16Josiah turned and saw the graves that were there on the hill; and he had the bones taken out of the graves and burned on the altar. Thus he defiled it, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD foretold by the man of God who foretold these happenings. 17He asked, “What is the marker I see there?” And the men of the town replied, “That is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and foretold these things that you have done to the altar of Bethel.”k 18“Let him be,” he said, “let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed together with the bones of the prophetl who came from Samaria.m
19Josiah also abolished all the cult places in the towns of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had built, vexing [the LORD]. He dealt with them just as he had done to Bethel: 20He slew on the altars all the priests of the shrines who were there, and he burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
21The king commanded all the people, “Offer the passover sacrifice to the LORD your God as prescribed in this scroll of the covenant.” 22Now the passover sacrifice had not been offered in that manner in the days of the chieftains who ruled Israel, or during the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 23Only in the eighteenth year of King Josiah was such a passover sacrifice offered in that manner to the LORD in Jerusalem. 24Josiah also did away with n-the necromancers and the mediums,-n the idols and the fetishes—all the detestable things that were to be seen in the land of Judah and Jerusalem. Thus he fulfilled the terms of the Teaching recorded in the scroll that the priest Hilkiah had found in the House of the LORD. 25There was no king like him before who turned back to the LORD with all his heart and soul and might, in full accord with the Teaching of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.
26However, the LORD did not turn away from His awesome wrath which had blazed up against Judah because of all the things Manasseh did to vex Him. 27The LORD said, “I will also banish Judah from My presence as I banished Israel; and I will reject the city of Jerusalem which I chose and the House where I said My name would abide.”
28The other events of Josiah’s reign, and all his actions, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 29In his days, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, marched against the king of Assyriao to the River Euphrates; King Josiah marched toward him, but when he confronted him at Megiddo, [Pharaoh Neco] slew him. 30His servants conveyed his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz; they anointed him and made him king in place of his father.
31Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32He did what was displeasing to the LORD, just as his fathers had done. 33Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him in Riblah in the region of Hamath, to keep him from reigning in Jerusalem. And he imposed on the land an indemnity of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34Then Pharaoh Neco appointed Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, changing his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz and p-brought him-p to Egypt, where he died. 35Jehoiakim gave Pharaoh the silver and the gold, and he made an assessment on the land to pay the money demanded by Pharaoh. He exacted from the people of the land the silver and gold to be paid Pharaoh Neco, according to each man’s assessment.
36Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Zebudah daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37He did what was displeasing to the LORD, just as his ancestors had done.
24 In his days, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. 2The LORD let loose against him the raiding bands of the Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites; He let them loose against Judah to destroy it, in accordance with the word that the LORD had spoken through His servants the prophets. 3All this befell Judah at the command of the LORD, who banished [them] from His presence because of all the sins that Manasseh had committed, 4and also because of the blood of the innocent that he shed. For he filled Jerusalem with the blood of the innocent, and the LORD would not forgive.
5The other events of Jehoiakim’s reign, and all of his actions, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 6Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and his son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king. 7The king of Egypt did not venture out of his country again, for the king of Babylon had seized all the land that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the Wadi of Egypt to the River Euphrates.
8Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. 9He did what was displeasing to the LORD, just as his father had done. 10At that time, the troopsa of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched against Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. 11King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against the city while his troops were besieging it. 12Thereupon King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, and his courtiers, commanders, and officers, surrendered to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. 13He carried off b-from Jerusalem-b all the treasures of the House of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace; he stripped off all the golden decorations in the Temple of the LORD—which King Solomon of Israel had made—as the LORD had warned. 14He exiled all of Jerusalem: all the commanders and all the warriors—ten thousand exiles—as well as all the craftsmen and smiths; only the poorest people in the land were left. 15He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon; and the king’s mother and wives and officers and the notables of the land were brought as exiles from Jerusalem to Babylon. 16All the able men, to the number of seven thousand—all of them warriors, trained for battle—and a thousand craftsmen and smiths were brought to Babylon as exiles by the king of Babylon. 17And the king of Babylon appointed Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’sc uncle, king in his place, changing his name to Zedekiah.
18dZedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 19He did what was displeasing to the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done. 20Indeed, Jerusalem and Judah e-were a cause of anger for the LORD, so that-e He cast them out of His presence.
25 Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 1And in the ninth year of hisa reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar moved against Jerusalem with his whole army. He besieged it; and they built towers against it all around. 2The city continued in a state of siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 3By the ninth day [of the fourth month]b the famine had become acute in the city; there was no food left for the common people.
4Then [the wall of] the city was breached. All the soldiers [left the city] by night through the gate between the double walls, which is near the king’s garden—the Chaldeans were all around the city; and [the king] set out for the Arabah.c 5But the Chaldean troops pursued the king, and they overtook him in the steppes of Jericho as his entire force left him and scattered. 6They captured the king and brought him before the king of Babylon at Riblah; and they put him on trial. 7They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes; then Zedekiah’s eyes were put out. He was chained in bronze fetters and he was brought to Babylon.
8On the seventh day of the fifth month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards, an officer of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9He burned the House of the LORD, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down d-the house of every notable person.-d 10The entire Chaldean force that was with the chief of the guard tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. 11The remnant of the people that was left in the city, the defectors who had gone over to the king of Babylon—and the remnant of the population—were taken into exile by Nebuzaradan, the chief of the guards. 12But some of the poorest in the land were left by the chief of the guards, to be vinedressers and field hands.
13The Chaldeans broke up the bronze columns of the House of the LORD, the stands, and the bronze tank that was in the House of the LORD; and they carried the bronze away to Babylon. 14They also took all the pails, scrapers, snuffers, ladles, and all the other bronze vessels used in the service. 15The chief of the guards took whatever was of gold
