2 Kings 14-17

II Kings 14

¹In the second year of Joash, son of Joahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah, the son of Joash, became king of Judah.

²He was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem.

³He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, though not like David his father; he did as Joash his father had done.

⁴But still the high places were not taken away; the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places.

⁵Now when he became strong in the kingdom, straight away he put to death those servants who had taken the life of the king his father;

⁶But he did not put their children to death; for the orders of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses say, The fathers are not to be put to death for the children, or the children for their fathers; but a man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done.

⁷He put to the sword twelve thousand men of Edom in the Valley of Salt, and took Sela in war, naming it Joktheel, as it is to this day.

⁸Then Amaziah sent representatives to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us have a meeting face to face.

⁹And Jehoash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife: and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing the thorn under his feet.

¹⁰It is true that you have overcome Edom and your heart is uplifted; let that glory be enough for you, and keep in your country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you, in danger of downfall?

¹¹But Amaziah gave no attention. So Jehoash, king of Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah.

¹²And Judah was overcome before Israel, so that they went in flight, every man to his tent.

¹³And Jehoash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, prisoner at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and had the wall of Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the door in the angle, four hundred cubits.

¹⁴And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels which were in the house of the Lord and in the store-house of the king, together with those whose lives would be the price of broken faith, and went back to Samaria.

¹⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, and his power, and how he went to war with Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

¹⁶And Jehoash went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son became king in his place.

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

¹⁸And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

¹⁹Now they made a secret design against him in Jerusalem; and he went in flight to Lachish, but they sent after him to Lachish and put him to death there.

²⁰And they took his body on horseback and put it into the earth with his fathers in Jerusalem, the town of David.

²¹Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

²²He was the builder of Elath, which he got back for Judah after the death of the king.

²³In the fifteenth year of the rule of Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, ruling for forty-one years.

²⁴He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.

²⁵He got back the old limits of Israel from the way into Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, as the Lord had said by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet of Gath-hepher.

²⁶For the Lord saw how bitter was the trouble of Israel, and that everyone was cut off, he who was shut up and he who went free, and that Israel had no helper.

²⁷And the Lord had not said that the name of Israel was to be taken away from the earth; but he gave them a saviour in Jeroboam, the son of Joash.

²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all he did, and his power, and how he went to war with Damascus, causing the wrath of the Lord to be turned away from Israel, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

²⁹And Jeroboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son became king in his place.

II Kings 15

¹In the twenty-seventh year of the rule of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Azariah, son of Amaziah, became king of Judah.

²He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

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

⁴But he did not take away the high places, and the people still went on making offerings and burning them in the high places.

⁵And the Lord sent disease on the king and he became a leper, and to the day of his death he was living separately in his private house. And Jotham his son was over his house, judging the people of the land.

⁶Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

⁷And Azariah went to rest with his fathers and was put into the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Jotham his son became king in his place.

⁸In the thirty-eighth year of Azaliah, king of Judah, Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, was king over Israel for six months.

⁹And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had done, not turning away from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.

¹⁰And Shallum, the son of Jabesh, made a secret design against him, and, attacking him in Ibleam, put him to death and became king in his place.

¹¹Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

¹²This was what the Lord had said to Jehu, Your sons to the fourth generation will be kings of Israel. And so it came about.

¹³Shallum, the son of Jabesh, became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah, king of Judah; and he was ruling in Samaria for the space of one month.

¹⁴Then Menahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria, and attacking Shallum, son of Jabesh, in Samaria, put him to death and made himself king in his place.

¹⁵Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and the secret design which he made, are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

¹⁶Then Menahem sent destruction on Tappuah and all the people in it, and its limits, from Tirzah, because they would not let him come in; and he had all the women who were with child cut open.

¹⁷In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Menahem, the son of Gadi, became king over Israel, and was ruling in Samaria for ten years.

¹⁸He did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not keep himself from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.

¹⁹In his day, Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against the land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that he might let him keep the kingdom.

²⁰And Menahem got the money from Israel, from all the men of wealth, fifty silver shekels from every man, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria went back without stopping in the land.

²¹Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel?

²²And Menahem went to rest with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son became king in his place.

²³In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for two years.

²⁴He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.

²⁵And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, his captain, made a secret design against him, attacking him in the king's great house in Samaria; and with him were fifty men of Gilead; and he put him to death and became king in his place.

²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all he did, are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

²⁷In the fifty-second year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah, the son of Remaliah, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for twenty years.

²⁸He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do.

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

³⁰And Hoshea, the son of Elah, made a secret design against Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and, attacking him, put him to death and became king in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham, the son of Uzziah.

³¹Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all he did, are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel.

³²In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham, the son of Uzziah, became king of Judah.

³³He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.

³⁴And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Uzziah had done.

³⁵But he did not take away the high places, and the people still went on making offerings and burning them in the high places. He was the builder of the higher doorway of the house of the Lord.

³⁶Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

³⁷In those days the Lord first sent against Judah, Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah.

³⁸And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David his father; and Ahaz his son became king in his place.

II Kings 16

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

²Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king; he was ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as David his father did.

³But he went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and even made his son go through the fire, copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before the children of Israel.

⁴And he made offerings, burning them in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

⁵Then Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they made an attack on Ahaz, shutting him in, but were not able to overcome him.

⁶At that time the king of Edom got Elath back for Edom, and sent the Jews out of Elath; and the Edomites came back to Elath where they are living to this day.

⁷So Ahaz sent representatives to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son; come to my help against the kings of Aram and Israel who have taken up arms against me.

⁸And Ahaz took the silver and gold which were in the house of the Lord and in the king's store-house, and sent them as an offering to the king of Assyria.

⁹And the king of Assyria, in answer to his request, went up against Damascus and took it, and took its people away as prisoners to Kir, and put Rezin to death.

¹⁰Then King Ahaz went to Damascus for a meeting with Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria; and there he saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest a copy of the altar, giving the design of it and all the details of its structure.

¹¹And from the copy King Ahaz sent from Damascus, Urijah made an altar and had it ready by the time King Ahaz came back from Damascus.

¹²And when the king came from Damascus, he saw the altar; and he went up on it and made an offering on it.

¹³He made his burned offering and his meal offering and his drink offering there, draining out the blood of his peace-offerings on the altar.

¹⁴And the brass altar, which was before the Lord, he took from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar.

¹⁵And King Ahaz gave orders to Urijah the priest, saying, Make the morning burned offering and the evening meal offering and the king's burned offering and meal offering, with the burned offerings of all the people and their meal offerings and drink offerings, on the great altar, and put on it all the blood of the burned offerings and of the beasts which are offered; but the brass altar will be for my use to get directions from the Lord.

¹⁶So Urijah the priest did everything as the king said

¹⁷And King Ahaz took off the sides of the wheeled bases, and took down the great water-vessel from off the brass oxen which were under it and put it on a floor of stone.

¹⁸…the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria.

¹⁹Now the rest of the things which Ahaz did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah?

²⁰And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Hezekiah his son became king in his place.

II Kings 17

¹In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hoshea, the son of Elah, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for nine years.

²He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, though not like the kings of Israel before him.

³Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Hoshea became his servant and sent him offerings.

⁴But Hoshea's broken faith became clear to the king of Assyria because he had sent representatives to So, king of Egypt, and did not send his offering to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: so the king of Assyria had him shut up in prison and put in chains.

⁵Then the king of Assyria went through all the land and came up to Samaria, shutting it in with his forces for three years.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and took Israel away to Assyria, placing them in Halah and in Habor on the river Gozan, and in the towns of the Medes.

⁷And the wrath of the Lord came on Israel because they had done evil against the Lord their God, who took them out of the land of Egypt from under the yoke of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had become worshippers of other gods,

⁸Living by the rules of the nations whom the Lord had sent out from before the children of Israel.

⁹And the children of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things which were not right, building high places for themselves in all their towns, from the tower of the watchmen to the walled town.

¹⁰They put up pillars of stone and wood on every high hill and under every green tree:

¹¹Burning their offerings in all the high places, as those nations did whom the Lord sent away from before them; they did evil things, moving the Lord to wrath;

¹²And they made themselves servants of disgusting things, though the Lord had said, You are not to do this.

¹³And he gave witness to Israel and Judah, by every prophet and seer, saying, Come back from your evil ways, and do my orders and keep my rules, and be guided by the law which I gave to your fathers and sent to you by my servants the prophets.

¹⁴And they did not give ear, but became stiff-necked, like their fathers who had no faith in the Lord their God.

¹⁵And they went against his rules, and the agreement which he made with their fathers, and his laws which he gave them; they gave themselves up to things without sense or value, and became foolish like the nations round them, of whom the Lord had said, Do not as they do.

¹⁶And turning their backs on all the orders which the Lord had given them, they made for themselves images of metal, and the image of Asherah, worshipping all the stars of heaven and becoming servants to Baal.

¹⁷And they made their sons and their daughters go through the fire, and they made use of secret arts and unnatural powers, and gave themselves up to doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, till he was moved to wrath.

¹⁸So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and his face was turned away from them: only the tribe of Judah kept its place.

¹⁹(But even Judah did not keep the orders of the Lord their God, but were guided by the rules which Israel had made.

²⁰So the Lord would have nothing to do with all the offspring of Israel, and sent trouble on them, and gave them up into the hands of their attackers, till he had sent them away from before his face.)

²¹For Israel was broken off from the family of David, and they made Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, king, who, driving them away from the laws of the Lord, made them do a great sin.

²²And the children of Israel went on with all the sins which Jeroboam did; they did not keep themselves from them;

²³Till the Lord put Israel away from before his face, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was taken away from their land to Assyria, to this day.

²⁴Then the king of Assyria took men from Babylon and from Cuthah and Avva and Hamath and Sepharvaim, and put them in the towns of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; so they got Samaria for their heritage, living in its towns.

²⁵Now when first they were living there they did not give worship to the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them, causing the death of some of them.

²⁶So they said to the king of Assyria, The nations whom you have taken as prisoners and put in the towns of Samaria, have no knowledge of the way of the god of the land: so he has sent lions among them, causing their death, because they have no knowledge of his way.

²⁷Then the king of Assyria gave orders, saying, Send there one of the priests whom you took away, and let him be living there and teaching the people the way of the god of the land.

²⁸So one of the priests whom they had taken away as a prisoner from Samaria came back, and, living in Beth-el, became their teacher in the worship of the Lord.

²⁹And every nation made gods for themselves, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the towns where they were living.

³⁰The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

³¹The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites gave their children to be burned in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

³²So they went on worshipping the Lord, and made for themselves, from among all the people, priests for the high places, to make offerings for them in the houses of the high places.

³³They gave worship to the Lord, but they gave honour to their gods like the nations did from whom they had been taken as prisoners.

³⁴So to this day they go on in their old ways, not worshipping the Lord or keeping his orders or his ways or the law and the rule which the Lord gave to the children of Jacob, to whom he gave the name Israel;

³⁵And the Lord made an agreement with them and gave them orders, saying, You are to have no other gods; you are not to give worship to them or be their servants or make them offerings:

³⁶But the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt with his great power and his outstretched arm, he is your God, to whom you are to give worship and make offerings:

³⁷And the rules and the orders and the law which he put in writing for you, you are to keep and do for ever; you are to have no other gods.

³⁸And you are to keep in memory the agreement which I have made with you; and you are to have no other gods.

³⁹And you are to give worship to the Lord your God; for it is he who will give you salvation from the hands of all who are against you.

⁴⁰But they gave no attention, but went on in their old way.

⁴¹So these nations, worshipping the Lord, still were servants to the images they had made; their children and their children's children did the same; as their fathers did, so do they, to this day.