2 Kings 22

³⁹Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon,

¹Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years.

²And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

¹⁶Woe to you, O land whose king is a youth, and whose princes feast in the morning.

¹⁰Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah,

²¹Joash was seven years old when he became king.

²And he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, “O altar, O altar, this is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”

³²So be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.

⁷Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.

³And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.

⁶Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

²And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.

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.

³In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his father David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images.

⁴Then in his presence the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images, crushed them to dust, and scattered them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

⁴Then Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money brought as sacred gifts into the house of the Lord—the census money, the money from vows, and the money brought voluntarily into the house of the Lord.

¹³They cast lots for each gate, according to their families, young and old alike.

¹⁴The lot for the East Gate fell to Shelemiah. Then lots were cast for his son Zechariah, a wise counselor, and the lot for the North Gate fell to him.

⁸At the king’s command a chest was made and placed outside, at the gate of the house of the Lord.

⁹And a proclamation was issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they were to bring to the Lord the tax imposed by Moses the servant of God on Israel in the wilderness.

⁸So the priests agreed that they would not receive money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves.

⁹Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the house of the Lord. There the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money brought into the house of the Lord.

¹³Shallum was the father of Hilkiah, Hilkiah was the father of Azariah,

¹⁹Shallum son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his relatives from the Korahites were assigned to guard the thresholds of the Tent, just as their fathers had been assigned to guard the entrance to the dwelling of the Lord.

¹¹Then they would put the counted money into the hands of those who supervised the work on the house of the Lord, who in turn would pay those doing the work—the carpenters, builders,

¹²masons, and stonecutters. They also purchased timber and dressed stone to repair the damage to the house of the Lord, and they paid the other expenses of the temple repairs.

⁵Let every priest receive it from his constituency, and let it be used to repair any damage found in the temple.”

²⁷The accounts of the sons of Joash and the many pronouncements about him, and of the restoration of the house of God, are indeed written in the Treatise of the Book of the Kings. And his son Amaziah reigned in his place.

¹²Then the king and Jehoiada would give the money to those who supervised the labor on the house of the Lord to hire stonecutters and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord, as well as workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord.

¹³So the workmen labored, and in their hands the repair work progressed. They restored the house of God according to its specifications, and they reinforced it.

⁷They gave money to the masons and carpenters, and food and drink and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre to bring cedar logs from Lebanon to Joppa by sea, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.

⁷For the sons of that wicked woman Athaliah had broken into the house of God and had even used the sacred objects of the house of the Lord for the Baals.

¹⁵No accounting was required from the men who received the money to pay the workmen, because they acted with integrity.

²Now it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

²⁰We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this generous gift.

²¹For we are taking great care to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men.

²⁰A faithful man will abound with blessings, but one eager to be rich will not go unpunished.

¹⁴When they were finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made articles for the house of the Lord—utensils for the service and for the burnt offerings, dishes, and other objects of gold and silver. Throughout the days of Jehoiada, burnt offerings were presented regularly in the house of the Lord.

¹⁰Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

¹¹So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will entrust you with true riches?

²⁴When Moses had finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end,

²⁵he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord:

¹⁴While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses.

¹⁵And Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord!” And he gave it to Shaphan.

¹⁸Then they called for the king. And Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to them.

¹¹When all the Jews in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and all the other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over them,

¹¹Before them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

¹²and commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king:

¹⁴had Jeremiah brought from the courtyard of the guard, and they turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. So Jeremiah remained among his own people.

³The letter was entrusted to Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It stated:

²¹Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing beside him.

⁶so you are to go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting, and in the hearing of the people you are to read the words of the Lord from the scroll you have written at my dictation. Read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who are coming from their cities.

⁹So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹⁰Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles,

¹⁸Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. The Israelites kept the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly, according to the ordinance.

¹⁸Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

¹This is what the Lord says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there,

²saying, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David—you and your officials and your people who enter these gates.

¹⁹When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes

¹³So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.

⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let no man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink.

¹⁹because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the Lord.

²⁴Yet in hearing all these words, the king and his servants did not become frightened or tear their garments.

⁶Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown before the ark of the Lord until evening, as did the elders of Israel; and they all sprinkled dust on their heads.

²⁴Nevertheless, Ahikam son of Shaphan supported Jeremiah, so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

²²Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over the people he had left behind in the land of Judah.

²And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz

³to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.

¹⁹When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes

²⁰and commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the servant of the king:

¹On hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the Lord.

²And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz

²²Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan son of Achbor along with some other men.

³While they stood in their places, they read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and they spent another quarter of the day in confession and worship of the Lord their God.

¹⁷On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’

¹⁸And on that day I will surely hide My face because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.

¹⁷Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him in his palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there a word from the Lord?” “There is,” Jeremiah replied. “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

²²Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

²³For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror,

⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

²⁴So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

²²So Hilkiah and those the king had designated went and spoke to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.

⁴Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

⁴²In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

¹⁰On that day,” declares the Lord, “a cry will go up from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second District, and a loud crashing from the hills.

⁴For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery. I sent Moses before you, as well as Aaron and Miriam.

²⁰Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.

²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the Lord.

⁶They replied, “A man came up to meet us and said, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him that this is what the Lord says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending these men to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’”

¹⁶And Elijah said to King Ahaziah, “This is what the Lord says: Is there really no God in Israel for you to inquire of His word? Is that why you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.”

¹¹All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You.

¹²You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

¹⁵But just as every good thing the Lord your God promised you has come to pass, likewise the Lord will bring upon you the calamity He has threatened, until He has destroyed you from this good land He has given you.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.

¹⁷On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’

¹⁸Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit,

¹⁹because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

¹⁵If, however, you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

¹⁷But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

¹⁸I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

²²He abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord.

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling grips the ungodly: “Who of us can dwell with a consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting flames?”

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.

⁵They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see;

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.

²⁷But if you do not listen to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in its gates to consume the citadels of Jerusalem.’”

¹³I will also cut off the carved images and sacred pillars from among you, so that you will no longer bow down to the work of your own hands.

¹⁶At that time those who feared the Lord spoke with one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the Lord and honored His name.

¹⁷“They will be Mine,” says the Lord of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.

¹⁰Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.

²⁶But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, tell him that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘As for the words that you heard,

²⁷because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its people, and because you have humbled yourself before Me and have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the Lord.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

²⁹“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity during his days, but I will bring it upon his house in the days of his son.”

³So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.

¹⁵For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

⁵Young men, in the same way, submit yourselves to your elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

⁶Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.

⁵Afterward, David’s conscience was stricken because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe.

³⁷Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace.

¹The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous are taken away from the presence of evil.

²Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest, lying down in death.

¹¹And when your days are fulfilled and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

⁸And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.

¹⁵Does it make you a king to excel in cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He administered justice and righteousness, and so it went well with him.

¹⁶He took up the cause of the poor and needy, and so it went well with him. Is this not what it means to know Me?” declares the Lord.

¹⁰Do not weep for him who is dead; do not mourn his loss. Weep bitterly for him who is exiled, for he will never return to see his native land.