Historical

Josiah Renews the Covenant

23 Then the king sent for and they gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. ² The king went up to the House of Adonai and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him—the kohanim and the prophets, all the people, young and old—and he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the House of Adonai. ³ Then the king stood by the pillar and cut a covenant before Adonai, to follow Adonai, keep His mitzvot, His laws and His decrees with all their heart and soul, in order to fulfill the words of this covenant that were written in this scroll. So all the people stood for the covenant.

⁴ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the kohen gadol, the kohanim of the second order and the doorkeepers to bring out of the Temple of Adonai all the vessels made for Baal and Asherah, and all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and took their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He stopped the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained from burning incense on the high places in the towns of Judah and around Jerusalem, as well those burning incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ Then he brought out the Asherah pole from the House of Adonai to Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, burned it in the Kidron Valley, ground it to dust and threw its dust over the graves of the common people. ⁷ Then he tore down the quarters of the male cult prostitutes that had been in the House of Adonai, where the women had been weaving coverings for the Asherah.

⁸ Then he brought all the priests from the towns of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He also broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the city governor, which were on one’s left as one entered the city gate. ⁹ Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of Adonai in Jerusalem, but they did eat matzot with their kinsmen.

¹⁰ Next he defiled Topheth, which is in the Ben-hinnom Valley, so that no one might make his son or daughter pass through the fire for Molech. ¹¹ Then he did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of the House of Adonai, in the colonnades by the chamber of the officer Nethan-melech, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

¹² The king also tore down the altars made by the kings of Judah on the roof—the upper chamber of Ahaz and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of the House of Adonai. He smashed them suddenly there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley. ¹³ The king also desecrated the shrines facing Jerusalem—to the south of the Mount of Destruction—which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ¹⁴ He smashed the pillars and cut down the Asherah poles and filled their places with human bones.

Prophecy Fulfilled at Bethel

¹⁵ Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel and the shrine built by Jeroboam son of Nebat—who caused Israel to sin—that altar and the shrine he demolished, too. He burned the shrine and ground it to dust, and burned up the Asherah. ¹⁶ Then, as Josiah looked around, he saw the burial caves there on the mountain, so he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, thus desecrating it—as was the word of Adonai which the man of God had proclaimed, who foretold it.

¹⁷ Then he asked, “What is this monument I see?”

So the men of the town told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God, who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have just done to the altar of Bethel.”

¹⁸ “Let him rest,” he said. “Let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed along with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

¹⁹ Josiah also removed all the shrines of the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria to provoke. He did to them just as he had done in Bethel. ²⁰ All the priests of the high places there he slaughtered on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ Then the king commanded all the people saying, “Celebrate the Passover to Adonai your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ²² For no Passover like this had been celebrated from the days of the judges who judged Israel or in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was observed for Adonai in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover, Josiah got rid of the necromancers and the mediums, the teraphim and the idols, and all the detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem—in order to confirm the words of the Torah that were written in the scroll that Hilkiah the kohen found in the House of Adonai.

²⁵ Before him there had never been a king like him, who turned to Adonai with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Torah of Moses, nor has any king like him risen since him.

Josiah’s Death

²⁶ Nevertheless, Adonai did not turn from the fury of His great wrath which burned against Judah, because of all that Manasseh had provoked Him. ²⁷ Adonai said, “I will banish Judah also from My presence as I banished Israel, and I have spurned this city, Jerusalem, which I chose, and the House about which I had said: ‘My Name will be there.’”

²⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁹ In his days Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the Euphrates River. King Josiah marched against him, but Neco killed him at Megiddo when he saw him. ³⁰ So his servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb.

Judah’s Decline

Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him and made him king in his father’s place. ³¹ Jehoahaz was 23 years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ³² But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, as in all that his ancestors had done. ³³ Then Pharaoh Necoh imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so he would not reign in Jerusalem. He also imposed on the land a fine of 100 talents of silver and a talent of gold.

³⁴ Then Pharaoh Necoh installed Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away and brought him to Egypt, and he died there. ³⁵ Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money in keeping with Pharaoh’s command. He exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, each according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necoh. ³⁶ Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. ³⁷ But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, just as in all that his ancestors had done.

Judah Exiled to Babylon

24 In his days, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded, so Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But he turned and rebelled against him. ² Then Adonai sent against him marauding bands of the Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites and Ammonites—He sent them against Judah to destroy it, as was the word of Adonai that He had spoken by the hand of His servants the prophets. ³ Surely at the command of Adonai this happened to Judah, to banish them from His presence, because of all the sins of Manasseh and all that he had committed, ⁴ and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed—for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood that Adonai was not willing to pardon. ⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ⁶ So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and his son Jehoiachin became king in his place.

⁷ No longer did the king of Egypt march out of his country, for the king of Babylon had seized all the land that once belonged to the king of Egypt, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River. ⁸ Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnatan of Jerusalem. ⁹ But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, like all his father had done.

¹⁰ At that time, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon’s troops marched against Jerusalem and the city fell under siege. ¹¹ Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon himself arrived at the city while his troops were besieging it. ¹² Then King Jehoiachin of Judah, his mother, his courtiers, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered to the king of Babylon. So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. ¹³ He also carried off from there all the treasures of Adonai’s House and the treasures of the royal palace, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold that King Solomon of Israel had made in the Temple of Adonai—just as Adonai had said. ¹⁴ Then He exiled all Jerusalem—all the captains, all the mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and the smiths—10,000 exiles. None was left except the poorest sort of the people of the land.

¹⁵ So he deported Jehoiachin to Babylon, along with the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials and the notables of the land—he deported all as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ All the men of valor, 7,000 strong and fit for war, and 1,000 craftsmen and smiths, the king of Babylon also took as captives to Babylon.

¹⁷ Then the king of Babylon appointed Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah. ¹⁸ Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ¹⁹ But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ For through the anger of Adonai it came to a point in Jerusalem and Judah that He finally banished them from His presence.

Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Destruction of Jerusalem

25 Now it came to pass in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his entire army advanced against Jerusalem, set up camp by it, and built a siege wall all around it. ² So the city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³ On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no bread for the common people.

⁴ Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled by night by the way of the gate between the double walls near the king’s garden—though the Chaldeans were all around the city—and they went by the way to the Arabah. ⁵ But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. ⁶ So they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and passed sentence on him. ⁷ They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, then put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him in bronze chains and took him to Babylon.

⁸ Now on the seventh day of the fifth month—which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the imperial guard, officer of the Babylonian king, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He burned down the House of Adonai, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem—every notable building he burned with fire. ¹⁰ Then the whole Chaldean army that was with the captain of the guard demolished the walls of Jerusalem on every side. ¹¹ Then the remnant of the people who were left in the city—the deserters who had defected to the Babylonian king and the rest of the populace—Nebuzaradan captain of the guard exiled them. ¹² But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and field hands.

¹³ Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars that were in the House of Adonai, the stands and the bronze sea that were in the House of Adonai, and carried their bronze away to Babylon. ¹⁴ They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the pans and all the bronze vessels that were used in Temple service. ¹⁵ The captain of the guard took away the fire pans and the basins—whatever was gold or silver. ¹⁶ The two pillars, the one sea, and the stands which Solomon had made for the House of Adonai—the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight. ¹⁷ The height of each pillar was eighteen cubits, with a bronze capital on top. The height of the capital was three cubits, with a netting of copper pomegranates encircling the capital. The same was true of the second pillar with its netting.

¹⁸ Then the captain of the guard took away Seraiah the chief kohen, Zephaniah the deputy kohen, and the three doorkeepers. ¹⁹ From the city he took an official who had been overseeing the soldiers and five of the royal advisers who were found in the city, and the scribe of the army captain who mustered the people of the land, and 60 men of the common people that were found in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹ The king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was exiled from its land.

²² Now as for the people that were left in the land of Judah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had left, he appointed over them Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan. ²³ Now when all the captains of the troops, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah son of the Maacathite—they and their men. ²⁴ Gedaliah swore to them and to their men and said to them, “Don’t be afraid of the Chaldean officials. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you.”

²⁵ But it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, of royal descent, came with ten men and assassinated Gedaliah, so he died along with the Judeans and Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. ²⁶ So all the people, young and old, and the captains of the troops, got up and fled to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

²⁷ Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, that King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the year he became king, released King Jehoiachin of Judah from Prison. ²⁸ He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ So he changed his prison garments, and regularly ate bread in the king’s presence all the days of his life. ³⁰ As for his allowance, a regular allowance was granted to him by the king, an allotment for each day, all the days of his life.