the gate of Samaria.'" 2 The equerry on whose arm the king was leaning retorted to Elisha, "Even if Yahweh made windows in the sky, could this come true?" "You shall see it with your own eyes," Elisha answered, "though you will eat none of it."

The Aramaean camp is found abandoned

3 Now at the entrance to the gate - for they were lepers - they were four men and they debated among themselves, "Why sit here waiting for death? 4 If we decide to go into the town, what with the famine in it, we shall die there; if we stay here we shall die just the same. Come on, let us go over to the Aramaean camp; if they spare out lives, we live; if they kill us, well then we die." 5 So at dusk they set out and made for the Aramaean camp, but when they reached the confines of the camp there was not a soul there. 6 For Yahweh had caused the Aramaeans in their camp to hear a noise of chariots and horses, noise of a great army; and they had said to one another, "Hark! The king of Israel has hired the Hittite kings against us and the kings of Egypt to attack us." 7 So in the dusk they had made off and fled, abandoning their tents, their horses and their donkeys; leaving the camp just as it was, they had fled for their lives. 8 The lepers, then, reached the confines of the camp. They went into one of the tents and ate and drank, and from it carried off silver and gold and clothing; these they went and hid. Then they came back and, entering another tent, looted it too, and went and hid their booty.

The siege at an end; the famine ceases

9 Then they said to one another, "We are doing wrong. This is a day of good news, yet we are holding our tongues! If we wait till morning, we shall surely be punished. Come on, let us go and take the news to the palace." 10 Off they went, called the city guards, and said, "We have been to the Aramaean camp. There was not a soul there, no sound of anyone, only tethered horses and tethered donkeys, and their tents just as they were." 11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, which was reported inside the palace.

12 The king got up while it was still dark and said to is officers, "I can tell you what the Aramaeans have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the opened country. 'They will come out of the town.' they think, 'we will catch them alive and get into the town.'" 13 One of his officers replied, "Five of the surviving horses still left us had better be taken - they would die in any case like all the rest. Let us send them and see." 14 So they look two chariot teams and the king sent them after the Aramaean army, saying, "Go and see." 15 They tracked them as far as the Jordan, finding the whole way strewd with clothes and gear that the Aramaeans had thrown away in their panic. The scouts returned and informed the king.

16 Then the people went out and plundered the Aramaean camp: a measure of finest flower sold for one shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel, as Yahweh had promised they would be. 17 The king had detailed the equerry, on whose arm he leaned, as commander of the guard on the gate, but the people trampled on him in the gateway and he died, as the man of God had foretold when the king had come down to him. 18 (What Elisha had said to the king came true, "Two measures of barley will sell for one shekel, and a measure of finest flour for one shekel, by this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria." 19 The equerry had retorted to Elisha, "Even if Yahweh made windows in the sky, could this come true?" "You will see it with your own eyes," Elisha had answered, "though you will eat none of it." 20 And this is what happened to him: the people trampled on him in the gateway and he died.)

Epilogue to the story of the woman of Shunem

8- 1 Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had raised to life, "Move away with your family, and live where you can in some foreign country, for Yahweh has called up a famine - it is coming on the country already - for seven years." 2 The woman hurried to do what the man of God had told her; she set out, she and her family, and for seven years she lived in the land of the Philistines. 3 When the seven years were over, the woman came back from the land of the Philistines and went to lodge a claim with the king for her house and lands.

4 Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. "Tell me," he was saying, "all the great things Elisha has done." 5 Gehazi was just telling the king how Elisha had raised the dead child to life, when the woman whose son Elisha had raised lodged her claim with the king for her house and lands. "My lord king." Gehazi said, "this is the very woman, and that is her son whom Elisha raised to life." 6 The king questioned the woman, who told him the story. The king then referred her to one of the eunuchs, giving him this order: "See that all her property is restored to her, and all the revenue from her land from the day she left the country until now."

Elisha and Hazael of Damascus

7 Elisha came to Damascus. Ben-hadad the king of Aram was ill, and was told, "The man of God has come all the way to us." 8 Then the king said to Hazael, "Take a present with you and go to meet the man of God; consult Yahweh through him, and find out if I shall recover from my illness."

9 So Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a present the best Damascus could offer, a load for forty camels. He came and standing before him said, "Your son Ben-hadad has sent me to ask you, "Shall I recover from my illness?'" 10 Elisha answered, "Go and tell him, 'You will certainly recover,' though Yahweh has shown me that he will certainly die." 11 Then his face went rigid and his look grew fixed, and the man of God wept. 12 "Why," Hazael asked, "does my lord weep?" "Because I know," Elisha replied, "all the harm you will do the Israelites: you will burn down their fortresses, put their picked warriors to the sword, dash their little children to pieces, rip open their pregnant women." 13 But what is your servant?" Hazael said. "How could this dog achieve anything so great?" "In a vision from Yahweh," Elisha replied, "I have seen you king of Aram."

14 Leaving Elisha, Hazael went back to his master who asked, "What did Elisha say to you?" He answered, "He told me you would certainly recover." 15 Next day he took a blanket, soaked it in water, and spread it over his face. So died Ben-hadad, and Hazael succeeded him.

The reign of Jehoram in Judah (848 - 841)

16 In the fifth year of Jehoram son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoram son Jehoshaphat became king of Judah. 17 He was thirty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. 18 He followed the example of the king of Israel as the family of Ahab had done, having taken a wife from the family of Ahab; he did what is displeasing to Yahweh. 19 Yahweh, however, did not intend to destroy Judah, because of his servant David, and was faithful to the promise he had made to leave him a lamp for ever in his presence.

20 In his time Edom threw off the domination of Judah and set up a king for itself. 21 Jehoram crossed to Zair, and with him all the chariots . . . He rose during the night and, his chariot commander, broke through the Edomites encircling him; the people fled to their tents. 22 Thus Edom threw off the domination of Judah, remaining free to the present day. Libnah also revolted. At that time . . .

23 The rest of the history of Jehoram, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of Annals of the Kings of Judah? 24 Then Jehoram slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the Citadel of David; his son Ahaziah succeeded him.

The reign of Ahaziah in Judah (841)

25 In the twelfth of Jehoram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah. 26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah, daughter of Omri king of Israel. 27 He followed the example of the family of Ahab and did what is displeasing to Yahweh as the family of Ahab had done, to whom he was related by marriage.

28 He went with Jehoram son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, but the Aramaeans wounded Jehoram. 29 King Jehoram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received at Ramah, fighting against Hazael king of Aram. Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to visit Jehoram son of Ahab because he was ill.

A disciple of Elisha anoints Jehu king

9- 1 Elisha the prophet summoned a member of the prophetic brotherhood to him, "Tuck up your cloak, take this flask of oil, and go to Ramoth-gilead. 2 When you arrive there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi. Then, when you find him, tell him to get up and leave his companions, and take him into the inner room. 3 Take the flask of oil then and pour it over his head, and say, 'This is Yahweh's word: I have anointed you king of Israel.' Then throw open the door and escape as fast as you can."

4 The young man left for Ramoth-gilead 5 and when he arrived, he found the senior officers of the army sitting together. I have a message for you, commander," he said. "Foe which of us?" asked Jehu. "For you, commander," he answered. 6 Then Jehu got up and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying, "Yahweh the God of Israel says this, 'I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, king of Israel. 7 You are to strike down the family of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and of all the servants of Yahweh on Jezreel 8 and the whole family of Ahab I will wipe out every male belonging to the family of Ahab, fettered or free in Israel. 9 I will make the family of Ahab like the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat and of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10 As for Jezebel, the dogs shall eat her in the territory of Jezreel; no one will bury her.'" With this, he opened the door and made his escape.

Jehu proclaimed king

11 Jehu came out to the officers of his master. "Is all well?" they asked him. Why did this madman come to you?" "You know the fellow and how he talks," he answered. 12 "Evasion!" they cried. "Come on, tell us." He replied, "His drift was this - he said, "Yahweh says this: I have anointed you king of Israel.'" 13 Whereupon they all took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps; they sounded the trumpet and shouted, "Jehu is king!"

Jehu prepares to usurp power

14 Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimri plotted against Jehoram. (Jehoram, with all Israel, was at that time defending Ramoth-gilead against Hazael king of Aram, 15 Although Jehoram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received from the Aramaeans while he was fighting against Hazael king of Aram.) "If this is how you feel," Jehu said, "let no one escape from the town to go and take the news to Jezreel." 16 Jehu then mounted a chariot and left for Jezreel; Jehoram had taken to his bed there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to visit him.

17 The lookout posted on the tower of Jezreel saw Jehu's troop approaching, "I can see a body of men," he shouted. Jehoram gave the order: "Have a horseman sent to meet them and ask, 'Is all well?'" 18 The horseman went to meet Jehu and said, "The king says, 'Is all well?" "What has it to do with you whether all is well?" Jehu replied. "Fall in behind me." The lookout reported, "The messenger has reach them and is not coming back." 19 The king sent a second horseman who reached them and said, "The king says, 'Is all well?" "What has it to do with you whether all is well?" Jehu replied. "Fall in behind me." 20 The lookout reported, "He has reached them and is not coming back. The manner of driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi: he drives like a madman." 21 "Harness!" jehoram cried; and they harnessed his chariot. Then Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah, each in his chariot, set out to meet Jehu. They reached him in the field of Naboth of Jezreel.

The assassination of Jehoram

22 As soon as Jehoram saw Jehu ha asked, "Is all well, Jehu?" "What a question!" he replied, "when all the while the prostitutions and countless sorceries of your mother Jezebel go on." 23 At this, Jehoram wheeled and fled, saying to Ahaziah, "Treason, Ahaziah!" 24 But Jehu had drawn his bow; he struck Jehoram between the shoulder blades, the arrow went through the king's heart, and he sank down 25 in his chariot. "Pick him up," Jehu said to Bidkar, his equerry, "And throw him into the field of Naboth of Jezreel. Remember how, when you and I both rode behind Ahab his father, Yahweh pronounced this sentence against him: 26 'This I swear. Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons - it is Yahweh who speaks. In this same field I will requite you - it is Yahweh who speaks.' So pick him up, and throw him into the field, as Yahweh declared should happen."

The assassination of Ahaziah

27 When Ahaziah kinng of Judah saw this, he fled along the Beth-haggan road but Jehu went in pursuit of Him. "Strike him down too," he said. And they wounded him in his chariot at the slope of Gur, which is near Ibleam, and he took refuge in Migiddo, where he died. 28 His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb in the Citadel of David. 29 Ahaziah had become king of Judah in the eleventh year of Jehoram son of Ahab.

The assassination of Jezebel

30 Jehu went back to Jezreel and Jezebel heard of it. She made up her eyes with kohl and adorned her head and appeared at the window. 31 As Jehu came through the gateway she said, "Is all well, Zimri, you murderer of your master?" 32 Jehu looked up to the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" And two or three eunuchs looked down at him. 33 "Throw her down," he said. They threw her down, and her blood spattered the walls and the horses; and Jehu rode over her. 34 He went in and ate and drank, then he said, "See to this accursed woman, and give her burial; after all, she was a king's daughter." 35 But when they went to bury her, they found nothing but her skull, feet and hands. 36 They came back and told Jehu, who said, "This is the word of Yahweh which he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite, 'The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel; 37 the corpse of Jezebel will be like dung spread on the fields, so that no one will be able to say: This was Jezebel.'"

The massacre of the royal family of Israel

10- 1 There were seventy sons of Ahab in Samaria. Jehu sent to Samaria, to the authorities of the city, to the elders and to the guardians of the children of Ahab. He said, 2 "At this time, when this letter reaches you, you have your master's sons with you; you also have chariots and horses, fortified towns and weapons. 3 See which of your master's sons is the best and worthiest, put him on his father's throne and fight for the dynasty of your master." 4 They were utterly terrified. "We have seen how the two kings could not stand up to him," they said, "So how could we do so?" 5 Consequently the master of the palace, the governor of the city, the elders and the guardians sent word to Jehu, "We are your servants. We will do whatever you order us. We will not proclaim a king; act as you think best."

6 Jehu then wrote a second letter. He said, "If you are for me and if you are prepared to accept orders from me, take the heads of the men of your master's house and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow." (There were seventy sons of the king being educated there by the leading men of the city.) 7 When this letter reached them, they took the king's sons and butchered all seventy of them, and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.

8 The messenger came and told Jehu. "They have brought the heads of the king's sons." "Leave them in two heaps at the entrance to the gate until morning," he replied. 9 When morning came, he went out and, standing, said to all the people, "Be guiltless! I certainly plotted against my master and murdered him; but who killed all these? 10 Know, then, nothing will fail to be fulfilled of the oracle uttered by Yahweh against the family of Ahab: Yahweh has done what he said through his servant Elijah." 11 Jehu then killed everyone of the House of Ahab surviving in Jezreel, all his leading men, his close friends, his priests; he did not leave a single one alive.

The massacre of the princes of Judah

12 Jehu then set out and went to Samaria. As he was on his way 13 he met, at Beth-eked of the Shepherds, the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah. "Who are you?" he asked. "We are brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah," they answered, "and we are going down to pay our respects to the sons of the king and the sons of the queen." 14 "Take them alive," he said. They took them alive, and he slaughtered them at the cistern of Beth-eked, forty-two of them; he did not spare a single one.

Jehu and Jehonadab

15 Leaving there, he came upon Jehonadab son of Rechab who was on his way to meet him. He greated him and said, "Is your heart true to mine, as my heart is to yours?" Jehonadab replied, "Yes." "If so," Jehu said, "give me your hand." Jehonadab gave his hand, and Jehu took him up beside him in his chariot. 16 "Come with me," he said, "and witness my zeal for Yahweh," and drove him on in his chariot. 17 When he entered Samaria, he killed all the survivors of Ahab's family in Samaria; he wiped it out, as Yahweh had told Elijah it would happen.

The destruction of the adherents and the temple of Baal

18 Then Jehu assembled all the people. Ahab did Baal some small service," he said, "but Jehu will do him a great one. 19 Now call all the prophets of Baal and all the priests. Let no one be missing: I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. If anyone is missing, he shall forfeit his life." This was a trick on Jehu's part to destroy the devotees of Baal. 20 Summon a sacred assembly for Baal," he commanded; and they summoned it. 21 Jehu sent messengers throughout Israel, and all the devotees of Baal arrived, not a man was left who did not attend. They packed into the temple of Baal until it was full from wall to wall. 22 Jehu then said to the keeper of the wardrobe, "Bring out vestments for all the devotees of Baal"; he brought out the vestments for them. 23 Jehu then went into the temple of Baal with Jehonadab son of Rechab and said to the devotees of Baal, "Make quite sure there are no devotees of Yahweh in here with you, but only devotees of Baal." 24 He then proceeded to offer sacrifices and holocausts.

Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, having said, "If any of you lets anyone of those I am handing over to escape, is life will pay for the life of the other." 25 When he had finished offering the holocaust, he gave the order to the guards and squires: "Go in, strike them down! Let no one out!" The guards and squires went in, putting everyone to the sword, until they had reached the sanctuary of the temple of Baal. 26 They took the sacred pole out of the temple of Baal and burned it. 27 They demolished the altar of Baal, and demolished the temple of Baal too, making it into a latrine, which it still is today.

The reign of Jehu in Israel (841 -814)

28 Thus Jehu rid Israel of Baal. 29 Even so, Jehu did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel, the golden calves of Bethel and Dan. 30 Yahweh said to Jehu, "Since you have done properly what was pleasing in my sight, and have achieved all I set my heart on against Ahab's family, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel down to the fourth generation." 31 But Jehu did not follow the law of Yahweh, the God of Israel faithfully and wholeheartedly: he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.

32 At that time, Yahweh began to whittle Israel down, and Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout the territory 33 from the Jordan eastward: all the land of Gilead, of the Gadites, the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer which is by the wadi Arnon, Gilead and Bashan.

34 The rest of the history of Jehu, his entire career, all his prowess, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? 35 Then he slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in Samaria; his son Jehoahaz succeeded him. 36 Jehu's reign over Israel in Samaria lasted twenty-eight years.

Athaliah (841 - 835)

11- 1 When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah learned that her son was dead, she promptly did away with all those of royal stock. 2 But Jehosheba , daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, secretly took away Jehoash, her brother's son, from among the sons of the king who were being murdered, and put him with his nurse in the sleeping quarters; in this way she hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death. 3 He stayed with her for six years, hidden in the Temple of Yahweh, while Athaliah governed the country.

4 In the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the commanders of hundreds of the Carians and of the guards, and had them brought to him in the Temple of Yahweh. He made a pact with them and, putting them under oath, showed the king's son. 5 "This is what you must do: one third of you, those who are off duty on the sabbath, are to mount guard at the royal palace, 7 while the other two thirds of you, mounting guard at the Temple of Yahweh, 8 are to surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; anyone who tries to brake through your ranks is to be put to death. Wherever the king goes or comes, you are to escort him."

9 The commanders of hundreds did everything as Jehoiada the priest had ordered. They brought their men, those coming off duty on the sabbath together with those mounting guard on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. 10 The priest equipped the commanders of hundreds with King David's spears and shields which were in the Temple of Yahweh. 11 The guards formed up, each man with his weapon in his hand, from the south corner to the north corner of the Temple, surrounding the altar and the Temple. 12 Then Jehoiada brought out the king's son, put the crown and armlets on him, and he anointed him king. They clapped their hands and shouted, "Long live the king!"

13 Athaliah, on hearing the shouts of the people, made for the Temple of Yahweh where the people were. 14 When she saw the king standing there beside the pillar, as the custom was, with the captains and trumpeters at the king's side, and all the country people rejoicing and sounding trumpets, Athaliah tore her garments and shouted, "Treason, treason!" 15 Then Jehoiada the priest gave the order to the army officers: "Take her outside the precincts and put her to death anyone who follows her," "For," the priest had reasoned, "she must not be put to death in the Temple of Yahweh." 16 They seized her, and when she had reached the palace through the Entry of the Horses, she was put to death there.

17 Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh and king and people, by which the latter undertook to be the people of Yahweh, and also between king and people. 18 All the country people then went to the temple of Baal and demolished it; they smashed his altars and his images and killed Mattan, priest of Baal in front of the altars.

The priest posted sentries to guard the Temple of Yahweh, 19 He then took the commanders of hundreds, the Carians, the guards and all the country people and made them escort the king down from the Temple of Yahweh and through the Gate of the Guards into the palace. Jehoash took his seat on the throne of the kings. 20 All the country people were delighted, and the city made no move. And they put Athaliah to death in the royal palace.

The reign of Jehoash in Judah (835 - 796)

12- 1 Jehoash was seven years old when he came to the throne. 2 Jehoash became king in the seventh year of Jehu, and reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah, of Beersheba. 3 Jehoash did what is pleasing to Yahwh all his life, having been instructed by Jehoiada the priest. 4 The high places, however, were not abolished, and the people still offered sacrifices and incense on the high places.

5 Jehoash said to the priests, "All the money from the sacred dues brought to the Temple of Yahweh, the money from personal taxes, and the money given spontaneously to the Temple 6 is to be accepted by the priests, from people of their acquittance, and the priests are to carry out all repairs to the Temple as required." 7 Now in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had done no repairs to the Temple; 8 so King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests. "Why are you not repairing the Temple?" He asked. "You are no longer to accept money from the people of your acquittance, but are to hand it over to the Temple repairs." 9 The priests agreed to accept no money from the people and no longer to be responsible for repairs to the Temple.

10 Jehoiada the priest procured a chest, bore a hole in the lid of it, and placed it beside the pillar, to the right as you enter the Temple of Yahweh; in it the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money that was given for the Temple of Yahweh. 11 Whenever they saw that there was a lot of money in the chest, the king's secretary would come, and they melt down and reckon the money then in the Temple of Yahweh. 12 Once checked, they paid this money over to the masters of works attached to the Temple of Yahweh, and these in turn spent it on carpenters, and builders working on the Temple of Yahweh, 13 on masons and stonecutters, and on buying wood and dressed stone to be used for repairs to the Temple of Yahweh; in short, for all cost of the Temple repairs. 14 No silver basins, however, no knives, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, no gold or silver objects whatever were made for the Temple of Yahweh out of the money presented, 15 for this was all given to the workmen who used it for repairing the Temple of Yahweh. 16 No accounts were kept with the men to whom the money was paid over to be spent on the workmen, since they were honest in their dealings. 17 Money offered in expiation of an offense or of a sin was not given to the Temple of Yahweh; that was for the priests.

18 At that time Hazael king of Aram went to war against Gath, and captured it; he then prepared to attack Jerusalem. 19 Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred offerings dedicated by his ancestors, the kings of Judah, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, with those that himself had dedicated, and all the gold that was to be found in the treasuries of the Temple of Yahweh and of the royal palace; he sent it all to Hazael king of Aram, who retired from Jerusalem.

20 The rest of the history of Jehoash, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 21 His officers rebelled and hatched a plot; they struck Jehoash down at Beth-millo . . . 22 Jozacar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer were two who struck him down and killed him. They buried him with his ancestors in the Citadel of David; his son Amaziah succeeded him.

The reign of Jehoahaz in Israel (814 - 798)

13- 1 In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for seven years. 2 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh and persisted in the sin into which Jeroboam had led Israel; he did not give it up.

3 The anger of Yahweh blazed out against the Israelites, and he delivered them without respite into the power of Hazael king of Aram and Ben-hadad son of Hazael. 4 Jehoahaz, however, tried to placate Yahweh, and Yahweh heard him, for he had seen the oppression the king of Aram was inflicting on them. 5 Yahweh gave Israel a saviour who freed them from the grip of Aram, and the Israelites lived in their tents as in the past. 6 But they did not give up the sin in which Jeroboam had led Israel; they persisted in it, and even the sacred pole remained in Samaria. 7 Yahweh left of the army of Jehoahaz only fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldier. The king of Aram had destroyed them, making them like the dust that is trampled under foot.

8 The rest of the history of Jehoahaz, his entire career, his prowess, is not all this recorded in the Book of Annals of the Kings of Israel? 9 Then Jehoahaz slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in Samaria; his son Joash succeeded him.

The reign of Jehoash in Israel (798 - 783)

10 In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for six years. 11 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, he did not give up the sin into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel; he persisted in it.

12 The rest of the history of Joash, his entire career, his prowess, how he waged war on Amaziah king of Judah, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? 13 Then Joash slept with his ancestors, and Jeroboam ascended his throne. Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

The death of Elisha

14 When Elisha had fallen ill of the illness he was to die of, Joash king of Israel went down to him and shedding tears over him said, "My father! My father! Chariot of Israel and its chargers!" 15 Elisha said to him, "Bring bow and arrows"; and he sent for a bow and arrows. 16 Then Elisha said to the king, "Draw the bow"; and he drew it. Elisha put his hands over the hands of the king, 17 then he said, "Open the window toward the east," and he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Arrow of victory over Aram! You will defeat ram at Aphek completely."

18 Elisha said, "Take the arrows"; and he took them. Then he said to the king, "Strike the ground"; and he struck it three times, then stopped. 19 At this, the man of God grew angry with him. "You should have struck half a dozen times," he said, "and you would have beaten Aram completely; now you will only beat Aram three times."

20 Elisha died, and was buried. Now bands of Moabites were making incursions into the country every years. 21 Some people happened to be carrying a man out for burial; at the sight of one of these bands, they flung the man into the tomb of Elisha and made off. The man had no sooner touched the bones of Elisha than he came to life and stood up on his feet.

Victory over the Aramaeans

22 Hazael king of Aram had opressed the Israelites throughout the life time of Jehoahaz, 23 but Yahweh was kind and took pity on them. Because of the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he relented toward them; he had no wish to destroy them, he did not cast them out of his presence. 24 Hazael king of Aram died, and his son Ben-hadad succeeded him. 25 Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-hadad son of Hazael the towns which Hazael had seized from his father Jehoahaz by force of arms. Joash defeated him three times and recovered the Israelite towns.

The reign of Amaziah in Judah (796 - 781)

14- 1 In the second year of Joash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddin, of Jerusalem. 3 He did what is pleasing to Yahweh, though not like his ancestor David; he imitated his father Joash in all respects. 4 The high places, however, were not abolished, and the people still offered sacrifices and incense on the high places.

5 Once the kingdom was firmly under his control, he killed those of his officers who had murdered the king his father. 6 But he did not put the murderers' sons to death, in accordance with what is written in the Book of Moses, where Yahweh has ordered: "Fathers must not be put to death for sons, nor sons for fathers; every one must be put to death for his own sin."

7 It was he who defeated the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, ten thousand of them, and who took the Rock by assault; he gave it the name Joktheel, which it bears to this present day.

8 Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, "Come and make a trial of strength!" 9 Jehoash king of Israel sent word to Amaziah king of Judah, "The thistle of Lebanon sent a message to the cedar of Lebanon, 'Give my son your daughter in marriage'; but the wild animals of Lebanon trampled down the thistle as they passed. 10 You have conquered Edom, and now hold your head in the air; boast on, but stay at home. Why challenge disaster, to your own ruin and the ruin of Judah?"

11 But Amaziah would not listen, and Jrhoash of Israel marched to the attack. And at Ben-shemesh, which belong to Judah, they made their trial of strength, Jehoash and Amaziah king of Judah. 12 Judah was defeated by Israel, and everyone fled to his tent. 13 The king of Judah, Amaziah son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, was taken prisoner at Ben-shamesh by Joash king of Israel who led him off to Jerusalem, where Joash demolished the city wall from the Gate of Ephraim to the Gate of the Corner for a distance of four hundred cubits. 14 He took all the gold and silver, and all the furnishings to be found in the Temple of Yahweh and in the treasury of the royal palace, and hostages besides, and then returned to Samaria.

15 The rest of the history of Jehoash, his entire career, his prowess, how he waged war of Amaziah king of Judah, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? 16 The Jehoash slept with his ancestors, ans was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; his son Jeroboam succeeded him.

17 Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel.

18 The rest of the history of Amaziah, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 19 A plot having been hatched against him in Jerusalem, he fled to Lachish; but he was followed to Lachish where he was put to death. 20 He was brought back by horse, and buried in Jerusalem with his ancestors in the Citadel of David. 21 All the people of Judah chose Uzziah, then sixteen years old, and made him king in succession to his father Amaziah. 22 It was he who rebuilt Elath and recovered it for Judah, after the king had slept with his ancestors.

The reign of Jeroboam II in Israel (783 - 743)

23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Joash became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for forty-one years. 24 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh and did not give up any of the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.

25 It was he who recovered the territory of Israel from the Pass of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word that Yahweh, the God of Israel, had spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher. 26 For Yahweh had seen how very bitter the affliction of Israel was, with no one, neither fettered nor free, to come to the help of Israel. 27 But Yahweh had resolved not to blot out the name of Israel from under heaven; he rescued them by means of Jeroboam son of Joash.

28 The rest of the history of Jeroboam, his entire career, his prowess, what wars he waged, how he . . . is not all this recorded in the Book of the nnals of the Kings of Israel? 29 Then Jeroboam slept with his ancestors. They buried him in Samaria with the kings of Israel; his son Zechariah succeeded him.

The reign of Uzziah in Judah (781 - 740)

15- 1 In the seventeenth year of Jeroboam of Israel, Uzziah son of Amaziah became king of Judah. 2 He was sixteen years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah, of Jerusalem. 3 He did what is pleasing to Yahweh, just as his father Amaziah had done. 4 The high places, were not abolished, and the people still offered sacrifices and incense on the high places.

5 But Yahweh struck the king, and he became a leper till his dying day. He lived confined to his room; his son Jotham was master of the place and ruled the country.

6 The rest of the history of Uzziah, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 7 Then Uzziah slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the Citadel of David; his son Jotham succeeded him.

The reign of Zechariah in Israel (743)

8 In the thirty-eight year of Uzziah king of Judah, Zechariah son of Jeroboam became king of Israel for six months. 9 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, as his fathers had done; he did not give up the sins into which jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.

10 Shallum son of Jabesh plotted against him, murdered him at Itbleam, and succeeded him.

11 The rest of the history of Zechariah is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 12 It happened as Yahweh had said to Jehu, "Your sons will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation." And so it turned out.

The reign of Shallum in Israel (743)

13 Shallum son of Jabesh became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and reigned for one month in Samaria.

14 The Menahem son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, entered Samaria, murdered Shallum son of Jabesh there, and succeeded him.

15 The rest of the history of Shallum, and the plot he hatched, all this is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 16 It was at that time that Menahem sacked Tappush - killing all who were in it - and its territory from Tirzah onward, because it had not opened its gates to him; he sacked the town and ripped open all the pregnant women.

17 In the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, Menahem son of Gadi became king of Israel. He reigned for ten years in Samaria. 18 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, he did not give up the sins which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.

Int this times, 19 Pul king of Assyria invaded the country, Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in return for his support in strengthening his hold on the royal power. 20 Menahem levied this sum from Israel, from all the men of rank, at the rate of fifty shekels a head, to be given to the king of Assyria, who then withdrew, and did not stay in the country.

21 The rest of the history of Menahem, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? 22 Then Menahem slept with his ancestors; his son Pekahiah succeeded him.

The reign of Pekahiah in Israel (738 - 737)

23 In the fiftieth year of Uzziah king of Judah, Pekahiah son of Menahem became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for two years. 24 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh; he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.

25 Pekah son of Remaliah, his equerry, plotted against him and struck him down in Samaria, in the keep of the royal palace . . . He had fifty men of Gilead with him. He killed the king, and succeeded him.

26 The rest of the history of Pekahiah, his entire career. All this is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

The reign of Pekah in Israel (737 - 732)

27 In the fifty-second year of Uzziah king of Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for two years. 28 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh; he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.

29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, bel-beth-maacah, Jaoath, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and deported the population to Assyria. 30 Hoshea son of Elah hatched a plot against Pekah son of Remaliah; he murdered the king, and succeeded him.

31 The rest of the history of Pekah, and his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?

The reign of Jotham in Judah (740 - 736)

32 In the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah became king of Judah. 33 He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha, daughter of Zadok. 34 He did what is pleasing to Yahweh, just as his father Uzziah had done. 35 The high places, however, were not abolished, and the people offered sacrifices and incense on the high places.

It was he who built the Upper Gate of the Temple of Yahweh.

36 The rest of the history of Jotham, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 37 At that time, Yahweh began sending Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah. 38 Then Jotham slept with his ancestors, and was buried in the Citadel of David, his ancestors; his son Ahaz succeeded him.

The reign of Ahaz in Judah (736 -716)

16- 1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah. 2 Ahaz was twenty year old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for six years in Jerusalem. He did not do what is pleasing to Yahweh his God, as his ancestor David had doe. 3 He followed the example of the kings of Israel, even causing his son to pass through fire, copying the shameful practices which Yahweh had dispossessed for the sons of Israel. 4 He offered sacrifices and incense on the high places, on the hills and under every spreading tree.

5 It was then that Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, launched their campaign against Jerusalem. They besieged it but could not reduce it. 6 (At that time, the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom; he drove out the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites occupied it and live there to this present day.) 7 Then Ahaz sent messengers to Tigliath-pileser king of Assyria to say, "I am your servant and your son. Come and rescue me from the king of Aram and the king of Israel who are making war against me." 8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the Temple of Yahweh and in the treasury of the royal palace, and sent this as a present to the king of Assyria. 9 The king of Assyria granted his present his request and, going up against Damascus, captured it; he deported its population to Kir, and put Rezin to death.

10 When the king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was in Damascus. He then sent the measurements and a model of the altar with the details of its workmanship to Uriah the priest. 11 Uriah the priest constructed the altar; all the instructions sent by king Ahaz from Damascus were carried out by Uriah the priest before King Ahaz returned from Damascus. 12 When the king arrived from Damascus, he inspected the altar, he approached it and ascended it. 13 He burned his holocaust and his oblation; he poured out his libation and sprinkled the blood of his communion sacrifice. 14 The altar that used to stand before Yahweh he removed from the front of the Temple, where it had stood between the new altar and the Temple of Yahweh, and placed it at the north side of the new altar. 15 King Ahaz gave this order to Uriah the priest: 'In the future you will burn the morning holocaust, the evening oblation, the king's holocaust and his oblation, the holocaust, the oblation and the libations of all people on the great altar; on it you will pour out all the blood of the holocausts and sacrifices. As regards the altar of bronze, I shall see to that." 16 Uriah the priest did everything that King Ahaz had ordered.

17 King Ahaz dismantled the wheeled stands, removed the crosspieces and the basins from them, and took the bronze Sea off the oxen supporting it, and rested it on the stone pavement. 18 In deference to the king of Assyria, he removed from the Temple of Yahweh the dais for the throne, which had been set up there, and the royal entry on the outside.

19 The rest of the history of Ahaz, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 20 Then Ahaz slept with his ancestors, and was buried in the Citadel of David; his son Hezekiah succeeded him.

The reign of Hoshea in Israel in Israel (732 - 724)

17- 1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and reigned for nine years. 2 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, though not like the preceding kings of Israel.

3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria made war on Hoshea who submitted to him and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was playing a double game with him: he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and had not, as in previous years, handed over the tribute to the king of Assyria. For this the king of Assyria imprisoned him, in chains.

The fall of Samaria (721)

5 The king of Assyria invaded the whole country and, coming to Samaria, laid siege to it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and i the cities of he Medes.

Observations on the fall of the Northern Kingdom

7 This happened because the Israelites had sinned against Yahweh their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods, 8 they followed the practices of the nations that Yahweh had dispossessed for them. 9 The Israelites and the kings they had made for themselves, plotted wicked schemes against their God. They built high places for themselves wherever they lived, from watchtower to fortified town. 10 They set up pillars and sacred poles for themselves on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 11 They sacrificed there after the manner of the nations that Yahweh had expelled before them, and did wicked things there, provoking the anger of Yahweh. 12 They served idols, although Yahweh had told them, "This you must not do."

13 And yet through all the prophets and all the seers, Yahweh had given Israel and Judah this warning, "Turn from your wicked ways and keep my commandments and my law in accordance with the entire Law I laid down for your fathers and delivered to them through my servants the prophets." 14 But they would not listen, they were more stubborn than their ancestors had been who had no faith in Yahweh their God. 15 They despised his laws and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They pursued emptiness, and themselves became empty through copying the nations around them although Yahweh had ordered them not to act as they did. 16 The rejected all the commandments of Yahweh their God and made idols of cast metal for themselves, two calves; they made themselves sacred poles, they worshiped the whole array of heaven, and they served Baal. 17 They made their sons and daughters pass through fire, they practiced divination and sorcery, they sold themselves to evil-doing in the sight of Yahweh, provoking his anger. 18 For this, Yahweh was enraged with Israel and thrust them away from him. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

19 Judah did not keep the commandments of Yahweh their God either, but copied the practices that Israel had introduced. 20 Yahweh rejected the whole race of Israel; he brought them low, delivering them into the hands of marauders, until at length he thrust them away from him. 21 And indeed h had torn Israel away from the House of David, and they had made Jeroboam son of Nebat king; Jeroboam had drawn Israel away from Yahweh and led them into a great sin. 22 The Israelites copied the sin Jeroboam had committed; they did not give it up, 23 until at length Yahweh thrust Israel away from him, as he had foretold through all his servants the prophets; he deported the Israelites from their own country to Assyria, where they still are today.

The origin of the Samaritans

24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites; they took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.

25 When they first came to live there, they did not worshiped Yahweh, so Yahweh sent lions against them, which killed a number of them. 26 They said to the king of Assyria, "The nations you deported and settled in the towns of Samaria do not know how to worship the god of the country, and he has sent lions against them; and now these are killing them because they do not know how to worship the god of the country." 27 So the king of Assyria gave this order: "Send back one of the priests whom I deported from them; let him go and live there and teach them how to worship the god of the country." 28 Accordingly, one of the priests they had deported from Samaria came to live in Bethel; he taught them haw to worship Yahweh.

29 Each national group made idols representing its own gods and put them in the temples of the high places made by the Samaritans; each national group did this in the towns allocated to it. 30 The men of Babylon had made a Succothbenoth, the men of Cuthah a Nergal, the men of Hamath an Ashina, 31 the Avvites a Nibhaz and a Tartak; while the Sepharvites burned their children i the fire in honour of Adrammelech and of Anammelech, gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They worshiped Yahweh as well, and they appointed priests out of their own number for the high places who officiated for them in the temples of the high places. 33 They worshiped Yahweh and served their own gods at the same time, with the rites of the countries from which they had been deported. 34 They still follow their old rites even now.

They did not worship Yahweh and did not conform to his statutes or ritual, or the law or the commandments, which Yahweh had laid down for the sons of Jacob to whom he gave the name Israel. 35 Yahweh had made a covenant with them and had given them this command: "You are not to worship alien gods, you are not to bow down to them or serve them or offer them sacrifices. 36 You are to bow down and offer sacrifice to Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and outstretched arm. 37 You are to observe the statutes and ritual, the law and the commandments which he has given you in writing and to which you are always to conform; you are not to worship alien gods. 38 Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not venerate alien gods. 39 Venerate Yahweh alone, your God, and he will deliver you out of the power of all your enemies." 40 But they would not listen, and still followed their old rites.

41 These nations, then, worshiped Yahweh and served their carved images as well, their children, too, and their children's children still behave today as their fathers behaved in the past.

Introduction to the reign of Hezekiah (716 - 687)

18- 1 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah. 2 He was thirty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what is pleasing to Yahweh, just as his ancestor David had done. 4 It was he who abolished the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the sacred poles and smashed the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for up to that time the Israelites had offered sacrifice to it; it was called Nehushtan. 5 He put his trust in the God of Israel. No king of Judah after him could be compared with him - nor any of those before him. 6 He was devoted to Yahweh, never turning from him, but keeping the commandments that Yahweh had laid down for Moses. 7 And so Yahweh was with him, and he was successful in all that he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him. 8 It was he who harassed the Philistines as far as Gaza, laying their territory waste from watchtower to fortified town.

The fall of Samaria; recapitulation

9 In the fourth year of Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria made war on Samaria and laid siege to it. 10 He captured it after three years, Samaria fell in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. 11 The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 12 This happened because they had not observed the voice of Yahweh their God and had broken his covenant, violating all that Moses the servant of Yahweh had laid down. They neither listened to it nor put it into practice.

Sennacherib's invasion

13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked the fortified towns of Judah and captured them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish, "I have been at fault. Call off the attack, and I will submit myself to whatever you impose on me." The king of Assyria exacted three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold from Hezekiah king of Judah, 15 and Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the Temple of Yahweh and in the treasury of the royal palace. 16 It was then that Hezekiah stripped the facing from the leaves and jambs of the doors of the Temple of Yahweh, which . . . King of Judah had plated, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

The embassy of the cupbearer-in-chief

17 From Lachish the king of Assyria sent the cupbearer-in-chief with a large force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. He went up to Jerusalem, and when he arrived, he took position near the conduit of the upper pool which is on the road to the Fuller's Field. 18 He summoned the king. The master of the palace,Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph went out to him. 19 The cupbearer-in-chief said to them, "Say to Hezekiah, 'Thus speaks the great king, the king of Assyria: What makes you so confident? 20 Do you thimk empty words are as good as strategy and military strength? Who are you relying on, to dare rebel against me? 21 We know you are relying on that broken reed Egypt, which pricks and pierces the hand of the man who leans on it. - That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him. - 22 You may say to me: We rely on Yahweh our God, but are they not his high places and altars that Hezekiah has suppressed, saying to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: This in Jerusalem, is the altar, before which you must worship? 23 Come, make a wager with my lord king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find horsemen to ride them. 24 How could you repulse a single one of the least of my master's servants? And yet you have relied on Egypt for chariots and horsemen. 25 And lastly, have I come up against this place to lay it to waste without warrant from Yahweh? Yahweh himself said to me: March against the country and lay it waste.'"

26 Eliakim, Shebnah and Joah said to the cupbearer-in-chief, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the Judaean languagge within earshot of the people on the ramparts." 27 But the cupbearer-in-chief said, "Do not think my lord sent me here to say these things to your master or to you? On the contrary, it was to the people sitting on the ramparts who, like you, are doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine."

28 Then the cupbearer-in-cief stood erect and, shouting loudly in the Judaean language, called out, "Listen to the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. 29 Thus the king speaks: 'Do not let Hezekiah delude you. He will be powerless to save you from my hands. 30 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on Yahweh by saying: Yahweh is sure to save us; this city will not fall into the power of the king of Assyria. 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says this: Make peace with me, surrender to me, and every one of you will eat fruit of his own vine and of his own fig tree and drink the water of his own cistern 32 until I come and deport you to a country like your own, a land of corn and good wine, a land of bread and of vineyards, a land of oil and of honey, so that you may not die but live. Do not listen to Hezekiah who is deluding you when he says: Yahweh will save us. 33 Has any god of any nation saved his country from the power of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and Ivvah? Where are the gds of the land of Samaria? Did they save Samaria from me? 35 Tell me which, of all the gods of any country, have saved their country from my hands, for Yahweh to be able to save Jerusalem?'"

36 They kept silence and said nothing in reply, since such was the king's order: "Do not answer him," he had said. 37 The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Sebnah the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph, with their garments torn, went to Hezekiah and reported what the cupbearer-in-chief had said.

The prophet Isaiah is consulted

19- 1 On hearing this, king Hezekiah tore his garments, covered himself with sackcloth and went to the Temple of Yahweh. 2 He sent the master of the palace, Eliakim, Shebnah the secretary and the elders of the priests, covered in sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says, 'Today is a day of suffering , of punishment, of disgrace. Children come to birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 May Yahweh your God hear the words of the cupbearer-in-chief whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to insult the living God, and may Yahweh your God punish the words he has heard. Offer your prayer for the remnant that is left.""

5 When the ministers of King Hezekiah had come to Isaiah, 6 he replied, "Say to your master, 'Yahweh says this: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard or the blasphemies the minions of the king of Assyria have uttered against me. 7 I am going to put a spirit in him, and when he hears a rumour he will return to his own country, and in that country I will bring him down with the sword.'"

The cupbearer returns to his master

8 The cupbearer went back and rejoined the king of Assyria at Libnah, which he was attacking. The cupbearer had already learned that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, 9 since he received this news about Tirhakah king of Cush, "He has set out to fight you."

Sennacherib's letter to Hezekiah

Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah again, saying, 10 "Tell this to Hezekiah king of Judah, 'Do not let your God on whom you are relying deceive you, when he says: Jerusalem shall not fall into the power of the king of Assyria. 11 You have learned by now what the kings of Assyria have done to every country, putting them all under the ban. Are you likely to be spared? 12 What power to help did the gods have of those nations my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the Edenites who were in Tel Basar? 13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the kings of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah?'"

14 Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of the messenger and read it; he then went up to the Temple of Yahweh and spread it out before Yahweh. 15 Hezekiah said his prayer in the presence of Yahweh, "Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, enthroned on the cherubs, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth.

16 "Give ear, Yahweh, and listen.

Open your eyes, Yahweh and see.

Hear the words of Shennacherib

who has sent to insult the living God.

17 "It is true, Yahweh, that the kings of Assyria have exterminated all the nations, 18 they have thrown their gods on the fire, for these were not gods but work of men's hands, wood and stone, and hence they have destroyed them. 19 But now, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, I pray you, and let all the kingdoms of the earth know that you alone are God, Yahweh."

Isaiah intervenes

20 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah. "Yahweh, the God of Israel," he said, "says this, 'I have heard the prayer you have addressed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.' 21 Here is the oracle that Yahweh has pronounced against him:

'She despises you, she scorns you,

the virgin, daughter of Zion;

the daughter of Jerusalem.

22 Whom have you insulted, whom did you blasphemed?

Against whom raised your voice

and lifted your haughty eyes?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

23 Through your envoys you have insulted the Lord,

you have said: With my many chariots

I have climbed the tops of mountains,

the utmost peaks of Lebanon.

I have felled its tall forest of cedars,

its finest cypresses.

I have reached its furthest recesses,

its forest garden.

24 Yes, I have dug wells

and drunk of alien waters;

I have put down my feet,

and I have dried up all the rivers of Egypt.

25 'Do you hear? Long ago

I planned for it,

from days of old I designed it,

now I carry it out.

Your part was to bring down in heaps of ruins

fortified cities.

26 Their inhabitants, hands feeble,

dismayed, discomfited,

were like plants of the field,

like tender grass,

like grass of housetop and meadow

under the east wind.

27 But I am there whether you rise or sit;

whether you go out, or you come in, I know it.

28 Because you have raved against me

and your insolence has come to my ears,

I will put my ring through your nostrils,

my bit between your lips,

to make you return by the road

on which you came.

A sign for Hezekiah

29 'This shall be the sign for you:

this year will be eaten the self-sown grain,

next year what sprouts in the fallow,

but in the third year sow and reap,

30 The surviving remnant of the House of Judah shall bring forth

new roots below and fruits above;

31 for a remnant shall go out from Jerusalem,

and survivors from Mount Zion.

The jealous love of Yahweh Sabaoth shall accomplish this.'

32 "This, then, is what Yahweh says about the king of Assyria:

'He shall not enter this city,

he will let fly no arrow against it,

confront it with ne shield,

throw up no earthwork against it.

33 By the road that he came on he will return;

he shall not enter this city. It is Yahweh who speaks.

34 I will protect this city and save it

for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.'"

Sennacherib is punished

35 That same night the angel of Yahweh went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. In the early morning when it was time to get up, there they lay, so many corpses.

36 Sennacherib struck camp and left; he returned home and stayed in Niveneh, 37 One day when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. His son Esahaddon succeeded him.

The illness and cure of Hezekiah

20- 1 In those days Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, "Yahweh says this, 'Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live.'" 2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and addressed this prayer to Yahweh, 3 "Ah, Yahweh, remember I beg you, how I have behaved faithfully and with sincerity of heart in your presence and done what is right in your eyes." And Hezekiah shed many tears.

4 Isaiah had not left the middle court, before the word of Yahweh came to him, 5 "Go back and say to Hezekiah, prince of my people, 'Yahweh, the God of David your ancestor, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will cure you: in three days' time you shall go up to the Temple of Yahweh. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. I will save you and this city from the hands of the king of Assyria, I will protect this city for my own sake and the sake of my servant David.'"

7 "Bring a fig poultice," Isaiah said; they brought one, applied it to the ulcer, and the king recovered.

8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What is the sign to tell me that Yahweh will cure me and that I shall be going to the Temple of Yahweh in three days?" 9 "Here," Isaiah replied, "is the sign from Yahweh that will do what he has said; would you like the shadow to go forward ten steps, or to go back ten steps?" 10 "It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps," Hezekiah answered, "no, I would like rather the shadow went back ten steps." 11 The prophet Isaiah then called Yahweh who made the shadow go back ten steps on the steps of Ahaz.

The Babylonian embassy

12 At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard of his illness and his recovery. 13 Hezekiah was delighted at this and showed the messengers his treasure house, the silver, gold, spices, precious oil, his armoury too, and everything there was in his storehouses. There was nothing Hezekiah did not show them in his palace or in his whole domain.

14 Then the prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and asked him, "What have these men said, and where have they come from?" Hezekiah answered, "They have come from a faraway country, from Babylon." 15 Isaiah said, "What have they seen in your palace?" "They have seen everything in my palace," Hezekiah answered. "There is nothing in my storehouse that I have not shown them."

16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Listen to the word of Yahweh, 17 'The days are coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have amassed until now, will be carried off the Babylon. Not a thing will be left,' says Yahweh. 18 Sons sprung from you, sons begotten by you, will be chosen to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'" 19 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "This word of Yahweh that you announce is reassuring," for he was thinking, "And why not? So long as there is peace and security during my own lifetime."

The end of the reign of Hezekiah

20 The rest of the history of Hezekiah, all his prowess, how he constructed the pool and the conduit to bring water into the city, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 21 Then Hezekiah slept with his fathers; his son Manasseh succeeded him.

The reign of Manasseh in Judah (687 - 642)

21- 1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. 2 He did what was displeasing to Yahweh, copying the shameful practices of the nations whom Yahweh had dispossessed for the sons of Israel. 3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, he set up altars to Baal and made a sacred pole as Ahab king of Israel had done, He worshiped the whole array of heaven and served it. 4 He built altars in the Temple of Yahweh of which Yahweh had said, "Jerusalem is where I will give my name a home."

5 He built altars to the whole array of heaven in the courts of the Temple of Yahweh. 6 He caused his son to pass through the fire. He practiced soothsaying and magic and introduced necromancers and wizards. He did very many more things displeasing to Yahweh, thus provoking his anger. 7 He placed the carved image of Asherah which he had made in the Temple, of which Yahweh had said to David and his son Solomon, "In this Temple and in Jerusalem, the city I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I will give my name a home for ever. 8 I will no longer make Israel's footsteps wander from the land I gave their fathers, provided they observe all I ordered them in accordance with the whole Law my servant Moses prescribed for them." 9 But they did not listen, Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than those nations Yahweh had destroyed before the sons of Israel.

10 Then Yahweh spoke through his servants the prophets, 11 "Since Manasseh king of Judah has done these shameful deeds, acting more wickedly than all the Amorites did before him, and has led Judah itself into sin with idols, 12 Yahweh, the God of Israel, says this, 'Look, I will bring such disaster as to make the ears of all who hear of it tingle. 13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the same measuring line as over Samaria, the same plumb rule as for the House of Ahab; I will scour Jerusalem as a man scours a dish and, having scoured it, turns it upside down. 14 I will cast away the remnant of my inheritance, delivering them into the power of their enemies, and making them serve as prey and booty to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is displeasing to me and have provoked my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until now.'"

16 Manasseh shed innocent blood, too, in such great quantity that he flooded Jerusalem from end to end, apart from the sins into which he led Judah by doing what is displeasing to Yahweh.

17 The rest of the history of Manasseh, his entire career, the sins he committed, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 18 Then Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and was buried in the garden of his palace, the garden of Uzza; his son Amon succeeded him.

The reign of Amon in Judah (642 - 640)

19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he came to the trone, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz, of Judah. 20 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had done. 21 In every respect he followed the example of his father, serving the idols his father had served, and worshiped them. 22 He abandoned Yahweh, the God of his ancestors; he did not follow the way of Yahweh.

23 Amon's officers plotted against the king and killed him in his palace. 24 But the country people struck down all those who had plotted against king Amon, and proclaimed his son Josiah as his successor.

25 The rest of the history of Amon, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 26 He was buried in his father's tomb in the garden of Uzza, his son Josiah succeeded him.

Introduction to the reign of Josiah (640 - 609)

22- 1 Josiah was eight years old when he came to the throne, and reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah, of Bozkath. 2 He did what is pleasing to Yahweh, and in every respect followed the example of his ancestor David, not deviating from it to right or left.

The Book of the Law discovered

3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent the secretary Shaphan son of Azaliah son of Meshullam to the Temple of Yahweh. 4 "Go to Hilkiah the high priest," he told him, "and tell him to melt down the silver that has been brought to the Temple of Yahweh and that those who guard the threshold have collected from the people. 5 Let him hand over to the masters of works attached to the Temple of Yahweh, for them to spend on the workmen working on the repairs to the Temple of Yahweh, 6 on the carpenters, builders and masons, and on buying wood and dressed stone for the Temple repairs. 7 But they are not to be asked to render account of the money handed over to them, since they are honest in their dealings."

8 The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the Temple of Yahweh." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, who read it. 9 Shaphan went to the king and reported to him as follows, "Your servants," he said, "have melted down the silver which was in the Temple and have handed it over to the masters of works attached to the Temple of Yahweh." 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book"; ans Shaphan read it aloud in the king's presence.

Huldah the prophetess is consulted

On hearing the contents of the Book of the Law, the king tore his garments, 11 and gave the following order to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, 12 Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's minister: "Go and consult Yahweh, on behalf of me and the people, about the contents of 13 this book that has been found. Great indeed must be the anger of Yahweh blazing out against us because our ancestors did not obey what this book says by practising everything written in it."

14 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess,, wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe; she lived in Jerusalem in the new town. They put the matter to her, 15 and she replied, "Yahweh the God of Israel, says this, 'To the man who sent you to me say this: 16 Yahweh says this: I am bringing disaster on this place and those who live in it, carrying out everything said in the book the king of Judah has read, 17 because they have deserted me and sacrificed to other gods, to provoke my anger by everything they did. My anger blazes out against this place; it will be extinguished. 18 And you are to say to the king of Judah who sent you to consult Yahweh: Yahweh, the God of Israel, says this: The words you have heard . . . 19 But since your heart has been touched and you have humbled yourself before Yahweh on hearing what I have decreed against this place and those who live in it, how they will become an object of horror and cursing; and since you have torn your garments and wept before me, I for my part have heard - it is Yahweh who speaks. 20 For the reason I will gather you to your ancestors, you shall be gathered into your grave in peace; your eyes will not see all the disasters that I mean to bring on this place.'" They took this answer to the king.

The covenant renewed

23- 1 The king then had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem summoned to him, 2 and the king went up to the Temple of Yahweh with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, priests, prophets and all the people, of high or low degree. In their hearing he read out everything that was said in the book of the covenant found in the Temple of Yahweh. 3 The king stood beside the pillar, and in the presence of Yahweh he made a covenant to follow Yahweh and keep his commandments and decrees and laws with all his heart and soul, in order to enforce the terms of the covenant as written in that book. All the people gave their alliance to the covenant.

Religious reform in Judah

4 The king ordered Hilkiah with the priest next in rank and the guardians of the threshold to remove all the cult objects that had been made for Baal, Asherah and the whole array of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and had the ashes taken to Bethel. 5 He did away with the spurious priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed and who offered sacrifice on the high places, in the towns of Judah and the neighbourhood of Jerusalem; also those who offered sacrifice to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations and the whole array of heaven. 6 From the Temple of Yahweh he removed the sacred pole right out of Jerusalem to the wadi Kidron, and in the wadi Kidron he burned it; he reduced it to ashes and threw its ashes on the common burying ground. 7 He pulled down the house of the sacred male prostitutes which was in the Temple of Yahweh and where the women wove clothes for Asherah.

8 He brought all the priests in from the towns of Judah, and from Geba to Beersheba he desecrated the high places where these priests had offered sacrifice. He pulled down the shrine of the goats which stood at the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, to the left as you enter the city gate. 9 The priests of the high places, however, could not go up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread in the company of their brother priests. 10 He desecrated the furnace in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one could make his son or daughter pass through fire in honour of Molech. 11 He did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance to the Temple of Yahweh, near the apartment of Nathan-melech the eunuch, in the precincts, and burned the chariot of the sun. 12 The altar on the roof that the kings of Judah had built, with those that Manasseh had built in the two courts of the Temple of Yahweh, the king pulled down, and broke them to pieces on the spot, then carried them away and threw their rubble into the wadi Kidron. 13 The desecrated the high places facing Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Olives, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Astarte the Sidonian abomination, for Chemosh the Maobite abomination, and for Milcom the Ammonite abomination. 14 He also smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the sacred poles, and covered the places where they had stood with human bones.

The reform is extended to the former Northern Kingdom

15 Similarly, as regards the altar that was in Bethel, the high place built by Jeroboam son of Nebat who had led Israel into sin, this altar and this high place he also demolished, breaking up its stones and reducing them to powder. The sacred pole he burned.

16 As he looked around, Josiah saw the tombs there on the hillside; he had the bones fetched from the tombs and burned them on the altar. Thus he desecrated it, in accordance with the word of Yahweh which the man of God had proclaimed when Jeroboam was standing by the altar at the time of the feast. As he looked around, Josiah caught sight of the tomb of the man of God who had foretold these things. 17 "What is that monument I see?" he ask. The townspeople replied, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and foretold what you have done to the altar." 18 "Let him rest," the king said, "and let no one disturb his bones." So they left his bones untouched, with the bones of the prophet who was in Samaria.

19 Josiah also did away with all the temples of the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria, provoking the anger of Yahweh; he treated these places exactly as he had treated the one at Bethel. 20 All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars, and on those altars burned human bones. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

The Passover celebrated

21 The king gave this order to the whole people: "Celebrate a Passover in honour of Yahweh your God, as prescribed in this book of the covenant." 22 No Passover like this one had ever been celebrated since the days when the judges ruled Israel or throughout the entire period of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 23 The eighteenth year of King Josiah was the only time when such a Passover was celebrated in Honour of Yahweh at Jerusalem.

Last words on the religious reform

24 What is more, the necromancers and wizards, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations to be seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, all these were swept away by Josiah to give effect to the words of the Law written in the book found by Hilkiah the priest in the Temple of Yahweh. 25 No king before him had turned to Yahweh as he did, with all his heart, all his soul, all his strength, in perfect loyalty to the Law of Moses; nor was any king like him seen again.

26 Yet Yahweh did not renounce the heat of his great anger which blazed out against Judah because of all the provocation Manasseh had offered him, 27 Yahweh decreed, "I will thrust Judah away from me too, as I have already thrust Israel; I will cast away Jerusalem, this city I had chosen, and the Temple of which I had said: There my name shall be."

The end of the reign of Josiah

28 The rest of the history of Josiah, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?

29 During his reign Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt was on his way to the king of Assyria at the river Euphrates when King Josiah intercepted him; but Neco killed him at Megiddo in the first encounter. 30 His servants carried his body from Megiddo by chariot; they brought him to Jerusalem, and buried hm in his own tomb. The country people took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him, proclaiming hm king in succession to his father.

The reign of Jehoahaz in Judah (609)

31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 32 He did what was displeasing to Yahweh, just as his ancestors had done.

33 Pharaoh Neco put him in chains at Riblah, in the territory of Hamath, and imposed a levy of a hundred talents of silver and ten talents of gold on the country. 34 Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in succession to Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim he took and carried away into Egypt, where he died.

35 Jehoiakim paid over the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but first had to tax the country before he could raise the sum that Pharaoh demanded; he levied the silver and gold to be paid over to Pharaoh Neco from each according to his means.

The reign of Jehoiakim in Judah (609 -598)

36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah. He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, just as his ancestors had done.

24- 1 During his time Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, but then rebelled against him a second time. 2 So he sent armed bands of Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Maobites and Ammonites against him; he sent these against Judah to destroy it, in accordance with the word that Yahweh had spoken through his servants the prophets. 3 That this happened in Judah was due entirely to the anger of Yahweh: he had resolved to thrust them away from him because of the sins of Manasseh and all that he had done, 4 and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed, flooding Jerusalem from end to end with innocent blood. Yahweh would not forgive.

5 The rest of the history of Jehoiakim, his entire career, is not all this recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? 6 Then Jehoiakim slept with his ancestors; his son Jehoiachin succeeded him.

7 The king of Egypt did not leave his own country again, because the king of Babylon had conquered everywhere belonging to the king of Egypt, from wadi of Egypt to the river Euphrates.

Introduction to the reign of Jehoiachin (598)

8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Neushta, daughter of Elnathan, from Jerusalem. 9 He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, just as his father had done.

The first deportation

10 At that time the troops of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched on Jerusalem, and the city was besieged. 11 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon himself came to attack the city while his troops were besieging it. 12 Then Jehoiachin king of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his officers, his nobles and his eunuchs, and the king of Babylon took them prisoner. This was in the eighth year of King Nebuchadnezzar.

13 The latter carried off all the treasures of the Temple of Yahweh and the treasures of the royal palace, and broke up all the golden furnishings that Solomon king of Israel had made for the sanctuary of Yahweh, as Yahweh had foretold. 14 He carried off all Jerusalem int exile, all the nobles and all the notables, ten thousand of these were exiled, with all the blacksmiths and the metalworkers; only the poorest people in the country were left behind. 15 He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon, as also the king's mother, his eunuchs and the nobility of the country; he made them all leave Jerusalem for exile in Babylon. 16 All the men of distinction, seven thousand of them, the blacksmiths and metalworkers, one thousand of them, all of them men capable of bearing arms, were led into exile in Babylon by the king of Babylon.

17 The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in succession to him, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

Introduction to the reign of Zedekiah in Judah (598 - 587)

18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamital, daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. 19 He did what is displeasing the Yahweh, just as Jehoiakim had done. 20 That this happened in Jerusalem and Judah was due to the anger of Yahweh, with the result that in the end he cast them away from him.

The siege of Jerusalem

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 25- 1 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with his whole army to attack Jerusalem; he pitched camp in front of the city and threw up earthworks around it. 2 The city lay under siege till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, when famine was raging in the city and there was no food for the populace, 4 a breach was made in the city wall. At once, the king made his escape under cover of dark, with all the fighting men, by way of the gate between the two walls, which is near the king's garden - the Chaldaeans had surrounded the city - and made his way toward the Arabah. 5 The Chaldaeans troops pursued the king and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho, where all his troops deserted. 6 The Chaldaeans captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, who passed sentence on him. 7 He had the sons of Zedekiah slaughtered before his eyes, then cut out Zedekiah's eyes and, loading him with chains, carried him off to Babylon.

The sack of Jerusalem. The second deportation

8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month - it was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon - Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard, an officer of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. 9 He burned down the Temple of Yahweh, the royal palace and all the houses in Jerusalem. 10 The Chaldaean troops who accompanied the commander of the guard demolished the walls surrounding Jerusalem. 11 Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard deported the remainder of the population left behind in the city, the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the common people. 12 The commander of the guard left some of the humbler country people as vineyard workers and plowmen.

13 The Chaldaeans broke up the bronze pillars from the Temple of Yahweh, the wheeled stands and the bronze Sea that were in the Temple of Yahweh, and took the bronze away to Babylon. 14 They also took the ash containers, the scoops, the knives, the incense boats, and all the bronze furnishings used in worship. 15 The commander of the guard took the censers and the sprinkling bowls, everything that was made of gold and everything of silver. 16 As regards the two pillars, the one Sea and the wheeled stands, which Solomon had made for the Temple of Yahweh, there was no reckoning the weight of bronze in all these objects. 17 The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and on it stood a capital of bronze, the height of the capital being five cubits; around the capital were filigree and pomegranates, all in bronze. So also for the second pillar . . .

18 The commander of the guard took prisoner Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three guardians of the threshold. 19 In the city he took prisoner a eunuch who was in command of the fighting men, five of the king's personal friends who were discovered in the city, the secretary to the army commander, responsible for military conscription, and sixty men of distinction discovered in the city. 20 Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard, took these men and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah, 21 and at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them put to death. Thus Judah was deported from its land.

Gedaliah, governor of Judah

22 As regards the people who remained in the land of Judah whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left behind, he appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan as their governor. 23 When the commanders of the troops and their men all heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they went to him at Mizpah: Ismael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seriah son of Tanhumeth, the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the Maacathite, they and their men. 24 To them and to their men Gedaliah swore an oath. "Do not be afraid of the Chaldaeans," he said, "live in the country, obey the king of Babylon,and all will go well with you."

25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, and ten men with him, came and mudered Gedaliah,as well as the Judacans and Chaldaean who were with him at Mizpah. 26 Then the people, of high and low degree, with the commanders of the troops, all set out and made for Egypt, in fear of the Chaldaeans.

King Jehochin pardoned

27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of themonth, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he came to the throne, pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison. 28 He treated him kindly and allotted him a seat above those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 29 So Jehoiachin laid aside his prisoner's garb, and for the rest of his life always ate at the king's table. 30 And his upkeep was permanently insured by the king, day after day, for the .rest of his life