3 And it came to pass in the 82 Chr. 34. eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying,

• ch. 12. 4. f ch. 12.9. Pa. 84. 10. 2 Heb. threshold. 8 ch. 12. 11, 12, 14.

4 Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is • brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people:

5 And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD: and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,

6 Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. h ch. 12. 15. 7 Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.

1 Deut. 31. 24, &c. 2 Chr. 34. 14, &c.

8 Heb. melted.

Abdon

2 Chr. 34.

8 And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, 'I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

9 And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD.

10 And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.

11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.

12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, Or, Micah. and Asahiah a servant of the king's, saying,

20.

13 Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for

Huldah's prophecy.

all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

BEFORE CHRIST cir. 624.

1 Deut. 29. 27.

14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of m Tikvah, the son of 2 Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college ;) and they communed with her. 15 ¶ And she said unto them, Thus 4 Or, in the saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,

16 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read:

17 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.

Hasrah. 8 Heb. garments.

second part.

n Deut. 29. 27.

Dan. 9. 11, 12, 13, 14.

• Deut. 29. 25, 26, 27.

26, &c.

18 But to the king of Judah which 2 Chr. 34. sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard;

19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.

20 Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.

CHAPTER XXIII.

1 Josiah causeth the book to be read in a solemn assembly. 3 He reneweth the covenant of the Lord. 4 He destroyeth idolatry. 15 He burnt dead men's bones upon the altar of Beth-el, as was foreprophesied. 21 He kept a most solemn passover. 24 He put away witches, and all abomination. 26 God's final wrath against Judah. 29 Josiah, provoking 31 Pharaoh-nechoh, is slain at Megiddo. Jehoahaz, succeeding him, is imprisoned by Pharaoh-nechoh, who made Jehoiakım king. 36 Jehoiakim's wicked reign.

Ps. 51. 17.

Is. 57.15. r1 Kings

21. 29.

c ch. 11. 14, 17.

с

3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. 4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels ach. 21.3.7. that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el. 5 And he put down the 'idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high Hos. 10. 5. places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem ; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, 6 Or, twelve and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

3 Heb. caused to cease. 4 Heb. Chemarim,

Foretold,

Zeph. 1. 4.

signs, or, constellations.

e ch. 21. 3.

? ch. 21. 7.

5

g

6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, nto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. 7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the 24. & 15.12. house of the LORD, 'where the women wove hangings for the grove.

8 2 Chr. 84. 4.

h1 Kings 14.

1 Ezek. 16.

16.

6 Heb. houses.

* 1 Kings 15. 22.

6

8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. 9 'Nevertheless the priests of the m1 Sam. 2. high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, m but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

1 See Ezek. 44. 10-14.

He destroyeth idolatry.

his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

2

BEFORE CHRIST 621.

2 Or, eunuch, or,

officer.

q See Jer. 19. 13.

Zeph. 1. 5.

ch. 21. 5.

12 And the altars that were a on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manas-r seh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.

16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of 1 Kings 13. the LORD which the man of God

proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

2.

1, 30.

17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the Kings 13. man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el.

18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of Heb. to the prophet that came out of Samaria.

19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to

23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.

24 T Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all Gen. 31. 19. the abominations that were spied in

8 Or, teraphim,

the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might Lev. 19.31. perform the words of 'the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

& 20. 27. Deut. 18.11.

1 Kings 8. I

29. & 9.3. ch. 21. 4,7.

610.

Jehoiakim's wicked reign

son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.

2

31 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

t

32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

3

BEFORE CHRIST 610.

2 Called

shallum, 1Chr. 3. 15.

Jer. 22. 11.

ch. 24. 18.

33 And Pharaoh-nechoh put him in bands "at Riblah in the land of ch. 25.6 Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of sil- mulct upon ver, and a talent of gold.

Σ

34 And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and y turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.

35 And Jehoiakim gave b the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh : he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh-nechoh.

36 ¶ Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

37 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

CHAPTER XXIV.

1 Jehoiakim, first subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, then rebelling against him, procureth his own ruin. 5 Jehoiachin succeedeth him. 7 The

king of Egypt is vanquished by the king of Babylon. 8 Jehoiachin's evil reign. 10 Jerusalem is taken and carried captive into Babylon. 17 Zedekiah is made king, and reigneth ill unto the utter destruction of Judah. Nahis days Nebuchadnezzar king

siah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

29 In his days Pharaoh-nechoh 2Chr.35.20. king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at P Megiddo, when he had seen him.

P Zech. 12, 11.

q ch. 14. 8.

30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the

kim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.

2 b And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets.

Jer. 52. 27. 8Or,because he reigned. 4 Heb. set a the land. 2 Chr. 36. 3.

17.

2Chr.36.4.

See ch. 24. Dan. 1. 7.

= Matt. 1.11, called Jakim. a Jer. 22. 11, 12.

3 Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, "for the 23, 26

dch. 21.2,11.

9 And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all 1 Jer. 89. 8. the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire. 10 And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of Neh. 1.3. the guard, "brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

Jer. 52. 14.

and the nobles slain.

threescore men of the people of the land that were found in the city:

20 And Nebuzar-adan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah:

21 And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.

BEFORE CHRIST 588.

© Lev. 26.33. Deut. 28.36,

64.

d Jer. 40. 5.

22 And as for the people that ch. 23. 27. remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.

8,9.

23 And when all the captains of Jer. 40. 7, the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, there came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Careah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.

24 And Gedaliah sware to them, and to their men, and said unto them, Fear not to be the servants of the Chaldees: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon; and it shall be well with you.

2.

588.

25 But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Jer. 41. 1, Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Mizpah.

2 Heb. of the kingdom.

26 And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose, and came to Egypt: for Jer. 43. 4, they were afraid of the Chaldees.

h

7.

562.

h Jer. 52. 31,

27 ¶ And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the cap-ce tivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the year that he began to reign 'did See Gen. lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;

28 And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon;

k

40. 13, 20.

3 Heb. good im

things with

29 And changed his prison garments: and he did eat bread con- 2 Sam.9.7. tinually before him all the days of his life.

30 And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.