2 Kings
2 Kings
1 (The Message)
1 After Ahab
died, Moab rebelled against Israel. 2 One day Ahaziah fell through the balcony
railing on the rooftop of his house in Samaria and was injured. He sent
messengers off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, "Am I going to
recover from this accident?" 3 God's angel spoke to Elijah the Tishbite:
"Up on your feet! Go out and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria
with this word, 'Is it because there's no God in Israel that you're running off
to consult Baal-Zebub god of Ekron?' 4 Here's a message from the God you've
tried to bypass: 'You're not going to get out of that bed you're in - you're as
good as dead already.'" Elijah delivered the message and was gone. 5 The
messengers went back. The king said, "So why are you back so soon - what's
going on?" 6 They told him, "A man met us and said, 'Turn around and
go back to the king who sent you; tell him, God's message: Is it because
there's no God in Israel that you're running off to consult Baal-Zebub god of
Ekron? You needn't bother. You're not going to get out of that bed you're in -
you're as good as dead already.'" 7 The king said, "Tell me more
about this man who met you and said these things to you. What was he
like?" 8 "Shaggy," they said, "and wearing a leather
belt." He said, "That has to be Elijah the Tishbite!" 9 The king
sent a captain with fifty men to Elijah. Meanwhile Elijah was sitting, big as
life, on top of a hill. The captain said, "O Holy Man! King's orders: Come
down!" 10 Elijah answered the captain of the fifty, "If it's true
that I'm a 'holy man,' lightning strike you and your fifty men!" Out of
the blue lightning struck and incinerated the captain and his fifty. 11 The
king sent another captain with his fifty men, "O Holy Man! King's orders:
Come down. And right now!" 12 Elijah answered, "If it's true that I'm
a 'holy man,' lightning strike you and your fifty men!" Immediately a
divine lightning bolt struck and incinerated the captain and his fifty. 13 The
king then sent a third captain with his fifty men. For a third time, a captain
with his fifty approached Elijah. This one fell on his knees in supplication:
"O Holy Man, have respect for my life and the souls of these fifty men! 14
Twice now lightning from out of the blue has struck and incinerated captains
with their fifty men; please, I beg you, respect my life!" 15 The angel of
God told Elijah, "Go ahead; and don't be afraid." Elijah got up and
went down with him to the king. 16 Elijah told him, "God's word: Because you
sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub the god of Ekron, as if there were no God
in Israel to whom you could pray, you'll never get out of that bed alive -
already you're as good as dead." 17 And he died, exactly as God's word
spoken by Elijah had said. Because Ahaziah had no son, his brother Joram became
the next king. The succession took place in the second year of the reign of
Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. 18 The rest of Ahaziah's life is
recorded in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
2 Kings
2 (The Message)
1 Just before
God took Elijah to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on a walk out
of Gilgal. 2 Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here. God has sent me on an
errand to Bethel." Elisha said, "Not on your life! I'm not letting
you out of my sight!" So they both went to Bethel. 3 The guild of prophets
at Bethel met Elisha and said, "Did you know that God is going to take
your master away from you today?" "Yes," he said, "I know
it. But keep it quiet." 4 Then Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here. God
has sent me on an errand to Jericho." Elisha said, "Not on your life!
I'm not letting you out of my sight!" So they both went to Jericho. 5 The
guild of prophets at Jericho came to Elisha and said, "Did you know that
God is going to take your master away from you today?" "Yes," he
said, "I know it. But keep it quiet." 6 Then Elijah said to Elisha,
"Stay here. God has sent me on an errand to the Jordan." Elisha said,
"Not on your life! I'm not letting you out of my sight!" And so the
two of them went their way together. 7 Meanwhile, fifty men from the guild of
prophets gathered some distance away while the two of them stood at the Jordan.
8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and hit the water with it. The river
divided and the two men walked through on dry land. 9 When they reached the
other side, Elijah said to Elisha, "What can I do for you before I'm taken
from you? Ask anything." Elisha said, "Your life repeated in my life.
I want to be a holy man just like you." 10 "That's a hard one!"
said Elijah. "But if you're watching when I'm taken from you, you'll get
what you've asked for. But only if you're watching." 11 And so it
happened. They were walking along and talking. Suddenly a chariot and horses of
fire came between them and Elijah went up in a whirlwind to heaven. 12 Elisha
saw it all and shouted, "My father, my father! You - the chariot and
cavalry of Israel!" When he could no longer see anything, he grabbed his
robe and ripped it to pieces. 13 Then he picked up Elijah's cloak that had
fallen from him, returned to the shore of the Jordan, and stood there. 14 He
took Elijah's cloak - all that was left of Elijah! - and hit the river with it,
saying, "Now where is the God of Elijah? Where is he?" When he struck
the water, the river divided and Elisha walked through. 15 The guild of
prophets from Jericho saw the whole thing from where they were standing. They
said, "The spirit of Elijah lives in Elisha!" They welcomed and
honored him. 16 They then said, "We're at your service. We have fifty reliable
men here; let's send them out to look for your master. Maybe God's spirit has
swept him off to some mountain or dropped him into a remote ravine."
Elisha said, "No. Don't send them." 17 But they pestered him until he
caved in: "Go ahead then. Send them." So they sent the fifty men off.
For three days they looked, searching high and low. Nothing. 18 Finally, they
returned to Elisha in Jericho. He told them, "So there - didn't I tell
you?" 19 One day the men of the city said to Elisha, "You can see for
yourself, master, how well our city is located. But the water is polluted and
nothing grows." 20 He said, "Bring me a brand-new bowl and put some
salt in it." They brought it to him. 21 He then went to the spring,
sprinkled the salt into it, and proclaimed, "God's word: I've healed this
water. It will no longer kill you or poison your land." 22 And sure
enough, the water was healed - and remains so to this day, just as Elisha said.
23 Another time, Elisha was on his way to Bethel and some little kids came out
from the town and taunted him, "What's up, old baldhead! Out of our way,
skinhead!" 24 Elisha turned, took one look at them, and cursed them in the
name of God. Two bears charged out of the underbrush and knocked them about,
ripping them limb from limb - forty-two children in all! 25 Elisha went on to
Mount Carmel, and then returned to Samaria.
2 Kings
3 (The Message)
1 Joram son of
Ahab began his rule over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of
Jehoshaphat king of Judah. He was king for twelve years. 2 In God's sight he
was a bad king. But he wasn't as bad as his father and mother - to his credit
he destroyed the obscene Baal stone that his father had made. 3 But he hung on
to the sinful practices of Jeroboam son of Nebat, the ones that had corrupted
Israel for so long. He wasn't about to give them up. 4 King Mesha of Moab
raised sheep. He was forced to give the king of Israel one hundred thousand
lambs and another hundred thousand rams. 5 When Ahab died, the king of Moab
rebelled against the king of Israel. 6 So King Joram set out from Samaria and
prepared Israel for war. 7 His first move was to send a message to Jehoshaphat
king of Judah: "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Would you join
me and fight him?" 8 Which route shall we take?" "Through the
badlands of Edom." 9 The king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king
of Edom started out on what proved to be a looping detour. After seven days
they had run out of water for both army and animals. 10 The king of Israel
said, "Bad news! God has gotten us three kings out here to dump us into
the hand of Moab." 11 But Jehoshaphat said, "Isn't there a prophet of
God anywhere around through whom we can consult God?" One of the servants
of the king of Israel said, "Elisha son of Shaphat is around somewhere -
the one who was Elijah's right-hand man." 12 Jehoshaphat said, "Good!
A man we can trust!" So the three of them - the king of Israel,
Jehoshaphat, and the king of Edom - went to meet him. 13 Elisha addressed the
king of Israel, "What do you and I have in common? Go consult the
puppet-prophets of your father and mother." "Never!" said the
king of Israel. "It's God who has gotten us into this fix, dumping all
three of us kings into the hand of Moab." 14 Elisha said, "As
God-of-the-Angel-Armies lives, and before whom I stand ready to serve, if it
weren't for the respect I have for Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I wouldn't give
you the time of day. 15 But considering - bring me a minstrel." (When a
minstrel played, the power of God came on Elisha.) 16 He then said, "God's
word: Dig ditches all over this valley. 17 Here's what will happen - you won't
hear the wind, you won't see the rain, but this valley is going to fill up with
water and your army and your animals will drink their fill. 18 This is easy for
God to do; he will also hand over Moab to you. 19 You will ravage the country:
Knock out its fortifications, level the key villages, clear-cut the orchards,
clog the springs, and litter the cultivated fields with stones." 20 In the
morning - it was at the hour of morning sacrifice - the water had arrived,
water pouring in from the west, from Edom, a flash-flood filling the valley
with water. 21 By this time everyone in Moab had heard that the kings had come
up to make war against them. Everyone who was able to handle a sword was called
into service and took a stand at the border. 22 They were up and ready early in
the morning when the sun rose over the water. From where the Moabites stood,
the water reflecting the sun looked red, like blood. 23 "Blood! Look at
the blood!" they said. "The kings must have fought each other - a
bloody massacre! Go for the loot, Moab!" 24 When Moab entered the camp of
Israel, the Israelites were up on their feet killing Moabites right and left,
the Moabites running for their lives, Israelites relentless in pursuit - a
slaughter. 25 They leveled the towns, littered the cultivated fields with
rocks, clogged the springs, and clear-cut the orchards. Only the capital, Kir
Hareseth, was left intact, and that not for long; it too was surrounded and
attacked with thrown and flung rocks. 26 When the king of Moab realized that he
was fighting a losing battle, he took seven hundred swordsmen to hack a
corridor past the king of Edom, but they didn't make it. 27 Then he took his
son, his firstborn who would succeed him as king, and sacrificed him on the
city wall. That set off furious anger against Israel. Israel pulled back and
returned home.
2 Kings
4 (The Message)
1 One day the
wife of a man from the guild of prophets called out to Elisha, "Your
servant my husband is dead. You well know what a good man he was, devoted to
God. And now the man to whom he was in debt is on his way to collect by taking
my two children as slaves." 2 Elisha said, "I wonder how I can be of
help. Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Nothing," she
said. "Well, I do have a little oil." 3 "Here's what you
do," said Elisha. "Go up and down the street and borrow jugs and
bowls from all your neighbors. And not just a few - all you can get. 4 Then
come home and lock the door behind you, you and your sons. Pour oil into each
container; when each is full, set it aside." 5 She did what he said. She
locked the door behind her and her sons; as they brought the containers to her,
she filled them. 6 When all the jugs and bowls were full, she said to one of
her sons, "Another jug, please." He said, "That's it. There are
no more jugs." Then the oil stopped. 7 She went and told the story to the
man of God. He said, "Go sell the oil and make good on your debts. Live,
both you and your sons, on what's left." 8 One day Elisha passed through
Shunem. A leading lady of the town talked him into stopping for a meal. And
then it became his custom: Whenever he passed through, he stopped by for a
meal. 9 "I'm certain," said the woman to her husband, "that this
man who stops by with us all the time is a holy man of God. 10 Why don't we add
on a small room upstairs and furnish it with a bed and desk, chair and lamp, so
that when he comes by he can stay with us?" 11 And so it happened that the
next time Elisha came by he went to the room and lay down for a nap. 12 Then he
said to his servant Gehazi, "Tell the Shunammite woman I want to see
her." He called her and she came to him. 13 Through Gehazi Elisha said,
"You've gone far beyond the call of duty in taking care of us; what can we
do for you? Do you have a request we can bring to the king or to the commander
of the army?" She replied, "Nothing. I'm secure and satisfied in my
family." 14 Elisha conferred with Gehazi: "There's got to be something
we can do for her. But what?" Gehazi said, "Well, she has no son, and
her husband is an old man." 15 "Call her in," said Elisha. He
called her and she stood at the open door. 16 Elisha said to her, "This
time next year you're going to be nursing an infant son." "O my
master, O Holy Man," she said, "don't play games with me, teasing me
with such fantasies!" 17 The woman conceived. A year later, just as Elisha
had said, she had a son. 18 The child grew up. One day he went to his father,
who was working with the harvest hands, 19 complaining, "My head, my
head!" His father ordered a servant, "Carry him to his mother."
20 The servant took him in his arms and carried him to his mother. He lay on
her lap until noon and died. 21 She took him up and laid him on the bed of the
man of God, shut him in alone, and left. 22 She then called her husband,
"Get me a servant and a donkey so I can go to the Holy Man; I'll be back
as soon as I can." 23 "But why today? This isn't a holy day - it's
neither New Moon nor Sabbath." She said, "Don't ask questions; I need
to go right now. Trust me." 24 She went ahead and saddled the donkey,
ordering her servant, "Take the lead - and go as fast as you can; I'll
tell you if you're going too fast." 25 And so off she went. She came to
the Holy Man at Mount Carmel. 26 Quickly now. Ask her, 'Is something wrong? Are
you all right? Your husband? Your child?'" She said, "Everything's
fine." 27 But when she reached the Holy Man at the mountain, she threw
herself at his feet and held tightly to him. Gehazi came up to pull her away,
but the Holy Man said, "Leave her alone - can't you see that she's in
distress? But God hasn't let me in on why; I'm completely in the dark." 28
Then she spoke up: "Did I ask for a son, master? Didn't I tell you, 'Don't
tease me with false hopes'?" 29 He ordered Gehazi, "Don't lose a
minute - grab my staff and run as fast as you can. If you meet anyone, don't
even take time to greet him, and if anyone greets you, don't even answer. Lay
my staff across the boy's face." 30 The boy's mother said, "As sure
as God lives and you live, you're not leaving me behind." And so Gehazi
let her take the lead, and followed behind. 31 But Gehazi arrived first and
laid the staff across the boy's face. But there was no sound - no sign of life.
Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and said, "The boy hasn't stirred."
32 Elisha entered the house and found the boy stretched out on the bed dead. 33
He went into the room and locked the door - just the two of them in the room -
and prayed to God. 34 He then got into bed with the boy and covered him with
his body, mouth on mouth, eyes on eyes, hands on hands. As he was stretched out
over him like that, the boy's body became warm. 35 Elisha got up and paced back
and forth in the room. Then he went back and stretched himself upon the boy
again. The boy started sneezing - seven times he sneezed! - and opened his
eyes. 36 He called Gehazi and said, "Get the Shunammite woman in
here!" He called her and she came in. Elisha said, "Embrace your
son!" 37 She fell at Elisha's feet, face to the ground in reverent awe.
Then she embraced her son and went out with him. 38 Elisha went back down to
Gilgal. There was a famine there. While he was consulting with the guild of
prophets, he told his servant, "Put a large pot on the fire and cook up
some stew for the prophets." 39 One of the men went out into the field to
get some herbs; he came across a wild vine and picked gourds from it, filling
his gunnysack. He brought them back, sliced them up, and put them in the stew,
even though no one knew what kind of plant it was. 40 The stew was then served
up for the men to eat. They started to eat, and then exclaimed, "Death in
the pot, O man of God! Death in the pot!" Nobody could eat it. 41 Elisha
ordered, "Get me some meal." Then he sprinkled it into the stew pot.
"Now serve it up to the men," he said. They ate it, and it was just
fine - nothing wrong with that stew! 42 One day a man arrived from Baal
Shalishah. He brought the man of God twenty loaves of fresh baked bread from
the early harvest, along with a few apples from the orchard. Elisha said,
"Pass it around to the people to eat." 43 His servant said, "For
a hundred men? There's not nearly enough!" Elisha said, "Just go
ahead and do it. God says there's plenty." 44 And sure enough, there was. He
passed around what he had - they not only ate, but had leftovers.
2 Kings
5 (The Message)
1 Naaman was
general of the army under the king of Aram. He was important to his master, who
held him in the highest esteem because it was by him that God had given victory
to Aram: a truly great man, but afflicted with a grievous skin disease. 2 It so
happened that Aram, on one of its raiding expeditions against Israel, captured
a young girl who became a maid to Naaman's wife. 3 One day she said to her
mistress, "Oh, if only my master could meet the prophet of Samaria, he
would be healed of his skin disease." 4 Naaman went straight to his master
and reported what the girl from Israel had said. 5 "Well then, go,"
said the king of Aram. "And I'll send a letter of introduction to the king
of Israel." So he went off, taking with him about 750 pounds of silver,
150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothes. 6 Naaman delivered the letter to
the king of Israel. The letter read, "When you get this letter, you'll
know that I've personally sent my servant Naaman to you; heal him of his skin
disease." 7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he was terribly
upset, ripping his robe to pieces. He said, "Am I a god with the power to
bring death or life that I get orders to heal this man from his disease? What's
going on here? That king's trying to pick a fight, that's what!" 8 Elisha
the man of God heard what had happened, that the king of Israel was so
distressed that he'd ripped his robe to shreds. He sent word to the king,
"Why are you so upset, ripping your robe like this? Send him to me so
he'll learn that there's a prophet in Israel." 9 So Naaman with his horses
and chariots arrived in style and stopped at Elisha's door. 10 Elisha sent out
a servant to meet him with this message: "Go to the River Jordan and
immerse yourself seven times. Your skin will be healed and you'll be as good as
new." 11 Naaman lost his temper. He turned on his heel saying, "I
thought he'd personally come out and meet me, call on the name of God, wave his
hand over the diseased spot, and get rid of the disease. 12 The Damascus
rivers, Abana and Pharpar, are cleaner by far than any of the rivers in Israel.
Why not bathe in them? I'd at least get clean." He stomped off, mad as a
hornet. 13 But his servants caught up with him and said, "Father, if the
prophet had asked you to do something hard and heroic, wouldn't you have done
it? So why not this simple 'wash and be clean'?" 14 So he did it. He went
down and immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, following the orders of
the Holy Man. His skin was healed; it was like the skin of a little baby. He
was as good as new. 15 He then went back to the Holy Man, he and his entourage,
stood before him, and said, "I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that
there is no God anywhere on earth other than the God of Israel. In gratitude
let me give you a gift." 16 "As God lives," Elisha replied,
"the God whom I serve, I'll take nothing from you." Naaman tried his
best to get him to take something, but he wouldn't do it. 17 "If you won't
take anything," said Naaman, "let me ask you for something: Give me a
load of dirt, as much as a team of donkeys can carry, because I'm never again
going to worship any god other than God. 18 But there's one thing for which I
need God's pardon: When my master, leaning on my arm, enters the shrine of
Rimmon and worships there, and I'm with him there, worshiping Rimmon, may you
see to it that God forgive me for this." 19 Elisha said, "Everything
will be all right. Go in peace." 20 when Gehazi, servant to Elisha the
Holy Man, said to himself, "My master has let this Aramean Naaman slip
through his fingers without so much as a thank-you. By the living God, I'm
going after him to get something or other from him!" 21 And Gehazi took
off after Naaman. Naaman saw him running after him and jumped down from his
chariot to greet him, "Is something wrong?" 22 "Nothing's wrong,
but something's come up. My master sent me to tell you: 'Two young men just
showed up from the hill country of Ephraim, brothers from the guild of the
prophets. Supply their needs with a gift of seventy-five pounds of silver and a
couple of sets of clothes.'" 23 Naaman said, "Of course, how about a
hundred and fifty pounds?" Naaman insisted. He tied up the money in two
sacks and gave him the two sets of clothes; he even gave him two servants to
carry the gifts back with him. 24 When they got to the fort on the hill, Gehazi
took the gifts from the servants, stored them inside, then sent the servants
back. 25 He returned and stood before his master. Elisha said, "So what
have you been up to, Gehazi?" "Nothing much," he said. 26 Elisha
said, "Didn't you know I was with you in spirit when that man stepped down
from his chariot to greet you? Tell me, is this a time to look after yourself,
lining your pockets with gifts? 27 Naaman's skin disease will now infect you
and your family, with no relief in sight." Gehazi walked away, his skin
flaky and white like snow.
2 Kings
6 (The Message)
1 One day the
guild of prophets came to Elisha and said, "You can see that this place
where we're living under your leadership is getting cramped - we have no elbow
room. 2 Give us permission to go down to the Jordan where each of us will get a
log. We'll build a roomier place." Elisha said, "Go ahead." 3
One of them then said, "Please! Come along with us!" He said,
"Certainly." 4 He went with them. They came to the Jordan and started
chopping down trees. 5 As one of them was felling a timber, his axhead flew off
and sank in the river. "Oh no, master!" he cried out. "And it
was borrowed!" 6 The Holy Man said, "Where did it sink?" The man
showed him the place. He cut off a branch and tossed it at the spot. The axhead
floated up. 7 "Grab it," he said. The man reached out and took it. 8
One time when the king of Aram was at war with Israel, after consulting with
his officers, he said, "At such and such a place I want an ambush
set." 9 The Holy Man sent a message to the king of Israel: "Watch out
when you're passing this place, because Aram has set an ambush there." 10
So the king of Israel sent word concerning the place of which the Holy Man had
warned him. This kind of thing happened all the time. 11 The king of Aram was
furious over all this. He called his officers together and said, "Tell me,
who is leaking information to the king of Israel? Who is the spy in our
ranks?" 12 But one of his men said, "No, my master, dear king. It's
not any of us. It's Elisha the prophet in Israel. He tells the king of Israel
everything you say, even what you whisper in your bedroom." 13 The king
said, "Go and find out where he is. I'll send someone and capture
him." The report came back, "He's in Dothan." 14 Then he
dispatched horses and chariots, an impressive fighting force. They came by
night and surrounded the city. 15 Early in the morning a servant of the Holy
Man got up and went out. Surprise! Horses and chariots surrounding the city!
The young man exclaimed, "Oh, master! What shall we do?" 16 He said,
"Don't worry about it - there are more on our side than on their
side." 17 Then Elisha prayed, "O God, open his eyes and let him
see." The eyes of the young man were opened and he saw. A wonder! The
whole mountainside full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha! 18
When the Arameans attacked, Elisha prayed to God, "Strike these people
blind!" And God struck them blind, just as Elisha said. 19 Then Elisha
called out to them, "Not that way! Not this city! Follow me and I'll lead
you to the man you're looking for." And he led them into Samaria. 20 As
they entered the city, Elisha prayed, "O God, open their eyes so they can
see where they are." God opened their eyes. They looked around - they were
trapped in Samaria! 21 When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha,
"Father, shall I massacre the lot?" 22 "Not on your life!"
said Elisha. "You didn't lift a hand to capture them, and now you're going
to kill them? No sir, make a feast for them and send them back to their
master." 23 So he prepared a huge feast for them. After they ate and drank
their fill he dismissed them. Then they returned home to their master. The
raiding bands of Aram didn't bother Israel anymore. 24 At a later time, this:
Ben-Hadad king of Aram pulled together his troops and launched a siege on
Samaria. 25 This brought on a terrible famine, so bad that food prices soared
astronomically. Eighty shekels for a donkey's head! Five shekels for a bowl of
field greens! 26 One day the king of Israel was walking along the city wall. A
woman cried out, "Help! Your majesty!" 27 He answered, "If God
won't help you, where on earth can I go for help? To the granary? To the
dairy?" 28 The king continued, "Tell me your story." 29 So we
cooked my son and ate him. The next day I told her, 'Your turn - bring your son
so we can have him for supper.' But she had hidden her son away." 30 When
the king heard the woman's story he ripped apart his robe. Since he was walking
on the city wall, everyone saw that next to his skin he was wearing coarse
burlap. 31 And he called out, "God do his worst to me - and more - if
Elisha son of Shaphat still has a head on his shoulders at this day's
end." 32 Elisha was sitting at home, the elders sitting with him. The king
had already dispatched an executioner, but before the man arrived Elisha spoke
to the elders: "Do you know that this murderer has just now sent a man to
take off my head? Look, when the executioner arrives, shut the door and lock
it. Don't I even now hear the footsteps of his master behind him?" 33
While he was giving his instructions, the king showed up, accusing, "This
trouble is directly from God! And what's next? I'm fed up with God!"
2 Kings
7 (The Message)
1 Elisha said,
"Listen! God's word! The famine's over. This time tomorrow food will be
plentiful - a handful of meal for a shekel; two handfuls of grain for a shekel.
The market at the city gate will be buzzing." 2 The attendant on whom the
king leaned for support said to the Holy Man, "You expect us to believe
that? Trapdoors opening in the sky and food tumbling out?" "You'll
watch it with your own eyes," he said, "but you will not eat so much
as a mouthful!" 3 It happened that four lepers were sitting just outside
the city gate. They said to one another, "What are we doing sitting here
at death's door? 4 If we enter the famine-struck city we'll die; if we stay
here we'll die. So let's take our chances in the camp of Aram and throw
ourselves on their mercy. If they receive us we'll live, if they kill us we'll
die. We've got nothing to lose." 5 So after the sun went down they got up
and went to the camp of Aram. When they got to the edge of the camp, surprise!
Not a man in the camp! 6 The Master had made the army of Aram hear the sound of
horses and a mighty army on the march. They told one another, "The king of
Israel hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack
us!" 7 Panicked, they ran for their lives through the darkness, abandoning
tents, horses, donkeys - the whole camp just as it was - running for dear life.
8 These four lepers entered the camp and went into a tent. First they ate and
drank. Then they grabbed silver, gold, and clothing, and went off and hid it.
They came back, entered another tent, and looted it, again hiding their
plunder. 9 Finally they said to one another, "We shouldn't be doing this!
This is a day of good news and we're making it into a private party! If we wait
around until morning we'll get caught and punished. Come on! Let's go tell the
news to the king's palace!" 10 So they went and called out at the city
gate, telling what had happened: "We went to the camp of Aram and,
surprise! - the place was deserted. Not a soul, not a sound! Horses and donkeys
left tethered and tents abandoned just as they were." 11 The gatekeepers
got the word to the royal palace, giving them the whole story. 12 Roused in the
middle of the night, the king told his servants, "Let me tell you what
Aram has done. They knew that we were starving, so they left camp and have hid
in the field, thinking, 'When they come out of the city, we'll capture them
alive and take the city.'" 13 One of his advisors answered, "Let some
men go and take five of the horses left behind. The worst that can happen is no
worse than what could happen to the whole city. Let's send them and find out
what's happened." 14 They took two chariots with horses. The king sent
them after the army of Aram with the orders, "Scout them out; find out
what happened." 15 They went after them all the way to the Jordan. The whole
way was strewn with clothes and equipment that Aram had dumped in their
panicked flight. The scouts came back and reported to the king. 16 The people
then looted the camp of Aram. Food prices dropped overnight - a handful of meal
for a shekel; two handfuls of grain for a shekel - God's word to the letter! 17
The king ordered his attendant, the one he leaned on for support, to be in
charge of the city gate. The people, turned into a mob, poured through the
gate, trampling him to death. It was exactly what the Holy Man had said when
the king had come to see him. 18 Every word of the Holy Man to the king -
"A handful of meal for a shekel, two handfuls of grain for a shekel this
time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria," 19 with the attendant's sarcastic
reply to the Holy Man, "You expect us to believe that? Trapdoors opening
in the sky and food tumbling out?" followed by the response, "You'll
watch it with your own eyes, but you won't eat so much as a mouthful" -
proved true. 20 The final stroke came when the people trampled the man to death
at the city gate.
2 Kings
8 (The Message)
1 Years
before, Elisha had told the woman whose son he had brought to life, "Leave
here and go, you and your family, and live someplace else. God has ordered a
famine in the land; it will last for seven years." 2 The woman did what
the Holy Man told her and left. She and her family lived as aliens in the
country of Philistia for seven years. 3 Then, when the seven years were up, the
woman and her family came back. She went directly to the king and asked for her
home and farm. 4 The king was talking with Gehazi, servant to the Holy Man,
saying, "Tell me some stories of the great things Elisha did." 5 It
so happened that as he was telling the king the story of the dead person
brought back to life, the woman whose son was brought to life showed up asking
for her home and farm. Gehazi said, "My master the king, this is the
woman! And this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!" 6 The king
wanted to know all about it, and so she told him the story. The king assigned
an officer to take care of her, saying, "Make sure she gets everything
back that's hers, plus all profits from the farm from the time she left until
now." 7 Elisha traveled to Damascus. Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, was sick at
the time. He was told, "The Holy Man is in town." 8 The king ordered
Hazael, "Take a gift with you and go meet the Holy Man. Ask God through
him, 'Am I going to recover from this sickness?'" 9 Hazael went and met
with Elisha. He brought with him every choice thing he could think of from
Damascus - forty camel-loads of items! When he arrived he stood before Elisha
and said, "Your son Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, sent me here to ask you, 'Am
I going to recover from this sickness?'" 10 Elisha answered, "Go and
tell him, 'Don't worry; you'll live.' The fact is, though - God showed me -
that he's doomed to die." 11 Elisha then stared hard at Hazael, reading
his heart. Hazael felt exposed and dropped his eyes. Then the Holy Man wept. 12
Hazael said, "Why does my master weep?" "Because," said
Elisha, "I know what you're going to do to the children of Israel: burn
down their forts, murder their youth, smash their babies, rip open their
pregnant women." 13 Hazael said, "Am I a mongrel dog that I'd do such
a horrible thing?" "God showed me," said Elisha, "that
you'll be king of Aram." 14 Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master,
who asked, "So, what did Elisha tell you?" "He told me, 'Don't
worry; you'll live.'" 15 But the very next day, someone took a heavy
quilt, soaked it in water, covered the king's face, and suffocated him. Now
Hazael was king. 16 In the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab king of
Israel, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah became king. 17 He was
thirty-two years old when he began his rule, and was king for eight years in
Jerusalem. 18 He copied the way of life of the kings of Israel, marrying into
the Ahab family and continuing the Ahab line of sin - from God's point of view,
an evil man living an evil life. 19 But despite that, because of his servant
David, God was not ready to destroy Judah. He had, after all, promised to keep
a lamp burning through David's descendants. 20 During Jehoram's reign, Edom
revolted against Judah's rule and set up their own king. 21 Jehoram responded
by taking his army of chariots to Zair. Edom surrounded him, but in the middle
of the night he and his charioteers broke through the lines and hit Edom hard.
But his infantry deserted him. 22 Edom continues in revolt against Judah right
up to the present. Even little Libnah revolted at that time. 23 The rest of the
life and times of Jehoram, the record of his rule, is written in The Chronicles
of the Kings of Judah. 24 Jehoram died and was buried in the family grave in
the City of David. His son Ahaziah succeeded him as king. 25 In the twelfth
year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram
king of Judah began his reign. 26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he
became king; he ruled only a year in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah,
granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. 27 He lived and ruled just like the Ahab
family had done, continuing the same evil-in-God's-sight line of sin, related
by both marriage and sin to the Ahab clan. 28 He joined Joram son of Ahab king
of Israel in a war against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth Gilead. The archers
wounded Joram. 29 Joram pulled back to Jezreel to convalesce from the injuries
he had received in the fight with Hazael. Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah
paid a visit to Joram son of Ahab on his sickbed in Jezreel. 2 Kings 9 (The Message)
1 One day
Elisha the prophet ordered a member of the guild of prophets, "Get
yourself ready, take a flask of oil, and go to Ramoth Gilead. 2 Look for Jehu
son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi. When you find him, get him away from his
companions and take him to a back room. 3 Take your flask of oil and pour it
over his head and say, 'God's word: I anoint you king over Israel.' Then open
the door and get out of there as fast as you can. Don't wait around." 4
The young prophet went to Ramoth Gilead. 5 On arrival he found the army
officers all sitting around. He said, "I have a matter of business with
you, officer." Jehu said, "Which one of us?" "With you,
officer." 6 He got up and went inside the building. The young prophet
poured the oil on his head and said, "God's word, the God of Israel: I've
anointed you to be king over the people of God, over Israel. 7 Your assignment
is to attack the regime of Ahab your master. I am avenging the massacre of my
servants the prophets - yes, the Jezebel-massacre of all the prophets of God. 8
The entire line of Ahab is doomed. I'm wiping out the entire bunch of that sad
lot. 9 I'll see to it that the family of Ahab experiences the same fate as the
family of Jeroboam son of Nebat and the family of Baasha son of Ahijah. 10 As
for Jezebel, the dogs will eat her carcass in the open fields of Jezreel. No
burial for her!" Then he opened the door and made a run for it. 11 Jehu
went back out to his master's officers. They asked, "Is everything all
right? What did that crazy fool want with you?" He said, "You know
that kind of man - all talk." 12 "That's a lie!" they said.
"Tell us what's going on." He said, "He told me this and this
and this - in effect, 'God's word: I anoint you king of Israel!'" 13 They
sprang into action. Each man grabbed his robe; they piled them at the top of
the steps for a makeshift throne. Then they blew the trumpet and declared,
"Jehu is king!" 14 That ignited the conspiracy of Jehu son of
Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi against Joram. 15 Except that Joram had pulled back
to Jezreel to convalesce from the injuries he got from the Arameans in the
battle with Hazael king of Aram. Jehu said, "If you really want me as
king, don't let anyone sneak out of the city and blab the news in
Jezreel." 16 Then Jehu mounted a chariot and rode to Jezreel, where Joram
was in bed, resting. King Ahaziah of Judah had come down to visit Joram. 17 A
sentry standing duty on the watchtower in Jezreel saw the company of Jehu arrive.
He said, "I see a band of men." Joram said, "Get a horseman and
send him out to meet them and inquire, 'Is anything wrong?'" 18 The
horseman rode out to meet Jehu and said, "The king wants to know if
there's anything wrong." Jehu said, "What's it to you whether things
are right or wrong? Fall in behind me." The sentry said, "The
messenger reached them, but he's not returning." 19 The king then sent a
second horseman. When he reached them he said, "The king wants to know if
there's anything wrong." Jehu said, "What's it to you whether things
are right or wrong? Fall in behind me." 20 The sentry said, "The
messenger reached them, but he's not returning. The driving is like the driving
of Jehu son of Nimshi - crazy!" 21 Joram ordered, "Get my chariot
ready!" They hitched up his chariot. Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king
of Judah, each in his own chariot, drove out to meet Jehu. They met in the
field of Naboth of Jezreel. 22 hen Joram saw Jehu he called out, "Good
day, Jehu!" Jehu answered, "What's good about it? How can there be
anything good about it as long as the promiscuous whoring and sorceries of your
mother Jezebel pollute the country?" 23 Joram wheeled his chariot around
and fled, yelling to Ahaziah, "It's a trap, Ahaziah!" 24 Jehu pulled
on his bow and released an arrow; it hit Joram between the shoulder blades and
went right through his heart. He slumped to his knees in his chariot. 25 Jehu
ordered Bidkar, his lieutenant, "Quick - throw him into the field of
Naboth of Jezreel. Remember when you and I were driving our chariots behind
Ahab his father? That's when God pronounced this doom upon him: 26 'As surely
as I saw the blood of murdered Naboth and his sons yesterday, you'll pay for it
on this exact piece of ground. God's word!' So take him and throw him out in
the field. God's instructions carried out to the letter!" 27 Ahaziah king
of Judah saw what was going on and made his escape on the road toward Beth
Haggan. Jehu chased him, yelling out, "Get him, too!" Jehu's troops
shot and wounded him in his chariot on the hill up to Gur, near Ibleam. He was
able to make it as far as Megiddo; there he died. 28 His aides drove on to
Jerusalem. They buried him in the family plot in the City of David. 29 In the
eleventh year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king of
Judah. 30 When Jezebel heard that Jehu had arrived in Jezreel, she made herself
up - put on eyeshadow and arranged her hair - and posed seductively at the
window. 31 When Jehu came through the city gate, she called down, "So, how
are things, 'Zimri,' you dashing king-killer?" 32 Jehu looked up at the
window and called, "Is there anybody up there on my side?" Two or
three palace eunuchs looked out. 33 He ordered, "Throw her down!"
They threw her out the window. Her blood spattered the wall and the horses, and
Jehu trampled her under his horse's hooves. 34 Then Jehu went inside and ate
his lunch. During lunch he gave orders, "Take care of that damned woman;
give her a decent burial - she is, after all, a king's daughter." 35 They
went out to bury her, but there was nothing left of her but skull, feet, and
hands. 36 They came back and told Jehu. He said, "It's God's word, the
word spoken by Elijah the Tishbite: In the field of Jezreel, dogs will eat
Jezebel; 37 The body of Jezebel will be like dog-droppings on the ground in
Jezreel. Old friends and lovers will say, 'I wonder, is this Jezebel?'"
2 Kings
10 (The Message)
1 Ahab had
seventy sons still living in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters addressed to the
officers of Jezreel, the city elders, and those in charge of Ahab's sons, and
posted them to Samaria. 2 The letters read: 3 Pick the best and most capable of
your master's sons and put him on the throne. Prepare to fight for your
master's position. 4 They were absolutely terrified at the letter. They said,
"Two kings have already been wiped out by him; what hope do we have?"
5 So they sent the warden of the palace, the mayor of the city, the elders, and
the guardians to Jehu with this message: "We are your servants. Whatever
you say, we'll do. We're not making anyone king here. You're in charge - do
what you think best." 6 Then Jehu wrote a second letter: If you are on my
side and are willing to follow my orders, here's what you do: Decapitate the
sons of your master and bring the heads to me by this time tomorrow in Jezreel.
7 When they got the letter, they took the king's sons and killed all seventy.
Then they put the heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel. 8 A
messenger reported to Jehu: "They've delivered the heads of the king's
sons." He said, "Stack them in two piles at the city gate until
morning." 9 In the morning Jehu came out, stood before the people, and
addressed them formally: "Do you realize that this very day you are
participants in God's righteous workings? True, I am the one who conspired
against my master and assassinated him. But who, do you suppose, is responsible
for this pile of skulls? 10 Know this for certain: Not a single syllable that
God spoke in judgment on the family of Ahab is canceled; you're seeing it with
your own eyes - God doing what, through Elijah, he said he'd do." 11 Then
Jehu proceeded to kill everyone who had anything to do with Ahab's family in
Jezreel - leaders, friends, priests. He wiped out the entire lot. 12 That done,
he brushed himself off and set out for Samaria. Along the way, at Beth Eked
(Binding House) of the Shepherds, 13 he met up with some relatives of Ahaziah
king of Judah. Jehu said, "Who are you?" They said, "We're
relatives of Ahaziah and we've come down to a reunion of the royal
family." 14 "Grab them!" ordered Jehu. They were taken and then
massacred at the well of Beth Eked. Forty-two of them - no survivors. 15 He
went on from there and came upon Jehonadab the Recabite who was on his way to
meet him. Greeting him, he said, "Are we together and of one mind in
this?" Jehonadab said, "We are - count on me." "Then give
me your hand," said Jehu. They shook hands on it and Jehonadab stepped up
into the chariot with Jehu. 16 "Come along with me," said Jehu,
"and witness my zeal for God." Together they proceeded in the
chariot. 17 When they arrived in Samaria, Jehu massacred everyone left in
Samaria who was in any way connected with Ahab - a mass execution, just as God
had told Elijah. 18 Next, Jehu got all the people together and addressed them:
Ahab served Baal small-time; Jehu will serve him big-time. 19 "Get all the
prophets of Baal here - everyone who served him, all his priests. Get everyone
here; don't leave anyone out. I have a great sacrifice to offer Baal. If you don't
show up, you won't live to tell about it." (Jehu was lying, of course. He
planned to destroy all the worshipers of Baal.) 20 Jehu ordered, "Make
preparation for a holy convocation for Baal." They did and posted the
date. 21 Jehu then summoned everyone in Israel. They came in droves - every
worshiper of Baal in the country. Nobody stayed home. They came and packed the
temple of Baal to capacity. 22 Jehu directed the keeper of the wardrobe,
"Get robes for all the servants of Baal." He brought out their robes.
23 Jehu and Jehonadab the Recabite now entered the temple of Baal and said,
"Double-check and make sure that there are no worshipers of God in here;
only Baal-worshipers are allowed." 24 Then they launched the worship,
making the sacrifices and burnt offerings. Meanwhile, Jehu had stationed eighty
men outside with orders: "Don't let a single person escape; if you do,
it's your life for his life." 25 When Jehu had finished with the
sacrificial solemnities, he signaled to the officers and guards, "Enter
and kill! No survivors!" 26 They hauled out the sacred phallic stone from
the temple of Baal and pulverized it. 27 They smashed the Baal altars and tore
down the Baal temple. It's been a public toilet ever since. 28 And that's the
story of Jehu's wasting of Baal in Israel. 29 But for all that, Jehu didn't
turn back from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, the sins that had dragged
Israel into a life of sin - the golden calves in Bethel and Dan stayed. 30 God
commended Jehu: "You did well to do what I saw was best. You did what I
ordered against the family of Ahab. As reward, your sons will occupy the throne
of Israel for four generations." 31 Even then, though, Jehu wasn't careful
to walk in God's ways and honor the God of Israel from an undivided heart. He didn't
turn back from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into a life of
sin. 32 It was about this time that God began to shrink Israel. Hazael hacked
away at the borders of Israel 33 from the Jordan to the east - all the
territory of Gilead, Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh from Aroer near the Brook Arnon.
In effect, all Gilead and Bashan. 34 The rest of the life and times of Jehu,
his accomplishments and fame, are written in The Chronicles of the Kings of
Israel. 35 Jehu died and was buried in the family plot in Samaria. His son
Jehoahaz was the next king. 36 Jehu ruled Israel from Samaria for twenty-eight
years.
2 Kings
11 (The Message)
1 Athaliah was
the mother of Ahaziah. When she saw that her son was dead, she took over. She
began by massacring the entire royal family. 2 But Jehosheba, daughter of King
Joram and sister of Ahaziah, took Ahaziah's son Joash and kidnapped him from
among the king's sons slated for slaughter. She hid him and his nurse in a
private room away from Athaliah. He didn't get killed. 3 He was there with her,
hidden away for six years in The Temple of God. Athaliah, oblivious to his
existence, ruled the country. 4 In the seventh year Jehoiada sent for the
captains of the bodyguards and the Palace Security Force. They met him in The Temple
of God. He made a covenant with them, swore them to secrecy, and only then
showed them the young prince. 5 Then he commanded them, "These are your
instructions: Those of you who come on duty on the Sabbath and guard the
palace, and those of you who go off duty on the Sabbath and guard The Temple of
God, are to join forces at the time of the changing of the guard and form a
ring around the young king, weapons at the ready. Kill anyone who tries to
break through your ranks. Your job is to stay with the king at all times and
places, coming and going." 6 7 8 9 The captains obeyed the orders of
Jehoiada the priest. Each took his men, those who came on duty on the Sabbath
and those who went off duty on the Sabbath, and presented them to Jehoiada the
priest. 10 The priest armed the officers with spears and shields originally
belonging to King David, stored in The Temple of God. 11 Well-armed, the guards
took up their assigned positions for protecting the king, from one end of The
Temple to the other, surrounding both Altar and Temple. 12 Then the priest
brought the prince into view, crowned him, handed him the scroll of God's
covenant, and made him king. As they anointed him, everyone applauded and
shouted, "Long live the king!" 13 Athaliah heard the shouting of
guards and people and came to the crowd gathered at The Temple of God. 14
Astonished, she saw the king standing beside the throne, flanked by the
captains and heralds, with everybody beside themselves with joy, trumpets
blaring. Athaliah ripped her robes in dismay and shouted, "Treason!
Treason!" 15 Jehoiada the priest ordered the military officers, "Drag
her outside and kill anyone who tries to follow her!" (The priest had
said, "Don't kill her inside The Temple of God.") 16 So they dragged
her out to the palace's horse corral; there they killed her. 17 Jehoiada now
made a covenant between God and the king and the people: They were God's
people. Another covenant was made between the king and the people. 18 The
people poured into the temple of Baal and tore it down, smashing altar and
images to smithereens. They killed Mattan the priest in front of the altar. 19
He arranged for the officers of the bodyguard and the palace security, along
with the people themselves, to escort the king down from The Temple of God
through the Gate of the Guards and into the palace. There he sat on the royal
throne. 20 Everybody celebrated the event. And the city was safe and
undisturbed - they had killed Athaliah with the royal sword. 21 Joash was seven
years old when he became king.
2 Kings
12 (The Message)
1 In the
seventh year of Jehu, Joash began his kingly rule. He was king for forty years
in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Gazelle. She was from Beersheba. 2 Taught
and trained by Jehoiada the priest, Joash did what pleased God for as long as
he lived. 3 (Even so, he didn't get rid of the sacred fertility shrines -
people still frequented them, sacrificing and burning incense.) 4 Joash
instructed the priests: "Take the money that is brought into The Temple of
God for holy offerings - both mandatory offerings and freewill offerings - 5
and, keeping a careful accounting, use them to renovate The Temple wherever it
has fallen into disrepair." 6 But by the twenty-third year of Joash's
rule, the priests hadn't done one thing - The Temple was as dilapidated as
ever. 7 King Joash called Jehoiada the priest and the company of priests and
said, "Why haven't you renovated this sorry-looking Temple? You are
forbidden to take any more money for Temple repairs - from now on, hand over
everything you get." 8 The priests agreed not to take any more money or to
be involved in The Temple renovation. 9 Then Jehoiada took a single chest and
bored a hole in the lid and placed it to the right of the main entrance into
The Temple of God. All the offerings that were brought to The Temple of God
were placed in the chest by the priests who guarded the entrance. 10 When they
saw that a large sum of money had accumulated in the chest, the king's
secretary and the chief priest would empty the chest and count the offerings.
11 They would give the money accounted for to the managers of The Temple
project; they in turn would pay the carpenters, construction workers, 12
masons, stoneworkers, and the buyers of timber and quarried stone for the
repair and renovation of The Temple of God - any expenses connected with fixing
up The Temple. 13 But none of the money brought into The Temple of God was used
for liturgical "extras" (silver chalices, candle snuffers, trumpets,
various gold and silver vessels, etc.). 14 It was given to the workmen to pay
for their repairing God's Temple. 15 And no one even had to check on the men
who handled the money given for the project - they were honest men. 16
Offerings designated for Compensation Offerings and Absolution Offerings didn't
go into the building project - those went directly to the priests. 17 Around
this time Hazael king of Aram ventured out and attacked Gath, and he captured
it. Then he decided to try for Jerusalem. 18 Joash king of Judah countered by
gathering up all the sacred memorials - gifts dedicated for holy use by his
ancestors, the kings of Judah, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, along with
the holy memorials he himself had received, plus all the gold that he could
find in the temple and palace storerooms - and sent it to Hazael king of Aram.
Appeased, Hazael went on his way and didn't bother Jerusalem. 19 The rest of
the life and times of Joash and all that he did are written in The Chronicles
of the Kings of Judah. 20 At the last his palace staff formed a conspiracy and
assassinated Joash as he was strolling along the ramp of the fortified outside
city wall. 21 Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer were the
assassins. And so Joash died and was buried in the family plot in the City of
David. His son Amaziah was king after him.
2 Kings
13 (The Message)
1 In the
twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu
became king of Israel in Samaria - a rule of seventeen years. 2 He lived an
evil life before God, walking step for step in the tracks of Jeroboam son of
Nebat who led Israel into a life of sin, swerving neither left or right. 3
Exasperated, God was furious with Israel and turned them over to Hazael king of
Aram and Ben-Hadad son of Hazael. This domination went on for a long time. 4
Then Jehoahaz prayed for a softening of God's anger, and God listened. He
realized how wretched Israel had become under the brutalities of the king of
Aram. 5 So God provided a savior for Israel who brought them out from under
Aram's oppression. The children of Israel were again able to live at peace in
their own homes. 6 But it didn't make any difference: They didn't change their
lives, didn't turn away from the Jeroboam-sins that now characterized Israel,
including the sex-and-religion shrines of Asherah still flourishing in Samaria.
7 Nothing was left of Jehoahaz's army after Hazael's oppression except for
fifty cavalry, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry. The king of Aram had
decimated the rest, leaving behind him mostly chaff. 8 The rest of the life and
times of Jehoahaz, the record of his accomplishments, are written in The
Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 9 Jehoahaz died and was buried with his
ancestors in Samaria. His son Jehoash succeeded him as king. 10 In the
thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz became king
of Israel in Samaria - a reign of sixteen years. 11 In God's eyes he lived an
evil life. He didn't deviate one bit from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat,
who led Israel into a life of sin. He plodded along in the same tracks, step
after step. 12 The rest of the life and times of Jehoash, the record of his
accomplishments and his war against Amaziah king of Judah, are written in The
Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 13 Jehoash died and joined his ancestors.
Jeroboam took over his throne. Jehoash was buried in Samaria in the royal
cemetery. 14 Elisha came down sick. It was the sickness of which he would soon
die. Jehoash king of Israel paid him a visit. When he saw him he wept openly,
crying, "My father, my father! Chariot and horsemen of Israel!" 15
Elisha told him, "Go and get a bow and some arrows." The king brought
him the bow and arrows. 16 Then he told the king, "Put your hand on the
bow." He put his hand on the bow. Then Elisha put his hand over the hand
of the king. 17 Elisha said, "Now open the east window." He opened
it. Then he said, "Shoot!" And he shot. "The arrow of God's
salvation!" exclaimed Elisha. "The arrow of deliverance from Aram!
You will do battle against Aram until there's nothing left of it." 18
"Now pick up the other arrows," said Elisha. He picked them up. Then
he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground." The king struck
the ground three times and then quit. 19 The Holy Man became angry with him:
"Why didn't you hit the ground five or six times? Then you would beat Aram
until he was finished. As it is, you'll defeat him three times only." 20
Then Elisha died and they buried him. 21 One day, some men were burying a man
and spotted the raiders. They threw the man into Elisha's tomb and got away.
When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came alive, stood up, and walked
out on his own two feet. 22 Hazael king of Aram badgered and bedeviled Israel
all through the reign of Jehoahaz. 23 But God was gracious and showed mercy to
them. He stuck with them out of respect for his covenant with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. He never gave up on them, never even considered discarding them,
even to this day. 24 Hazael king of Aram died. His son Ben-Hadad was the next
king. 25 Jehoash son of Jehoahaz turned things around and took back the cities
that Ben-Hadad son of Hazael had taken from his father Jehoahaz. Jehoash went
to war three times and defeated him each time, recapturing the cites of Israel.
2 Kings
14 (The Message)
1 In the
second year of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash
became king of Judah. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king and he
reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddin.
She was from Jerusalem. 3 He lived the way God wanted and did the right thing.
But he didn't come up to the standards of his ancestor David; instead he lived
pretty much as his father Joash had; 4 the local sex-and-religion shrines
continued to stay in business with people frequenting them. 5 When he had the
affairs of the kingdom well in hand, he executed the palace guard that had
assassinated his father the king. 6 But he didn't kill the sons of the
assassins. He was obedient to what God commanded, written in the Word revealed
to Moses, that parents shouldn't be executed for their children's sins, nor
children for those of their parents. We each pay personally for our sins. 7
Amaziah roundly defeated Edom in the Valley of Salt to the tune of ten thousand
dead. In another battle he took The Rock and renamed it Joktheel, the name it
still bears. 8 One day Amaziah sent envoys to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son
of Jehu, king of Israel, challenging him to a fight: "Come and meet with
me - I dare you. Let's have it out face to face!" 9 Jehoash king of Israel
replied to Amaziah king of Judah, "One day a thistle in Lebanon sent word
to a cedar in Lebanon, 'Give your daughter to my son in marriage.' But then a
wild animal of Lebanon passed by and stepped on the thistle, crushing it. 10
Just because you've defeated Edom in battle, you now think you're a big shot.
Go ahead and be proud, but stay home. Why press your luck? Why bring defeat on
yourself and Judah?" 11 Amaziah wouldn't take No for an answer. So Jehoash
king of Israel gave in and agreed to a battle between him and Amaziah king of
Judah. They met at Beth Shemesh, a town of Judah. 12 Judah was thoroughly beaten
by Israel - all their soldiers ran home in defeat. 13 Jehoash king of Israel
captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth
Shemesh. But Jehoash didn't stop there; he went on to attack Jerusalem. He
demolished the wall of Jerusalem all the way from the Ephraim Gate to the
Corner Gate - a stretch of about 600 feet. 14 He looted the gold, silver, and
furnishings - anything he found that was worth taking - from both the palace
and The Temple of God. And, for good measure, he took hostages. Then he
returned to Samaria. 15 The rest of the life and times of Jehoash, his
significant accomplishments and the fight with Amaziah king of Judah, are all
written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 16 Jehoash died and was
buried in Samaria in the cemetery of the kings of Israel. His son Jeroboam
became the next king. 17 Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah continued as king
fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. 18 The
rest of the life and times of Amaziah is written in The Chronicles of the Kings
of Judah. 19 At the last they cooked up a plot against Amaziah in Jerusalem and
he had to flee to Lachish. But they tracked him down in Lachish and killed him
there. 20 They brought him back on horseback and buried him in Jerusalem, with
his ancestors in the City of David. 21 Azariah - he was only sixteen years old
at the time - was the unanimous choice of the people of Judah to succeed his
father Amaziah as king. 22 Following his father's death, he rebuilt and
restored Elath to Judah. 23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king
of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash became king of Israel in Samaria. He ruled
for forty-one years. 24 As far as God was concerned he lived an evil life,
never deviating an inch from all the sin of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led
Israel into a life of sin. 25 But he did restore the borders of Israel to Lebo
Hamath in the far north and to the Dead Sea in the south, matching what God,
the God of Israel, had pronounced through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the
prophet from Gath Hepher. 26 God was fully aware of the trouble in Israel, its
bitterly hard times. No one was exempt, whether slave or citizen, and no hope
of help anywhere was in sight. 27 But God wasn't yet ready to blot out the name
of Israel from history, so he used Jeroboam son of Jehoash to save them. 28 The
rest of the life and times of Jeroboam, his victories in battle and how he
recovered for Israel both Damascus and Hamath which had belonged to Judah,
these are all written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 29 Jeroboam
died and was buried with his ancestors in the royal cemetery. His son Zechariah
became the next king.
2 Kings
15 (The Message)
1 In the
twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah became
king in Judah. 2 He was sixteen years old when he began his rule and he was
king for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah. She was
from Jerusalem. 3 He did well in the eyes of God, following in the footsteps of
his father Amaziah. 4 But he also failed to get rid of the local
sex-and-religion shrines; they continued to be popular with the people. 5 God
afflicted the king with a bad skin disease until the day of his death. He lived
in the palace but no longer acted as king; his son Jotham ran the government
and ruled the country. 6 The rest of the life and times of Azariah, everything
he accomplished, is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. 7 Azariah
died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. Jotham his son was
king after him. 8 In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah
son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in Samaria. He lasted only six months.
9 He lived a bad life before God, no different from his ancestors. He continued
in the line of Jeroboam son of Nebat who led Israel into a life of sin. 10
Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against him, assassinated him in public view,
and took over as king. 11 The rest of the life and times of Zechariah is
written plainly in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 12 That completed the
word of God that was given to Jehu, namely, "For four generations your
sons will sit on the throne of Israel." Zechariah was the fourth. 13
Shallum son of Jabesh became king in the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of
Judah. He was king in Samaria for only a month. 14 Menahem son of Gadi came up
from Tirzah to Samaria. He attacked Shallum son of Jabesh and killed him. He
then became king. 15 The rest of the life and times of Shallum and the account
of the conspiracy are written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 16
Using Tirzah as his base, Menahem opened his reign by smashing Tiphsah,
devastating both the town and its suburbs because they didn't welcome him with
open arms. He savagely ripped open all the pregnant women. 17 In the
thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem son of Gadi became king
over Israel. He ruled from Samaria for ten years. 18 As far as God was
concerned he lived an evil life. Sin for sin, he repeated the sins of Jeroboam
son of Nebat, who led Israel into a life of sin. 19 Then Tiglath-Pileser III
king of Assyria showed up and attacked the country. But Menahem made a deal
with him: He bought his support by handing over about thirty-seven tons of
silver. 20 He raised the money by making every landowner in Israel pay fifty
shekels to the king of Assyria. That satisfied the king of Assyria, and he left
the country. 21 The rest of the life and times of Menahem, everything he did,
is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 22 Menahem died and joined
his ancestors. His son Pekahiah became the next king. 23 In the fiftieth year
of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah son of Menahem became king of Israel. He
ruled in Samaria for two years. 24 In God's eyes he lived an evil life. He
stuck to the old sin tracks of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led Israel into a
life of sin. 25 And then his military aide Pekah son of Remaliah conspired
against him - killed him in cold blood while he was in his private quarters in
the royal palace in Samaria. He also killed Argob and Arieh. Fifty Gadites were
in on the conspiracy with him. After the murder he became the next king. 26 The
rest of the life and times of Pekahiah, everything he did, is written in The
Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 27 In the fifty-second year of Azariah king
of Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king of Israel in Samaria. He ruled for
twenty years. 28 In God's view he lived an evil life; he didn't deviate so much
as a hair's breadth from the path laid down by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who led
Israel into a life of sin. 29 During the reign of Pekah king of Israel,
Tiglath-Pileser III king of Assyria invaded the country. He captured Ijon, Abel
Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee - the whole country of Naphtali
- and took everyone captive to Assyria. 30 But then Hoshea son of Elah mounted
a conspiracy against Pekah son of Remaliah. He assassinated him and took over
as king. This was in the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah. 31 The rest of
the life and times of Pekah, everything he did, is written in The Chronicles of
the Kings of Israel. 32 In the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah king of
Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah became king in Judah. 33 He was twenty-five years
old when he became king and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's
name was Jerusha daughter of Zadok. 34 He acted well in God's eyes, following
in the steps of his father Uzziah. 35 But he didn't interfere with the traffic
to the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines; they continued, as popular as
ever. The construction of the High Gate to The Temple of God was his work. 36
The rest of the life and times of Jotham, the record of his work, is written in
The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. 37 It was during these years that God
began sending Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah to attack Judah. 38
Jotham died and joined his ancestors. They buried him in the family cemetery in
the City of David. His son Ahaz was the next king.
2 Kings
16 (The Message)
1 In the
seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of
Judah. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king and he ruled for sixteen
years in Jerusalem. He didn't behave in the eyes of his God; he wasn't at all
like his ancestor David. 3 Instead he followed in the track of the kings of
Israel. He even indulged in the outrageous practice of "passing his son
through the fire" - a truly abominable act he picked up from the pagans
God had earlier thrown out of the country. 4 He also participated in the
activities of the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that flourished all
over the place. 5 Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of
Israel ganged up against Jerusalem, throwing a siege around the city, but they
couldn't make further headway against Ahaz. 6 At about this same time and on
another front, the king of Edom recovered the port of Elath and expelled the
men of Judah. The Edomites occupied Elath and have been there ever since. 7
Ahaz sent envoys to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria with this message:
"I'm your servant and your son. Come and save me from the heavy-handed
invasion of the king of Aram and the king of Israel. They're attacking me right
now." 8 Then Ahaz robbed the treasuries of the palace and The Temple of
God of their gold and silver and sent them to the king of Assyria as a bribe. 9
The king of Assyria responded to him. He attacked and captured Damascus. He
deported the people to Nineveh as exiles. Rezin he killed. 10 King Ahaz went to
meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria in Damascus. The altar in Damascus made a
great impression on him. He sent back to Uriah the priest a drawing and set of
blueprints of the altar. 11 Uriah the priest built the altar to the
specifications that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. By the time the king
returned from Damascus, Uriah had completed the altar. 12 The minute the king
saw the altar he approached it with reverence and arranged a service of worship
with a full course of offerings: 13 Whole-Burnt-Offerings with billows of smoke,
Grain-Offerings, libations of Drink-Offerings, the sprinkling of blood from the
Peace-Offerings - the works. 14 But the old bronze Altar that signaled the
presence of God he displaced from its central place and pushed it off to the
side of his new altar. 15 Then King Ahaz ordered Uriah the priest: "From
now on offer all the sacrifices on the new altar, the great altar: morning
Whole-Burnt-Offerings, evening Grain-Offerings, the king's
Whole-Burnt-Offerings and Grain-Offerings, the people's Whole-Burnt-Offerings
and Grain-Offerings, and also their Drink-Offerings. Splash all the blood from
the burnt offerings and sacrifices against this altar. The old bronze Altar
will be for my personal use. 16 The priest Uriah followed King Ahaz's orders to
the letter. 17 Then King Ahaz proceeded to plunder The Temple furniture of all
its bronze. He stripped the bronze from The Temple furnishings, even salvaged
the four bronze oxen that supported the huge basin, The Sea, and set The Sea
unceremoniously on the stone pavement. 18 Finally, he removed any distinctive
features from within The Temple that were offensive to the king of Assyria. 19
The rest of the life and times of Ahaz is written in The Chronicles of the
Kings of Judah. 20 Ahaz died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of
David. His son Hezekiah became the next king.
2 Kings
17 (The Message)
1 In the
twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel.
He ruled in Samaria for nine years. 2 As far as God was concerned, he lived a
bad life, but not nearly as bad as the kings who had preceded him. 3 Then
Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked. Hoshea was already a puppet of the
Assyrian king and regularly sent him tribute, 4 but Shalmaneser discovered that
Hoshea had been operating traitorously behind his back - having worked out a
deal with King So of Egypt. And, adding insult to injury, Hoshea was way behind
on his annual payments of tribute to Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested
him and threw him in prison, 5 then proceeded to invade the entire country. He
attacked Samaria and threw up a siege against it. The siege lasted three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea's reign the king of Assyria captured Samaria and
took the people into exile in Assyria. He relocated them in Halah, in Gozan
along the Habor River, and in the towns of the Medes. 7 The exile came about
because of sin: The children of Israel sinned against God, their God, who had
delivered them from Egypt and the brutal oppression of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
They took up with other gods, 8 fell in with the ways of life of the pagan
nations God had chased off, and went along with whatever their kings did. 9
They did all kinds of things on the sly, things offensive to their God, then
openly and shamelessly built local sex-and-religion shrines at every available
site. 10 They set up their sex-and-religion symbols at practically every
crossroads. 11 Everywhere you looked there was smoke from their pagan offerings
to the deities - the identical offerings that had gotten the pagan nations off
into exile. They had accumulated a long list of evil actions and God was fed
up, 12 fed up with their persistent worship of gods carved out of deadwood or
shaped out of clay, even though God had plainly said, "Don't do this -
ever!" 13 God had taken a stand against Israel and Judah, speaking clearly
through countless holy prophets and seers time and time again, "Turn away
from your evil way of life. Do what I tell you and have been telling you in The
Revelation I gave your ancestors and of which I've kept reminding you ever
since through my servants the prophets." 14 But they wouldn't listen. If
anything, they were even more bullheaded than their stubborn ancestors, if
that's possible. 15 They were contemptuous of his instructions, the solemn and
holy covenant he had made with their ancestors, and of his repeated reminders
and warnings. They lived a "nothing" life and became
"nothings" - just like the pagan peoples all around them. They were
well-warned: God said, "Don't!" but they did it anyway. 16 They threw
out everything God, their God, had told them, and replaced him with two
statue-gods shaped like bull-calves and then a phallic pole for the whore
goddess Asherah. They worshiped cosmic forces - sky gods and goddesses - and
frequented the sex-and-religion shrines of Baal. 17 They even sank so low as to
offer their own sons and daughters as sacrificial burnt offerings! They
indulged in all the black arts of magic and sorcery. In short, they prostituted
themselves to every kind of evil available to them. And God had had enough. 18
God was so thoroughly angry that he got rid of them, got them out of the
country for good until only one tribe was left - Judah. 19 (Judah, actually,
wasn't much better, for Judah also failed to keep God's commands, falling into
the same way of life that Israel had adopted.) 20 God rejected everyone
connected with Israel, made life hard for them, and permitted anyone with a
mind to exploit them to do so. And then this final No as he threw them out of
his sight. 21 Back at the time that God ripped Israel out of their place in the
family of David, they had made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Jeroboam debauched
Israel - turned them away from serving God and led them into a life of total
sin. 22 The children of Israel went along with all the sins that Jeroboam did,
never murmured so much as a word of protest. 23 In the end, God spoke a final
No to Israel and turned his back on them. He had given them fair warning, and
plenty of time, through the preaching of all his servants the prophets. Then he
exiled Israel from her land to Assyria. And that's where they are now. 24 The
king of Assyria brought in people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and
Sepharvaim, and relocated them in the towns of Samaria, replacing the exiled
Israelites. They moved in as if they owned the place and made themselves at
home. 25 When the Assyrians first moved in, God was just another god to them;
they neither honored nor worshiped him. Then God sent lions among them and
people were mauled and killed. 26 This message was then sent back to the king
of Assyria: "The people you brought in to occupy the towns of Samaria
don't know what's expected of them from the god of the land, and now he's sent
lions and they're killing people right and left because nobody knows what the
god of the land expects of them." 27 The king of Assyria ordered,
"Send back some priests who were taken into exile from there. They can go
back and live there and instruct the people in what the god of the land expects
of them." 28 One of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came back
and moved into Bethel. He taught them how to honor and worship God. 29 But each
people that Assyria had settled went ahead anyway making its own gods and
setting them up in the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that the citizens
of Samaria had left behind - a local custom-made god for each people: 30 for
Babylon, Succoth Benoth; for Cuthah, Nergal; for Hamath, Ashima; 31 for Avva,
Nibhaz and Tartak; for Sepharvaim, Adrammelech and Anammelech (people burned
their children in sacrificial offerings to these gods!). 32 They honored and
worshiped God, but not exclusively - they also appointed all sorts of priests,
regardless of qualification, to conduct a variety of rites at the local
fertility shrines. 33 They honored and worshiped God, but they also kept up
their devotions to the old gods of the places they had come from. 34 And
they're still doing it, still worshiping any old god that has nostalgic appeal
to them. They don't really worship God - they don't take seriously what he says
regarding how to behave and what to believe, what he revealed to the children
of Jacob whom he named Israel. 35 God made a covenant with his people and
ordered them, "Don't honor other gods: Don't worship them, don't serve them,
don't offer sacrifices to them. 36 Worship God, the God who delivered you from
Egypt in great and personal power. Reverence and fear him. Worship him.
Sacrifice to him. And only him! 37 All the things he had written down for you,
directing you in what to believe and how to behave - well, do them for as long
as you live. And whatever you do, don't worship other gods! 38 And the covenant
he made with you, don't forget your part in that. And don't worship other gods!
39 Worship God, and God only - he's the one who will save your from enemy
oppression." 40 But they didn't pay any attention. They kept doing what
they'd always done. 41 As it turned out, all the time these people were putting
on a front of worshiping God, they were at the same time involved with their
local idols. And they're still doing it. Like father, like son.
2 Kings 18 (The Message)
1 In the third
year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz began his rule
over Judah. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king and he ruled for
twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of
Zechariah. 3 In God's opinion he was a good king; he kept to the standards of
his ancestor David. 4 He got rid of the local fertility shrines, smashed the
phallic stone monuments, and cut down the sex-and-religion Asherah groves. As a
final stroke he pulverized the ancient bronze serpent that Moses had made; at
that time the Israelites had taken up the practice of sacrificing to it - they
had even dignified it with a name, Nehushtan (The Old Serpent). 5 Hezekiah put
his whole trust in the God of Israel. There was no king quite like him, either
before or after. 6 He held fast to God - never loosened his grip - and obeyed
to the letter everything God had commanded Moses. 7 And God, for his part, held
fast to him through all his adventures. 8 And he drove back the Philistines,
whether in sentry outposts or fortress cities, all the way to Gaza and its
borders. 9 In the fourth year of Hezekiah and the seventh year of Hoshea son of
Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked Samaria. He threw a
siege around it 10 and after three years captured it. It was in the sixth year
of Hezekiah and the ninth year of Hoshea that Samaria fell to Assyria. 11 The
king of Assyria took Israel into exile and relocated them in Halah, in Gozan on
the Habor River, and in towns of the Medes. 12 All this happened because they
wouldn't listen to the voice of their God and treated his covenant with
careless contempt. They refused either to listen or do a word of what Moses,
the servant of God, commanded. 13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah,
Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the outlying fortress cities of Judah
and captured them. 14 King Hezekiah sent a message to the king of Assyria at
his headquarters in Lachish: "I've done wrong; I admit it. Pull back your
army; I'll pay whatever tribute you set." 15 Hezekiah turned over all the
silver he could find in The Temple of God and in the palace treasuries. 16
Hezekiah even took down the doors of The Temple of God and the doorposts that
he had overlaid with gold and gave them to the king of Assyria. 17 So the king
of Assyria sent his top three military chiefs (the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and
the Rabshakeh) from Lachish with a strong military force to King Hezekiah in
Jerusalem. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they stopped at the aqueduct of the
Upper Pool on the road to the laundry commons. 18 They called loudly for the
king. Eliakim son of Hilkiah who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the royal
secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the court historian went out to meet them. 19
The third officer, the Rabshakeh, was spokesman. He said, "Tell Hezekiah:
A message from The Great King, the king of Assyria: You're living in a world of
make-believe, of pious fantasy. 20 Do you think that mere words are any
substitute for military strategy and troops? Now that you've revolted against
me, who can you expect to help you? 21 You thought Egypt would, but Egypt's
nothing but a paper tiger - one puff of wind and she collapses; Pharaoh king of
Egypt is nothing but bluff and bluster. 22 Or are you going to tell me, 'We
rely on God'? But Hezekiah has just eliminated most of the people's access to
God by getting rid of all the local God-shrines, ordering everyone in Judah and
Jerusalem, 'You must worship at the Jerusalem altar only.' 23 "So be
reasonable. Make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I'll give you two
thousand horses if you think you can provide riders for them. 24 You can't do
it? Well, then, how do you think you're going to turn back even one raw buck
private from my master's troops? How long are you going to hold on to that
figment of your imagination, these hoped-for Egyptian chariots and horses? 25
"Do you think I've come up here to destroy this country without the
express approval of God? The fact is that God expressly ordered me, 'Attack and
destroy this country!'" 26 Eliakim son of Hilkiah and Shebna and Joah said
to the Rabshakeh, "Please, speak to us in the Aramaic language. We
understand Aramaic. Don't speak in Hebrew - everyone crowded on the city wall
can hear you." 27 But the Rabshakeh said, "We weren't sent with a
private message to your master and you; this is public - a message to everyone
within earshot. After all, they're involved in this as well as you; if you
don't come to terms, they'll be eating their own turds and drinking their own
pee right along with you." 28 Then he stepped forward and spoke in Hebrew
loud enough for everyone to hear, "Listen carefully to the words of The
Great King, the king of Assyria: 29 Don't let Hezekiah fool you; he can't save
you. 30 And don't let Hezekiah give you that line about trusting in God,
telling you, 'God will save us - this city will never be abandoned to the king
of Assyria.' 31 Don't listen to Hezekiah - he doesn't know what he's talking
about. Listen to the king of Assyria - deal with me and live the good life;
I'll guarantee everyone your own plot of ground - a garden and a well! 32 I'll
take you to a land sweeter by far than this one, a land of grain and wine,
bread and vineyards, olive orchards and honey. You only live once - so live,
really live! 33 Has there ever been a god anywhere who delivered anyone from
the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the
gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? And Samaria - did their gods save them? 35
Can you name a god who saved anyone anywhere from me, the king of Assyria? So
what makes you think that God can save Jerusalem from me?" 36 The people
were silent. No one spoke a word for the king had ordered, "Don't anyone
say a word - not one word!" 37 Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace
administrator, and Shebna the royal secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the court
historian went back to Hezekiah. They had ripped their robes in despair; they
reported to Hezekiah the speech of the Rabshakeh.
2 Kings
19 (The Message)
1 When
Hezekiah heard it all, he too ripped his robes apart and dressed himself in
rough burlap. Then he went into The Temple of God. 2 He sent Eliakim, who was
in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all of
them dressed in rough burlap, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. 3 They said to
him, "A message from Hezekiah: 'This is a black day, a terrible day -
doomsday! Babies poised to be born, No strength to birth them. 4 "'Maybe
God, your God, has been listening to the blasphemous speech of the Rabshakeh
who was sent by the king of Assyria, his master, to humiliate the living God;
maybe God, your God, won't let him get by with such talk; and you, maybe you
will lift up prayers for what's left of these people.'" 5 That's the
message King Hezekiah's servants delivered to Isaiah. 6 Isaiah answered them,
"Tell your master, 'God's word: Don't be at all concerned about what
you've heard from the king of Assyria's bootlicking errand boys - these
outrageous blasphemies. 7 Here's what I'm going to do: Afflict him with
self-doubt. He's going to hear a rumor and, frightened for his life, retreat to
his own country. Once there, I'll see to it that he gets killed.'" 8 The
Rabshakeh left and found that the king of Assyria had pulled up stakes from
Lachish and was now fighting against Libnah. 9 Then Sennacherib heard that
Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to fight against him. So he sent another
envoy with orders to deliver this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: 10
"Don't let that god that you think so much of keep stringing you along
with the line, 'Jerusalem will never fall to the king of Assyria.' That's a
barefaced lie. 11 You know the track record of the kings of Assyria - country
after country laid waste, devastated. And what makes you think you'll be an
exception? 12 Take a good look at these wasted nations, destroyed by my
ancestors; did their gods do them any good? Look at Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, the
people of Eden at Tel Assar. Ruins. 13 And what's left of the king of Hamath,
the king of Arpad, the king of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah? Bones." 14
Hezekiah took the letter from the envoy and read it. He went to The Temple of
God and spread it out before God. 15 And Hezekiah prayed - oh, how he prayed!
God, God of Israel, seated in majesty on the cherubim-throne. You are the one
and only God, sovereign over all kingdoms on earth, Maker of heaven, maker of
earth. 16 Open your ears, God, and listen, open your eyes and look. Look at
this letter Sennacherib has sent, a brazen insult to the living God! 17 The
facts are true, O God: The kings of Assyria have laid waste countries and
kingdoms. 18 Huge bonfires they made of their gods, their no-gods hand-made
from wood and stone. 19 But now O God, our God, save us from raw Assyrian
power; Make all the kingdoms on earth know that you are God, the one and only
God. 20 It wasn't long before Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah: 21 This
is my response to him: The Virgin Daughter of Zion holds you in utter contempt;
Daughter Jerusalem thinks you're nothing but scum. 22 Who do you think it is
you've insulted? Who do you think you've been bad-mouthing? Before whom do you
suppose you've been strutting? The Holy One of Israel, that's who! 23 You
dispatched your errand boys to humiliate the Master. You bragged, "With my
army of chariots I've climbed the highest mountains, snow-peaked alpine Lebanon
mountains! I've cut down its giant cedars, chopped down its prize pine trees.
I've traveled the world, visited the finest forest retreats. 24 I've dug wells
in faraway places and drunk their exotic waters; I've waded and splashed barefoot
in the rivers of Egypt." 25 Did it never occur to you that I'm behind all
this? Long, long ago I drew up the plans, and now I've gone into action, Using
you as a doomsday weapon, reducing proud cities to piles of rubble, 26 Leaving
their people dispirited, slumped shoulders, limp souls. Useless as weeds,
fragile as grass, insubstantial as wind-blown chaff. 27 I know when you sit
down, when you come and when you go; And, yes, I've marked every one of your
temper tantrums against me. 28 It's because of your temper, your blasphemous
foul temper, That I'm putting my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth And
turning you back to where you came from. 29 And this, Hezekiah, will be for you
the confirming sign: This year you'll eat the gleanings, next year whatever you
can beg, borrow, or steal; But the third year you'll sow and harvest, plant
vineyards and eat grapes. 30 A remnant of the family of Judah yet again will
sink down roots and raise up fruit. 31 The remnant will come from Jerusalem,
the survivors from Mount Zion. The Zeal of God will make it happen. 32 To sum
up, this is what God says regarding the king of Assyria: He won't enter this
city, nor shoot so much as a single arrow there; Won't brandish a shield, won't
even begin to set siege; 33 He'll go home by the same road he came; he won't
enter this city. God's word! 34 I'll shield this city, I'll save this city, for
my sake and for David's sake. 35 And it so happened that that very night an
angel of God came and massacred a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians.
When the people of Jerusalem got up next morning, there it was - a whole camp
of corpses! 36 Sennacherib king of Assyria got out of there fast, headed
straight home for Nineveh, and stayed put. 37 One day when he was worshiping in
the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer murdered him
and then escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon became the next
king.
2 Kings
20 (The Message)
1 Some time
later Hezekiah became deathly sick. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz paid him a
visit and said, "Put your affairs in order; you're about to die - you
haven't long to live." 2 Hezekiah turned from Isaiah and faced God,
praying: 3 Remember, O God, who I am, what I've done! I've lived an honest life
before you, My heart's been true and steady, I've lived to please you; lived
for your approval. And then the tears flowed. Hezekiah wept. 4 Isaiah, leaving,
was not halfway across the courtyard when the word of God stopped him: 5
"Go back and tell Hezekiah, prince of my people, 'God's word, Hezekiah!
From the God of your ancestor David: I've listened to your prayer and I've
observed your tears. I'm going to heal you. In three days you will walk on your
own legs into The Temple of God. 6 I've just added fifteen years to your life; I'm
saving you from the king of Assyria, and I'm covering this city with my shield
- for my sake and my servant David's sake.'" 7 Isaiah then said,
"Prepare a plaster of figs." They prepared the plaster, applied it to
the boil, and Hezekiah was on his way to recovery. 8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah,
"How do I know whether this is of God and not just the fig plaster? What
confirming sign is there that God is healing me and that in three days I'll
walk into The Temple of God on my own legs?" 9 "This will be your sign
from God," said Isaiah, "that God is doing what he said he'd do: Do
you want the shadow to advance ten degrees on the sundial or go back ten
degrees? You choose." 10 Hezekiah said, "It would be easy to make the
sun's shadow advance ten degrees. Make it go back ten degrees." 11 So
Isaiah called out in prayer to God, and the shadow went back ten degrees on
Ahaz's sundial. 12 Shortly after this, Merodach-Baladan, the son of Baladan
king of Babylon, having heard that the king was sick, sent a get-well card and
a gift to Hezekiah. 13 Hezekiah was pleased and showed the messengers around
the place - silver, gold, spices, aromatic oils, his stockpile of weapons - a
guided tour of all his prized possessions. There wasn't a thing in his palace
or kingdom that Hezekiah didn't show them. 14 And then Isaiah the prophet
showed up: "And just what were these men doing here? Where did they come
from and why?" Hezekiah said, "They came from far away - from
Babylon." 15 "And what did they see in your palace?"
"Everything," said Hezekiah. "There isn't anything I didn't show
them - I gave them the grand tour." 16 Then Isaiah spoke to Hezekiah,
"Listen to what God has to say about this: 17 The day is coming when
everything you own and everything your ancestors have passed down to you, right
down to the last cup and saucer, will be cleaned out of here - plundered and
packed off to Babylon. God's word! 18 Worse yet, your sons, the progeny of sons
you've begotten, will end up as eunuchs in the palace of the king of
Babylon." 19 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "If God says it, it must be
good." But he was thinking to himself, "It won't happen during my
lifetime - I'll enjoy peace and security as long as I live." 20 The rest
of the life and times of Hezekiah, along with his projects, especially the way
he engineered the Upper Pool and brought water into the city, are written in
The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. 21 Hezekiah died and was buried with his
ancestors. His son Manasseh became the next king.
2 Kings
21 (The Message)
1 Manasseh was
twelve years old when he became king. He ruled for fifty-five years in
Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. 2 In God's judgment he was a bad
king - an evil king. He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption
that had been scoured from the country when God dispossessed the pagan nations
in favor of the children of Israel. 3 He rebuilt all the sex-and-religion
shrines that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he built altars and phallic
images for the sex god Baal and sex goddess Asherah, exactly what Ahaz king of
Israel had done. He worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the
constellations. 4 He even built these pagan altars in The Temple of God, the
very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by God's decree ("in Jerusalem
I place my Name") to God's Name. 5 And he built shrines to the cosmic
powers and placed them in both courtyards of The Temple of God. 6 He burned his
own son in a sacrificial offering. He practiced black magic and fortunetelling.
He held sŽances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil - in God's
judgment, a career in evil. And God was angry. 7 As a last straw he placed the
carved image of the sex goddess Asherah in The Temple of God, a flagrant and
provocative violation of God's well-known statement to both David and Solomon,
"In this Temple and in this city Jerusalem, my choice out of all the
tribes of Israel, I place my Name - exclusively and forever. 8 Never again will
I let my people Israel wander off from this land I gave to their ancestors. But
here's the condition: They must keep everything I've commanded in the
instructions my servant Moses passed on to them." 9 But the people didn't
listen. Manasseh led them off the beaten path into practices of evil even
exceeding the evil of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed. 10 God,
thoroughly fed up, sent word through his servants the prophets: 11
"Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these outrageous sins,
eclipsing the sin-performance of the Amorites before him, setting new records
in evil, using foul idols to debase Judah into a nation of sinners, 12 this is
my judgment, God's verdict: I, the God of Israel, will visit catastrophe on
Jerusalem and Judah, a doom so terrible that when people hear of it they'll
shake their heads in disbelief, saying, 'I can't believe it!' 13 "I'll
visit the fate of Samaria on Jerusalem, a rerun of Ahab's doom. I'll wipe out
Jerusalem as you would wipe out a dish, wiping it out and turning it over to
dry. 14 I'll get rid of what's left of my inheritance, dumping them on their
enemies. If their enemies can salvage anything from them, they're welcome to
it. 15 They've been nothing but trouble to me from the day their ancestors left
Egypt until now. They pushed me to my limit; I won't put up with their evil any
longer." 16 The final word on Manasseh was that he was an indiscriminate
murderer. He drenched Jerusalem with the innocent blood of his victims. That's
on top of all the sins in which he involved his people. As far as God was
concerned, he'd turned them into a nation of sinners. 17 The rest of the life
and times of Manasseh, everything he did and his sorry record of sin, is
written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. 18 Manasseh died and joined
his ancestors. He was buried in the palace garden, the Garden of Uzza. His son
Amon became the next king. 19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became
king. He was king for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was
Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz. She was from Jotbah. 20 In God's opinion
he lived an evil life, just like his father Manasseh. 21 He followed in the
footsteps of his father, serving and worshiping the same foul gods his father
had served. 22 He totally deserted the God of his ancestors; he did not live
God's way. 23 Amon's servants revolted and assassinated him, killing the king
right in his own palace. 24 But the people, in their turn, killed the
conspirators against King Amon and then crowned Josiah, Amon's son, as king. 25
The rest of the life and times of Amon is written in The Chronicles of the
Kings of Judah. 26 They buried Amon in his burial plot in the Garden of Uzza.
His son Josiah became the next king.
2 Kings
22 (The Message)
1 Josiah was
eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in
Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from
Bozkath. 2 He lived the way God wanted. He kept straight on the path blazed by
his ancestor David, not one step to either left or right. 3 One day in the
eighteenth year of his kingship, King Josiah sent the royal secretary Shaphan
son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to The Temple of God with instructions: 4
"Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money that has been
brought to The Temple of God that the doormen have collected from the people. 5
Have them turn it over to the foremen who are managing the work on The Temple
of God so they can pay the workers who are repairing God's Temple, 6 all the
carpenters, construction workers, and masons. Also, authorize them to buy the
lumber and dressed stone for The Temple repairs. 7 You don't need to get a
receipt for the money you give them - they're all honest men." 8 The high
priest Hilkiah reported to Shaphan the royal secretary, "I've just found
the Book of God's Revelation, instructing us in God's ways. I found it in The
Temple!" He gave it to Shaphan and Shaphan read it. 9 Then Shaphan the
royal secretary came back to the king and gave him an account of what had gone
on: "Your servants have bagged up the money that has been collected for The
Temple; they have given it to the foremen to pay The Temple workers." 10
Then Shaphan the royal secretary told the king, "Hilkiah the priest gave
me a book." Shaphan proceeded to read it to the king. 11 When the king
heard what was written in the book, God's Revelation, he ripped his robes in
dismay. 12 And then he called for Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan,
Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the royal secretary, and Asaiah the king's
personal aide. He ordered them all: 13 "Go and pray to God for me and for
this people - for all Judah! Find out what we must do in response to what is
written in this book that has just been found! God's anger must be burning
furiously against us - our ancestors haven't obeyed a thing written in this
book, followed none of the instructions directed to us." 14 Hilkiah the
priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went straight to Huldah the
prophetess. She was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, who
was in charge of the palace wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second
Quarter. The five men consulted with her. 15 In response to them she said,
"God's word, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you here 16 that I'm
on my way to bring the doom of judgment on this place and this people. Every word
written in the book read by the king of Judah will happen. 17 And why? Because
they've deserted me and taken up with other gods, made me thoroughly angry by
setting up their god-making businesses. My anger is raging white-hot against
this place and nobody is going to put it out. 18 "And also tell the king
of Judah, since he sent you to ask God for direction; tell him this, God's
comment on what he read in the book: 19 'Because you took seriously the doom of
judgment I spoke against this place and people, and because you responded in
humble repentance, tearing your robe in dismay and weeping before me, I'm
taking you seriously. God's word: 20 I'll take care of you. You'll have a quiet
death and be buried in peace. You won't be around to see the doom that I'm going
to bring upon this place.'" The men took her message back to the king.
2 Kings
23 (The Message)
1 The king
acted immediately, assembling all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Then the
king proceeded to The Temple of God, bringing everyone in his train - priests
and prophets and people ranging from the famous to the unknown. Then he read
out publicly everything written in the Book of the Covenant that was found in
The Temple of God. 3 The king stood by the pillar and before God solemnly
committed them all to the covenant: to follow God believingly and obediently;
to follow his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to put
into practice the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The people
stood in affirmation; their commitment was unanimous. 4 Then the king ordered
Hilkiah the high priest, his associate priest, and The Temple sentries to clean
house - to get rid of everything in The Temple of God that had been made for
worshiping Baal and Asherah and the cosmic powers. He had them burned outside
Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and then disposed of the ashes in Bethel. 5
He fired the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had hired to supervise the
local sex-and-religion shrines in the towns of Judah and neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
In a stroke he swept the country clean of the polluting stench of the
round-the-clock worship of Baal, sun and moon, stars - all the so-called cosmic
powers. 6 He took the obscene phallic Asherah pole from The Temple of God to
the Valley of Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it up, then ground up the ashes
and scattered them in the cemetery. 7 He tore out the rooms of the male sacred
prostitutes that had been set up in The Temple of God; women also used these
rooms for weavings for Asherah. 8 He swept the outlying towns of Judah clean of
priests and smashed the sex-and-religion shrines where they worked their trade
from one end of the country to the other - all the way from Geba to Beersheba.
He smashed the sex-and-religion shrine that had been set up just to the left of
the city gate for the private use of Joshua, the city mayor. 9 Even though
these sex-and-religion priests did not defile the Altar in The Temple itself,
they were part of the general priestly corruption and had to go. 10 Then Josiah
demolished the Topheth, the iron furnace griddle set up in the Valley of Ben
Hinnom for sacrificing children in the fire. No longer could anyone burn son or
daughter to the god Molech. 11 He hauled off the horse statues honoring the sun
god that the kings of Judah had set up near the entrance to The Temple. They
were in the courtyard next to the office of Nathan-Melech, the warden. He
burned up the sun-chariots as so much rubbish. 12 The king smashed all the
altars to smithereens - the altar on the roof shrine of Ahaz, the various
altars the kings of Judah had made, the altars of Manasseh that littered the
courtyard of The Temple - he smashed them all, pulverized the fragments, and
scattered their dust in the Valley of Kidron. 13 The king proceeded to make a clean
sweep of all the sex-and-religion shrines that had proliferated east of
Jerusalem on the south slope of Abomination Hill, the ones Solomon king of
Israel had built to the obscene Sidonian sex goddess Ashtoreth, to Chemosh the
dirty-old-god of the Moabites, and to Milcom the depraved god of the Ammonites.
14 He tore apart the altars, chopped down the phallic Asherah-poles, and
scattered old bones over the sites. 15 Next, he took care of the altar at the
shrine in Bethel that Jeroboam son of Nebat had built - the same Jeroboam who
had led Israel into a life of sin. He tore apart the altar, burned down the
shrine leaving it in ashes, and then lit fire to the phallic Asherah-pole. 16
As Josiah looked over the scene, he noticed the tombs on the hillside. He ordered
the bones removed from the tombs and had them cremated on the ruined altars,
desacralizing the evil altars. This was a fulfillment of the word of God spoken
by the Holy Man years before when Jeroboam had stood by the altar at the sacred
convocation. 17 Then the king said, "And that memorial stone - whose is
that?" The men from the city said, "That's the grave of the Holy Man
who spoke the message against the altar at Bethel that you have just
fulfilled." 18 Josiah said, "Don't trouble his bones." So they
left his bones undisturbed, along with the bones of the prophet from Samaria.
19 But Josiah hadn't finished. He now moved through all the towns of Samaria
where the kings of Israel had built neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines,
shrines that had so angered God. He tore the shrines down and left them in
ruins - just as at Bethel. 20 He killed all the priests who had conducted the
sacrifices and cremated them on their own altars, thus desacralizing the
altars. Only then did Josiah return to Jerusalem. 21 The king now commanded the
people, "Celebrate the Passover to God, your God, exactly as directed in
this Book of the Covenant." 22 This commanded Passover had not been
celebrated since the days that the judges judged Israel - none of the kings of
Israel and Judah had celebrated it. 23 But in the eighteenth year of the rule
of King Josiah this very Passover was celebrated to God in Jerusalem. 24 Josiah
scrubbed the place clean and trashed spirit-mediums, sorcerers, domestic gods,
and carved figures - all the vast accumulation of foul and obscene relics and
images on display everywhere you looked in Judah and Jerusalem. Josiah did this
in obedience to the words of God's Revelation written in the book that Hilkiah
the priest found in The Temple of God. 25 There was no king to compare with
Josiah - neither before nor after - a king who turned in total and repentant
obedience to God, heart and mind and strength, following the instructions
revealed to and written by Moses. The world would never again see a king like
Josiah. 26 But despite Josiah, God's hot anger did not cool; the raging anger
ignited by Manasseh burned unchecked. 27 And God, not swerving in his judgment,
gave sentence: "I'll remove Judah from my presence in the same way I
removed Israel. I'll turn my back on this city, Jerusalem, that I chose, and
even from this Temple of which I said, 'My Name lives here.'" 28 The rest
of the life and times of Josiah is written in The Chronicles of the Kings of
Judah. 29 Josiah's death came about when Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched out
to join forces with the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. When King
Josiah intercepted him at the Plain of Megiddo, Neco killed him. 30 Josiah's
servants took his body in a chariot, returned him to Jerusalem, and buried him in
his own tomb. By popular choice Jehoahaz son of Josiah was anointed and
succeeded his father as king. 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he
began to rule. He was king in Jerusalem for a mere three months. His mother's
name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah. She came from Libnah. 32 In God's
opinion, he was an evil king, reverting to the evil ways of his ancestors. 33
Pharaoh Neco captured Jehoahaz at Riblah in the country of Hamath and put him
in chains, preventing him from ruling in Jerusalem. He demanded that Judah pay
tribute of nearly four tons of silver and seventy-five pounds of gold. 34 Then
Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah the successor to Josiah, but changed
his name to Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz was carted off to Egypt and eventually died
there. 35 Meanwhile Jehoiakim, like a good puppet, dutifully paid out the
silver and gold demanded by Pharaoh. He scraped up the money by gouging the
people, making everyone pay an assessed tax. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years
old when he began to rule; he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem. His
mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah. She had come from Rumah. 37 In
God's opinion he was an evil king, picking up on the evil ways of his
ancestors.
2 Kings
24 (The Message)
1 It was
during his reign that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the country.
Jehoiakim became his puppet. But after three years he had had enough and
revolted. 2 God dispatched a succession of raiding bands against him:
Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite. The strategy was to destroy Judah.
Through the preaching of his servants and prophets, God had said he would do
this, and now he was doing it. 3 None of this was by chance - it was God's
judgment as he turned his back on Judah because of the enormity of the sins of
Manasseh - Manasseh, the killer-king, 4 who made the Jerusalem streets flow
with the innocent blood of his victims. God wasn't about to overlook such
crimes. 5 The rest of the life and times of Jehoiakim is written in The
Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. 6 Jehoiakim died and was buried with his
ancestors. His son Jehoiachin became the next king. 7 The threat from Egypt was
now over - no more invasions by the king of Egypt - for by this time the king
of Babylon had captured all the land between the Brook of Egypt and the
Euphrates River, land formerly controlled by the king of Egypt. 8 Jehoiachin
was eighteen years old when he became king. His rule in Jerusalem lasted only
three months. His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from
Jerusalem. 9 In God's opinion he also was an evil king, no different from his
father. 10 The next thing to happen was that the officers of Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon attacked Jerusalem and put it under siege. 11 While his
officers were laying siege to the city, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon paid a
personal visit. 12 And Jehoiachin king of Judah, along with his mother,
officers, advisors, and government leaders, surrendered. 13 Nebuchadnezzar
emptied the treasuries of both The Temple of God and the royal palace and
confiscated all the gold furnishings that Solomon king of Israel had made for
The Temple of God. This should have been no surprise - God had said it would
happen. 14 And then he emptied Jerusalem of people - all its leaders and
soldiers, all its craftsmen and artisans. He took them into exile, something
like ten thousand of them! The only ones he left were the very poor. 15 He took
Jehoiachin into exile to Babylon. With him he took the king's mother, his
wives, his chief officers, the community leaders, 16 anyone who was anybody -
in round numbers, seven thousand soldiers plus another thousand or so craftsmen
and artisans, all herded off into exile in Babylon. 17 Then the king of Babylon
made Jehoiachin's uncle, Mattaniah, his puppet king, but changed his name to
Zedekiah. 18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he started out as king. He
was king in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal the
daughter of Jeremiah. Her hometown was Libnah. 19 As far as God was concerned
Zedekiah was just one more evil king, a carbon copy of Jehoiakim. 20 The source
of all this doom to Jerusalem and Judah was God's anger - God turned his back
on them as an act of judgment. And then Zedekiah revolted against the king of
Babylon.
2 Kings
25 (The Message)
1 The revolt dates from the ninth year and tenth
month of Zedekiah's reign. Nebuchadnezzar set out for Jerusalem immediately
with a full army. He set up camp and sealed off the city by building siege
mounds around it. 2 The city was under siege for nineteen months (until the
eleventh year of Zedekiah). 3 By the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year,
on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so bad that there wasn't so much
as a crumb of bread for anyone. 4 Then there was a breakthrough. At night,
under cover of darkness, the entire army escaped through an opening in the wall
(it was the gate between the two walls above the King's Garden). They slipped
through the lines of the Babylonians who surrounded the city and headed for the
Jordan on the Arabah Valley road. 5 But the Babylonians were in pursuit of the
king and they caught up with him in the Plains of Jericho. By then Zedekiah's
army had deserted and was scattered. 6 The Babylonians took Zedekiah prisoner
and marched him off to the king of Babylon at Riblah, then tried and sentenced
him on the spot. 7 Zedekiah's sons were executed right before his eyes; the
summary murder of his sons was the last thing he saw, for they then blinded
him. Securely handcuffed, he was hauled off to Babylon. 8 In the nineteenth
year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, on the seventh day of the fifth month,
Nebuzaradan, the king of Babylon's chief deputy, arrived in Jerusalem. 9 He
burned The Temple of God to the ground, went on to the royal palace, and then
finished off the city - burned the whole place down. 10 He put the Babylonian
troops he had with him to work knocking down the city walls. 11 Finally, he
rounded up everyone left in the city, including those who had earlier deserted
to the king of Babylon, and took them off into exile. 12 He left a few poor
dirt farmers behind to tend the vineyards and what was left of the fields. 13
The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the bronze washstands, and the
huge bronze basin (the Sea) that were in The Temple of God and hauled the
bronze off to Babylon. 14 They also took the various bronze-crafted liturgical
accessories used in the services of Temple worship, 15 as well as the gold and
silver censers and sprinkling bowls. The king's deputy didn't miss a thing - he
took every scrap of precious metal he could find. 16 The amount of bronze they
got from the two pillars, the Sea, and all the washstands that Solomon had made
for The Temple of God was enormous - they couldn't weigh it all! 17 Each pillar
stood twenty-seven feet high, plus another four and a half feet for an ornate
capital of bronze filigree and decorative fruit. 18 The king's deputy took a
number of special prisoners: Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the associate
priest, three wardens, 19 the chief remaining army officer, five of the king's
counselors, the accountant, the chief recruiting officer for the army, and
sixty men of standing from among the people. 20 Nebuzaradan the king's deputy
marched them all off to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 21 And there at Riblah,
in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold
blood. Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land. 22 Regarding the common
people who were left behind in Judah, this: Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as their governor. 23
When veteran army officers among the people heard that the king of Babylon had
appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Among them were Ishmael
son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the
Netophathite, Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, and some of their followers.
24 Gedaliah assured the officers and their men, giving them his word,
"Don't be afraid of the Babylonian officials. Go back to your farms and
families and respect the king of Babylon. Trust me, everything is going to be
all right." 25 Some time later - it was in the seventh month - Ishmael son
of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama (he had royal blood in him), came back with
ten men and killed Gedaliah, the traitor Jews, and the Babylonian officials who
were stationed at Mizpah - a bloody massacre. 26 But then, afraid of what the
Babylonians would do, they all took off for Egypt, leaders and people, small
and great. 27 When Jehoiachin king of Judah had been in exile for thirty-seven
years, Evil-Merodach became king in Babylon and let Jehoiachin out of prison.
This release took place on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. 28 The
king treated him most courteously and gave him preferential treatment beyond
anything experienced by the other political prisoners held in Babylon. 29
Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and for the rest of his life ate his meals
in company with the king. 30 The king provided everything he needed to live
comfortably.
No comments:
Post a Comment