2 Chronicles 28

¹³Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son,

¹This is the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

¹In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah.

²Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. And unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God.

³Now the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals,

¹This is the word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.

⁹Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.

¹⁷You shall make no molten gods for yourselves.

¹¹And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

³Ahaziah also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in wickedness.

⁴And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as the house of Ahab had done, for to his destruction they were his counselors after the death of his father.

⁴Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the Lord your God.

¹³for they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

⁶And Jehoram walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done. For he married a daughter of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord.

⁶He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.

²And he did evil in the sight of the Lord by following the abominations of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

²¹You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

⁸From there the border went up the Valley of Ben-hinnom along the southern slope of the Jebusites (that is, Jerusalem) and ascended to the top of the hill that faces the Valley of Hinnom on the west, at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁰He also desecrated Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.

⁷Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

³⁰I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.

⁴And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

²Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.

³Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.

¹Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city.

²⁴Although the Aramean army had come with only a few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army. Because Judah had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers, judgment was executed on Joash.

⁵Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to wage war against Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him.

⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, drove out the men of Judah, and sent the Edomites into Elath, where they live to this day.

¹¹So the Lord brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.

²“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

³You shall have no other gods before Me.

¹⁴Then the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

⁶You have forsaken Me, declares the Lord. You have turned your back. So I will stretch out My hand against you and I will destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion.

²⁸But rebels and sinners will together be shattered, and those who forsake the Lord will perish.

¹⁹Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the Lord your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord God of Hosts.

²⁰If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and consume you, even after He has been good to you.”

²⁷In the fifty-second year of Azariah’s reign over Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria twenty years.

²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn against Judah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

¹⁵So the men took these gifts, along with double the amount of silver, and Benjamin as well. Then they hurried down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

¹²Take double the silver with you so that you may return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake.

³For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews and highly favored by his many kinsmen, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen.

⁴³He had Joseph ride in his second chariot, with men calling out before him, “Bow the knee!” So he placed him over all the land of Egypt.

⁴that this is what the Lord says: ‘You are not to go up and fight against your brothers. Each of you must return home, for this is My doing.’” So they listened to the words of the Lord and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

²⁵The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

⁴¹You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity.

²⁶Brothers, children of Abraham, and you Gentiles who fear God, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.

²⁶The next day he came upon two Israelites who were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’

⁶I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; even on the elderly you laid a most heavy yoke.

⁵For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

⁶and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.

¹⁵but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’

²“Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken; it has swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will be filled,’

³therefore this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, O Tyre, I am against you, and I will raise up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves.

¹⁰Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever.

¹¹On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them.

³⁹If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.

⁴⁰Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.

¹⁷For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God?

¹⁸And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

²For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

³Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?

²⁰On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

²⁹For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of Hosts.’

¹³For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

¹Continue in brotherly love.

²Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

⁸Then the Israelites took 200,000 captives from their kinsmen—women, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a great deal of plunder and brought it to Samaria.

¹⁴Let our leaders represent the whole assembly. Then let everyone in our towns who has married a foreign woman come at an appointed time, together with the elders and judges of each town, until the fierce anger of our God in this matter is turned away from us.”

¹⁴Every seventh year, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or incline their ear.

¹⁵Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name.

²For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

⁶then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.’”

¹Now David summoned all the leaders of Israel to Jerusalem: the leaders of the tribes, the leaders of the divisions in the king’s service, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officials in charge of all the property and cattle of the king and his sons, along with the court officials and mighty men—every mighty man of valor.

⁵But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

¹⁷Was not the sin of Peor enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day? It even brought a plague upon the congregation of the Lord.

¹⁸And now, would you turn away from the Lord? If you rebel today against the Lord, tomorrow He will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.

³⁵And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

³²Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.

¹⁴Now behold, you, a brood of sinners, have risen up in place of your fathers to further stoke the burning anger of the Lord against Israel.

³the Negev, and the region from the Valley of Jericho (the City of Palms) all the way to Zoar.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

²²For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.

¹⁶Now the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah in the Negev near Arad. They went to live among the people.

²²“Do not kill them,” he replied. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and then return to their master.”

³⁵For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in,

³⁶I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’

⁷Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

⁵Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to wage war against Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him.

⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elath for Aram, drove out the men of Judah, and sent the Edomites into Elath, where they live to this day.

¹⁷The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since the day Ephraim separated from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.”

¹Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city.

²When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind.

¹⁰Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever.

¹³You should not enter the gate of My people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over their affliction in the day of their disaster, nor loot their wealth in the day of their disaster.

¹⁴Nor should you stand at the crossroads to cut off their fugitives, nor deliver up their survivors in the day of their distress.

¹⁸And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins.

¹¹Amaziah, however, summoned his strength and led his troops to the Valley of Salt, where he struck down 10,000 men of Seir,

¹²and the army of Judah also captured 10,000 men alive. They took them to the top of a cliff and threw them down so that all were dashed to pieces.

⁵⁷before your wickedness was uncovered? Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you.

²⁷Therefore I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct.

¹One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he saw a young Philistine woman.

¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, the fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.

⁴¹Gederoth, Beth-dagon, Naamah, and Makkedah—sixteen cities, along with their villages.

⁴⁸These were in the hill country: Shamir, Jattir, Socoh,

²Jehoram’s brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat, were Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah; these were all sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel.

¹²Look on every proud man and humble him; trample the wicked where they stand.

⁷The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols.

⁴¹He delivered them into the hand of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them.

⁴²Their enemies oppressed them and subdued them under their hand.

¹⁵“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who remains awake and clothed, so that he will not go naked and let his shame be exposed.”

²⁹In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people as captives to Assyria.

²⁶So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria) to take the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. And he brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river of Gozan, where they remain to this day.

¹⁶“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! “We will ride swift horses,” but your pursuers will be faster.

²⁰On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.

⁷So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hands of the kings of Aram and Israel, who are rising up against me.”

⁸Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.

¹⁵Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace.

¹⁶At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the Lord, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.

⁸Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.

⁹So the king of Assyria responded to him, marched up to Damascus, and captured it. He took its people to Kir as captives and put Rezin to death.

⁹So King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and seized the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields that Solomon had made.

²⁵It is a trap for a man to dedicate something rashly, only later to reconsider his vows.

⁵Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.

¹³Surely testing will come! And what if even the scepter, which the sword despises, does not continue?’ declares the Lord God.

³O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

¹⁵Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹²And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.

¹⁴When Amaziah returned from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought back the gods of the Seirites, set them up as his own gods, bowed before them, and burned sacrifices to them.

²⁰Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him,

²¹“As for the incense you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land—did the Lord not remember and bring this to mind?

¹¹Then they sweep by like the wind and pass through. They are guilty; their own strength is their god.”

⁹You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me—against your helper.

²⁸But rebels and sinners will together be shattered, and those who forsake the Lord will perish.

⁵Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.”

⁷They also shut the doors of the portico and extinguished the lamps. They did not burn incense or present burnt offerings in the Holy Place of the God of Israel.

¹⁴They proceeded to remove the altars in Jerusalem and to take away the incense altars and throw them into the Kidron Valley.

¹⁷King Ahaz also cut off the frames of the movable stands and removed the bronze basin from each of them. He took down the Sea from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone base.

¹⁸And on account of the king of Assyria, he removed the Sabbath canopy they had built in the temple and closed the royal entryway outside the house of the Lord.

³For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he raised up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. And he worshiped and served all the host of heaven.

⁴Manasseh also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols.

³In the first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah opened and repaired the doors of the house of the Lord.

³Moreover, Ahaz burned incense in the Valley of Ben-hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

¹⁹As for the rest of the acts of Ahaz, along with his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁰And Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David, and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.

³⁴As for the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, from beginning to end, they are indeed written in the Chronicles of Jehu son of Hanani, which are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel.

⁷As for the rest of the acts of Jotham, along with all his wars and his ways, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

⁸He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years.

²⁰Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He died, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

²⁵And when the Arameans had withdrawn, they left Joash severely wounded. His own servants conspired against him for shedding the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

⁷The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

²³And Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in a field of burial that belonged to the kings, for the people said, “He was a leper.” And his son Jotham reigned in his place.

²⁰And Manasseh rested with his fathers and was buried at his palace. And his son Amon reigned in his place.

³⁰Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.