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Finally Hoshea the son of Elah formed a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and struck him and put him to death; and he began to reign in place of him in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
As for the rest of the affairs of Pekah and all that he did, there they are written in the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Israel.
In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah the king of Judah became king.
Twenty-five years old he happened to be when he began to reign, and for sixteen years he reigned in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok.
And he continued to do what was right in Jehovah's eyes. According to all that Uzziah his father had done, he did.
It was only that the high places did not disappear. The people were still sacrificing and making sacrificial smoke on the high places. He it was that built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah.
As for the rest of the affairs of Jotham, what he did, are they not written in the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Judah?
In those days Jehovah started to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah.
Finally Jotham lay down with his forefathers and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David his forefather; and Ahaz his son began to reign in place of him.
In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham the king of Judah became king.
Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and for sixteen years he reigned in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the eyes of Jehovah his God like David his forefather.
And he went walking in the way of the kings of Israel, and even his own son he made pass through the fire, according to the detestable things of the nations whom Jehovah drove out because of the sons of Israel.
And he kept sacrificing and making sacrificial smoke on the high places and upon the hills and under every luxuriant tree.
It was then that Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel proceeded to come up against Jerusalem in war and laid siege against Ahaz, but they were not able to fight.
At that time Rezin the king of Syria restored Elath to Edom, after which he cleared out the Jews from Elath; and the Edomites, for their part, entered Elath and kept dwelling there down to this day.
So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser the king of Assyria, saying: "I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me out of the palm of the king of Syria and out of the palm of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me."
Accordingly Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was to be found at the house of Jehovah and in the treasures of the king's house and sent the king of Assyria a bribe.
At that the king of Assyria listened to him and the king of Assyria went up to Damascus and captured it and led its [people] into exile at Kir, and Rezin he put to death.
Then King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-pileser the king of Assyria at Damascus, and he got to see the altar that was in Damascus. So King Ahaz sent Urijah the priest the design of the altar and its pattern as respects all its workmanship.
And Urijah the priest proceeded to build the altar. According to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus was the way that Urijah the priest made it, pending the time that King Ahaz came from Damascus.
When the king came from Damascus, the king got to see the altar; and the king began to go near to the altar and make offerings upon it.
And he continued to make his burnt offering and his grain offering smoke and to pour out his drink offering and to sprinkle the blood of the communion sacrifices that were his upon the altar.
And the copper altar that was before Jehovah he now brought near from in front of the house, from between his altar and the house of Jehovah, and put it at the north side of his altar.
And King Ahaz went on to command him, even Urijah the priest, saying: "Upon the great altar make the burnt offering of the morning smoke, also the grain offering of the evening and the burnt offering of the king and his grain offering and the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their grain offering and their drink offerings; and all the blood of burnt offering and all the blood of a sacrifice you should sprinkle upon it. As for the copper altar, it will become something for me to take under consideration."
And Urijah the priest went doing according to all that King Ahaz had commanded.
Furthermore, King Ahaz cut the sidewalls of the carriages in pieces and removed from off them the basins; and the sea he took down off the copper bulls that were underneath it and then put it upon a stone pavement.
And the covered structure for the sabbath that they had built in the house and the king's outer entryway he shifted from the house of Jehovah because of the king of Assyria.
As for the rest of the affairs of Ahaz, what he did, are they not written in the book of the affairs of the days of the kings of Judah?
Finally Ahaz lay down with his forefathers and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David; and Hezekiah his son began to reign in place of him.
In the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king in Samaria over Israel for nine years.
And he continued to do what was bad in Jehovah's eyes, only not as the kings of Israel that happened to be prior to him.
It was against him that Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came up, and Hoshea came to be his servant and began to pay tribute to him.
However, the king of Assyria got to find conspiracy in Hoshea's case, in that he had sent messengers to So the king of Egypt and did not bring the tribute up to the king of Assyria as in former years. Hence the king of Assyria shut him up and kept him bound in the house of detention.
And the king of Assyria proceeded to come up against all the land and to come up to Samaria and lay siege against it for three years.
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and then led Israel into exile in Assyria and kept them dwelling in Halah and in Habor at the river Gozan and in the cities of the Medes.
And it came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against Jehovah their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and they began to fear other gods;
and they kept walking in the statutes of the nations whom Jehovah had driven out from before the sons of Israel, and [in the statutes of] the kings of Israel that they had made;
and the sons of Israel went searching into the things that were not right toward Jehovah their God and kept building themselves high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen clear to the fortified city;
and they kept setting up for themselves sacred pillars and sacred poles upon every high hill and under every luxuriant tree;
and there on all the high places they continued to make sacrificial smoke the same as the nations whom Jehovah had taken into exile because of them, and they kept doing bad things to offend Jehovah;
And they continued to serve dungy idols, concerning which Jehovah had said to them: "YOU must not do this thing";
and Jehovah kept warning Israel and Judah by means of all his prophets [and] every visionary, saying: "Turn back from YOUR bad ways and keep my commandments, my statutes, according to all the law that I commanded YOUR forefathers and that I have sent to YOU by means of my servants the prophets";
and they did not listen but kept hardening their necks like the necks of their forefathers that had not exercised faith in Jehovah their God;
and they continued rejecting his regulations and his covenant that he had concluded with their forefathers and his reminders with which he had warned them, and they went following vain idols and became vain themselves, even in imitation of the nations that were all around them, concerning whom Jehovah had commanded them not to do like them;
And they kept leaving all the commandments of Jehovah their God and proceeded to make for themselves molten statues, two calves, and to make a sacred pole, and they began to bow down to all the army of the heavens and to serve Baal;
and they continued to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire and to practice divination and to look for omens, and they kept selling themselves to do what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, to offend him;
Therefore Jehovah got very incensed against Israel, so that he removed them from his sight. He did not let any remain but the tribe of Judah alone.
Even Judah itself did not keep the commandments of Jehovah their God, but they went walking in the statutes of Israel that they had made.
Consequently Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel and kept afflicting them and giving them into the hand of pillagers, until he had cast them away from before him.
For he ripped Israel off from the house of David, and they proceeded to make Jeroboam the son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam proceeded to part Israel from following Jehovah, and he caused them to sin with a great sin.
And the sons of Israel went walking in all the sins of Jeroboam that he had done. They did not depart from them,
until Jehovah removed Israel from his sight, just as he had spoken by means of all his servants the prophets. So Israel went off its own soil into exile in Assyria down to this day.
Subsequently the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon and Cuthah and Avva and Hamath and Sepharvaim and had them dwell in the cities of Samaria instead of the sons of Israel; and they began to take possession of Samaria and to dwell in its cities.
And it came about at the start of their dwelling there that they did not fear Jehovah. Therefore Jehovah sent lions among them, and they came to be killers among them.
So they sent word to the king of Assyria, saying: "The nations that you have taken into exile and then settled in the cities of Samaria have not known the religion of the God of the land, so that he keeps sending lions among them; and, look! they are putting them to death, inasmuch as there are none knowing the religion of the God of the land."
At that the king of Assyria commanded, saying: "Have one of the priests go there whom YOU led into exile from there, that he may go and dwell there and teach them the religion of the God of the land."
Accordingly one of the priests whom they had led into exile from Samaria came and began dwelling in Bethel, and he came to be a teacher of them as to how they ought to fear Jehovah.
However, each different nation came to be a maker of its own god, which they then deposited in the house of the high places that the Samaritans had made, each different nation, in their cities where they were dwelling.
And the men of Babylon, for their part, made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth, for their part, made Nergal, and the men of Hamath, for their part, made Ashima.
As for the Avvites, they made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites were burning their sons in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim.
And they came to be fearers of Jehovah and went making for themselves from the people in general priests of high places, and they came to be functionaries for them in the house of the high places.
It was of Jehovah that they became fearers, but it was of their own gods that they proved to be worshipers, according to the religion of the nations from among whom they had led them into exile.
Down to this day they are doing according to their former religions. There were none fearing Jehovah and none doing according to his statutes and his judicial decisions and the law and the commandment that Jehovah had commanded the sons of Jacob, whose name he made Israel;
when Jehovah concluded a covenant with them and commanded them, saying: "YOU must not fear other gods, and YOU must not bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them.
But Jehovah, who brought YOU up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched-out arm, is the One whom YOU should fear, and to him YOU should bow down, and to him YOU should sacrifice.
And the regulations and the judicial decisions and the law and the commandment that he wrote for YOU, YOU should take care to do always; and YOU must not fear other gods.
And the covenant that I have concluded with YOU, YOU must not forget; and YOU must not fear other gods.
But it is Jehovah YOUR God that YOU should fear, as he is the one that will deliver YOU out of the hand of all YOUR enemies."
And they did not obey, but it was according to their former religion that they were doing.
And these nations came to be fearers of Jehovah, but it was their own graven images that they proved to be serving. As for both their sons and their grandsons, it was just as their forefathers had done that they themselves are doing down to this day.
And it came about in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah the king of Israel that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz the king of Judah became king.
Twenty-five years old he happened to be when he began to reign, and for twenty-nine years he reigned in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.
And he continued to do what was right in Jehovah's eyes, according to all that David his forefather had done.
He it was that removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars to pieces and cut down the sacred pole and crushed to pieces the copper serpent that Moses had made; for down to those days the sons of Israel had continually been making sacrificial smoke to it, and it used to be called the copper serpent-idol.
In Jehovah the God of Israel he trusted; and after him there proved to be no one like him among all the kings of Judah, even those who had happened to be prior to him.
And he kept sticking to Jehovah. He did not turn aside from following him, but he continued keeping his commandments that Jehovah had commanded Moses.
And Jehovah proved to be with him. Wherever he would go out, he would act prudently; and he proceeded to rebel against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.
It was he that struck down the Philistines clear to Gaza and also its territories, from the tower of the watchmen clear to the fortified city.
And it came about in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, that is, the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah the king of Israel, that Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came up against Samaria and began to lay siege to it.
And they got to capture it at the end of three years; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Israel, Samaria was captured.
After that the king of Assyria took Israel into exile in Assyria and set them down in Halah and in Habor at the river Gozan and in the cities of the Medes,
over the fact that they had not listened to the voice of Jehovah their God, but kept overstepping his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded. They neither listened nor performed.
And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib the king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and proceeded to seize them.
So Hezekiah the king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying: "I have sinned. Turn back from against me. Whatever you may impose upon me I shall carry." Accordingly the king of Assyria laid upon Hezekiah the king of Judah three hundred silver talents and thirty gold talents.
Therefore Hezekiah gave all the silver that was to be found at the house of Jehovah and in the treasures of the king's house.
At that time Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of Jehovah and the doorposts that Hezekiah the king of Judah had overlaid and then gave them to the king of Assyria.
And the king of Assyria proceeded to send Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a heavy military force to Jerusalem, that they might go up and come to Jerusalem. So they went up and came and stood still by the conduit of the upper pool, which is at the highway of the laundryman's field.
And they began to call out to the king, but there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the secretary and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
Accordingly Rabshakeh said to them: "Please, say to Hezekiah, 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, has said: "What is this confidence in which you have trusted?
You have said (but it is the word of lips), 'There are counsel and mightiness for the war.' Now in whom have you put your trust, that you have rebelled against me?
Now, look! you have put your trust in the support of this crushed reed, Egypt, which, if a man should brace himself upon it, would certainly enter into his palm and pierce it. That is the way Pharaoh the king of Egypt is to all those putting their trust in him.
And in case YOU men should say to me, 'It is Jehovah our God in whom we have put our trust,' is he not the one whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has removed, while he says to Judah and Jerusalem, 'Before this altar YOU should bow down in Jerusalem'?"'
Now, then, make a wager, please, with my lord the king of Assyria, and let me give you two thousand horses [to see] whether you are able, on your part, to put riders upon them.
How, then, could you turn back the face of one governor of the smallest servants of my lord, while you, for your part, put your trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
Now is it without authorization from Jehovah that I have come up against this place to bring it to ruin? Jehovah himself said to me, 'Go up against this land, and you must bring it to ruin.'"
At this Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebnah and Joah said to Rabshakeh: "Speak with your servants, please, in the Syrian language, for we can listen; and do not speak with us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people that are on the wall."
But Rabshakeh said to them: "Is it to your lord and to you that my lord has sent me to speak these words? Is it not to the men sitting upon the wall, that they may eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with YOU men?"
And Rabshakeh continued to stand and call out in a loud voice in the Jews' language; and he went on to speak and say: "HEAR the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.
This is what the king has said, 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive YOU people, for he is not able to deliver YOU out of my hand.
And do not let Hezekiah cause YOU to trust in Jehovah, saying: "Without fail Jehovah will deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
Do not listen to Hezekiah; for this is what the king of Assyria has said: "Make a capitulation to me, and come out to me, and eat each one from his own vine and each one from his own fig tree and drink each one the water of his own cistern,
until I come and I actually take YOU to a land like YOUR own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil-olive trees and honey; and keep living that YOU may not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah, for he allures YOU, saying, 'Jehovah himself will deliver us.'
Have the gods of the nations at all delivered each one his own land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
Who are there among all the gods of the lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, so that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?"'"
And the people kept silent and did not answer him a word, for the commandment of the king was, saying: "YOU must not answer him."
But Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the secretary and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came to Hezekiah with their garments ripped apart and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
And it came about that as soon as King Hezekiah heard, he immediately ripped his garments apart and covered himself with sackcloth and came into the house of Jehovah.
Further, he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebnah the secretary and the older men of the priests covered with sackcloth to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
And they proceeded to say to him: "This is what Hezekiah has said, 'This day is a day of distress and of rebuke and of scornful insolence; for the sons have come as far as the womb's mouth, and there is no power to give birth.
Perhaps Jehovah your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his lord sent to taunt the living God, and he will actually call him to account for the words that Jehovah your God has heard. And you must lift up prayer in behalf of the remnant that are to be found.'"
So the servants of King Hezekiah came in to Isaiah.
Then Isaiah said to them: "This is what YOU should say to YOUR lord, 'This is what Jehovah has said: "Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard with which the attendants of the king of Assyria spoke abusively of me.
Here I am putting a spirit in him, and he must hear a report and return to his own land; and I shall certainly cause him to fall by the sword in his own land."'"
After that Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah; for he had heard that he had pulled away from Lachish.
He heard it said respecting Tirhakah the king of Ethiopia: "Here he has come out to fight against you." Therefore he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying:
"This is what YOU men should say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, 'Do not let your God in whom you are trusting deceive you, saying: "Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
Look! You yourself have heard what the kings of Assyria did to all the lands by devoting them to destruction; and will you yourself be delivered?
Have the gods of the nations that my forefathers brought to ruin delivered them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden that were in Tel-assar?
Where is he--the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad and the king of the cities of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?'"
Then Hezekiah took the letters out of the hand of the messengers and read them, after which Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah and spread it out before Jehovah.
And Hezekiah began to pray before Jehovah and say: "O Jehovah the God of Israel, sitting upon the cherubs, you alone are the [true] God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You yourself have made the heavens and the earth.
Incline your ear, O Jehovah, and hear. Open your eyes, O Jehovah, and see, and hear the words of Sennacherib that he has sent to taunt the living God.
It is a fact, O Jehovah, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their land.
And they have consigned their gods to the fire, because they were no gods, but the workmanship of man's hands, wood and stone; so that they destroyed them.
And now, O Jehovah our God, save us, please, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Jehovah, are God alone."
And Isaiah the son of Amoz proceeded to send to Hezekiah, saying: "This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, 'The prayer that you have made to me concerning Sennacherib the king of Assyria I have heard.
This is the word that Jehovah has spoken against him:
"The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you, she has held you in derision.
Behind you the daughter of Jerusalem has wagged her head.
Whom have you taunted and spoken of abusively?
And against whom have you lifted up your voice
And do you raise your eyes on high?
It is against the Holy One of Israel!
By means of your messengers you have taunted Jehovah and you say,
'With the multitude of my war chariots I myself--
I shall certainly ascend the height of mountainous regions,
The remotest parts of Lebanon;
And I shall cut down its lofty cedars, its choice juniper trees.
And I will enter its final lodging place, the forest of its orchard.
I myself shall certainly dig and drink strange waters,
And I shall dry up with the soles of my feet all the Nile canals of Egypt.'
Have you not heard? From remote times it is what I will do.
From bygone days I have even formed it.
Now I will bring it in.
And you will serve to make fortified cities desolate as piles of ruins.
And their inhabitants will be feeble-handed;
They will simply be terrified and will be ashamed.
They must become as vegetation of the field and green tender grass,
Grass of the roofs, when there is a scorching before the east wind.
And your sitting quiet and your going out and your coming in I well know,
And your exciting yourself against me,
Because your exciting yourself against me and your roaring have come up into my ears.
And I shall certainly put my hook in your nose and my bridle between your lips,
And I shall indeed lead you back by the way by which you have come."
"'And this will be the sign for you: There will be an eating this year of the growth from spilled kernels, and in the second year grain that shoots up of itself; but in the third year sow seed, you people, and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruitage.
And those who escape of the house of Judah, those who are left, will certainly take root downward and produce fruitage upward.
For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go forth, and those who escape from Mount Zion. The very zeal of Jehovah of armies will do this.
"'That is why this is what Jehovah has said concerning the king of Assyria: "He will not come into this city nor will he shoot an arrow there nor confront it with a shield nor cast up a siege rampart against it.
By the way by which he proceeded to come, he will return, and into this city he will not come, is the utterance of Jehovah.
And I shall certainly defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant."'"
And it came about on that night that the angel of Jehovah proceeded to go out and strike down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When people rose up early in the morning, why, there all of them were dead carcasses.
Therefore Sennacherib the king of Assyria pulled away and went and returned, and he took up dwelling in Nineveh.
And it came about that as he was bowing down at the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, themselves struck him down with the sword, and they themselves escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son began to reign in place of him.
In those days Hezekiah got sick to the point of dying. Accordingly Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet came in to him and said to him: "This is what Jehovah has said, 'Give commands to your household, for you yourself will indeed die and will not live.'"
At that he turned his face to the wall and began to pray to Jehovah, saying:
"I beseech you, O Jehovah, remember, please, how I have walked before you in truthfulness and with a complete heart, and what was good in your eyes I have done." And Hezekiah began to weep profusely.
And it came about that Isaiah himself had not yet gone out to the middle court when Jehovah's word itself came to him, saying:
"Go back, and you must say to Hezekiah the leader of my people, 'This is what Jehovah the God of David your forefather has said: "I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Here I am healing you. On the third day you will go up to the house of Jehovah.
And I shall certainly add fifteen years to your days, and out of the palm of the king of Assyria I shall deliver you and this city, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for the sake of David my servant."'"
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