Kings 2 = (Ethiopic) Book of Kings 4

And he did righteousness before the Lord, before his eyes, and he walked in all the path of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, in the eighth month, the king sent Shaphan, son of Eseliu, son of Meselam, the scribe of the house of the Lord, saying: "Go to Hilkiah, the high priest, and seal the silver that has been collected for the house of the Lord by those who guard the thresholds of the people. And pay out to those who perform the work of the house of the Lord, according to what they need for the work of the house. For the beams and the planks and for those who make the roofs, according to what they cut the wood and the stone for the work, for the house. And do not count the silver that they have given, for they work in faith." And Hilkiah, the high priest, said to Shaphan the scribe, "Read to him." And he entered the house of the Lord, to the king, and delivered his message to the king, and said to him, "I have found your servants, the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and I have given it to those who perform the work of the house of the Lord.

And Shaphan said to the king, "The book of the law, and Hilkiah the priest gave it to me." And Shaphan read before the king. And when the king heard this book of the law, he tore his garments. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Achikam the son of Shaphan, and Akbar the son of Michaias, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asa the servant of the king, and said to them: "Go, prostrate yourselves before the Lord on my behalf and on behalf of all the people of Judah, and on account of all the words of this book, for the great wrath of the Lord which has been found upon us, fire will burn. And our fathers did not hear the words of this book, and they did not do their written law." And Hilkiah the priest, and Achikam, and Akbar, and Shaphan, and Asa went to the dwelling place of the prophetess, the mother of Shelem the son of Teqehaw the son of Adras, the keeper of the garments, and in Jerusalem she was there, her dwelling place in Manasseh, and they told her. And she said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: 'Say to the man who sent you to me.'

Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I have brought evil upon this land and upon those who dwell in it—all the words that are in the book which the king of Judah read. For you have abandoned me and have turned away to foreign gods, so that you might provoke me by the work of your hands and kindle my wrath against this land, and I will not destroy it. And concerning the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus say to him: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, the word which you have heard. For you have not hardened your heart, but you have feared the face of the Lord, having heard what I have proclaimed against this land and against those who dwell in it—that I have deceived them and they shall be for my curse; and you have torn your garments and wept before me. I have heard you," says the Lord. And thus: "Behold, I will kill you, and you shall die and go to your fathers, and you shall enter your tomb in peace, and you shall not see with your eyes all the evil that I have brought into this land and upon those who dwell in it.

And he sent his message to the king and to the people of the king, and he gathered to him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the people of Judah and all who dwell in Jerusalem with him, and the priests and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great, and he read before them the entire text of the book of the law which was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, and they would keep his commandments and his judgments and his law with all their heart and with all their soul, as they would stand firm in this matter of their covenant. And the king commanded Hilkiah, the high priest, and the priests who were under him, and those who guarded the thresholds, that they should bring out all the vessels of Baal and the altars and all the host of heaven, and they cast them out from Jerusalem into the valley of Kidron, and they took the ashes and carried them to Bethel.

And he informed the priests who had given the king of Judah, and who burned incense in the houses of the gods and within the cities of Judah and within the circuit of Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal and to the sun and to the moon and to the Mazurot and to all the host of the heavens. And he brought them out with their gods from the house of the Lord, outside of Jerusalem, into the valley of Kidron, and he informed them in the valley of Kidron, and they shattered them and cast their fragments into the tomb of the children of the people. And he removed the house of the Qadeshim which was within the house of the Lord, where women prostituted themselves for the god of the Keta'em. And he brought out the high places from the cities of Judah and destroyed the houses of the gods where they burned incense there, the high places from Gebal as far as Beersheba, and he removed the altars of the Dede-yat which were at Dede Anqas of Hosea, the angel of the city, a man who was at the right side of the city gate, the gate which enters toward the south. And only the high places of the gods remained at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, except when they would eat with their priests.

And they stoned Ṭēfēṭā in the valley of the son of Hēnōm, so that every man who had begotten a son and every man who had begotten a daughter would pass through for Mōlōḥ with fire. And he burned the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun in the precinct of the house of the Lord, in the court of the altar of Nāṭān, the bronze one, in the furnace; and the chariots of the sun he burned with fire. And the altars which were within the porticoes of the court of Aḥāz, which the king of Judah had made; and the altar which Manasseh had made within the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king removed and brought them down from there, and broke them, and cast their fragments into the valley of Qēdrōn. And the house which was before Jerusalem, on the right side of the mountain of Misḥat, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtart, the gods of Sidon, and for Kōmōs, the gods of Moab, and for Malkōl, the abomination of the children of Ammon, the king stoned. And he shattered their images, and cut off their engravings, and filled their places with the bones of men.

And the altar that was in Bethel, the house of their gods, which Jeroboam son of Nebat had made, which had caused Israel to sin—that altar of the house of their gods he took and broke and shattered its stones, and he burned and consumed their offerings. And Josiah went and saw a tomb that was in that city, and he sent and brought out all the bones that were in that tomb, and he burned them in the altar, as the Lord had said through the man of God, the Lord, at the time of the festival that Jeroboam had made. And he was astonished and saw the tomb of the man of God who had spoken this word. And he said to them, “What is this monument that I see?” And the people said to him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah, who had spoken thus at the altar of Bethel.” And he said to them, “Leave him; there is no one who will touch his bones.” And his bones were saved together with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

And all the houses of their gods that were in Samaria, which the kings of Israel had built to cause them to forget the Lord, Josiah destroyed and did to them all that he had done at Bethel. And he cut down all the groves of the gods that were there, on their altars, and he cast the bones of the dead into them, and he entered Jerusalem. And the king commanded all the peoples to celebrate the Passover of the Lord, their God, according to what is written in that book of the Law. For this Passover had not been celebrated from the time of the judges who ruled Israel throughout all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, the Passover of the Lord was celebrated in Jerusalem. For the wise, the priests, and the levites, all that pertained to their gods and all the deficiencies they had made in Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah corrected so as to fulfill the word of their Law, which was written, which Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the Lord.

And there was none like him among the kings before him, who had gathered with all his heart toward the Lord, and with all his strength, and with all his soul, according to all the law of Moses. And after him, there was none who stood like him. But the wrath of the Lord was kindled, which had been kindled against Judah, the wrath that Manasseh had provoked. And the Lord said to Judah, "I will cast them out from before my face, as I cast out Israel, and I will destroy this city, Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and this house where my name shall be." And all the deeds of Josiah, and all that he did, now this is what is written in the book of the prophets of the kings of Judah. And in his days, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Persia, who had crossed the Euphrates River, and Josiah went and met him, and Necho killed him on the road when he encountered him. And his servants carried his corpse from the road and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in the tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz, his son, and buried him and made him king in place of his father.

23 years of age when Jehoahaz began to reign, and 3 months he reigned in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. And he did evil before the Lord, like all that his fathers had done. And Pharaoh Necho turned him back at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he should not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed tribute upon all their land, and commanded them 100 talents of gold and 100 talents of silver. And Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, in place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, and he took Jehoahaz and brought him to the land of Egypt, and there he died. And Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh his gold and his silver, and he exacted from all his land, so that they gave tribute of gold to Pharaoh; every man according to the amount of his wealth gave tribute to Pharaoh Necho. 25 years of age when Jehoiakim began to reign, and 11 years he reigned in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah.

And he did evil before the Lord, like all that his fathers had done. IV Kings 24 24 And in his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, went up into that land, and Jehoiakim submitted to him for three years. And after that, he rebelled and went up. And the Lord sent the armies of Syria and the armies of Moab and the armies of the Ammonites, and he sent them to the land of Judah to destroy them, as the Lord had spoken by the hand of his servants the prophets. And only the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah, to remove them from before his face because of the sin of Manasseh and all that he had done. And he killed the soul of the righteous and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord refused to forgive them. And all the story of Jehoiakim and all that he did, behold, this is what is written in the book of the prophets of the kings of Judah. And Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the garden of Uzza, and Jehoiachin his son reigned after him.

And the king of Egypt turned back and went out from his land, because the king of Babylon had assembled from the river of Egypt as far as the river Euphrates, and all that belonged to the king of Egypt. And it was the eighteenth year of Jehoiakim when he began to reign, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Nestē, daughter of Elnathan, who was from Jerusalem. And he did evil before the Lord, like all that his fathers had done. And in that year, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, went up into Jerusalem, and the city was besieged, and they were besieged. And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to the city to fight against them with his armies. And Jehoiakim, king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon with his children, his messengers, and his nobles; and the king of Babylon seized him and assembled him in the eighth year of his reign. And he brought out all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and he broke all the vessels of gold that Solomon, king of Israel, had made for the house of the Lord, as the Lord had said.

And he turned back to Jerusalem and all their angels and their elders and their strong ones, all their treasure and all their vessels, and he smashed them, and there was nothing left except the poor who were cut off. And he turned back Jehoiakim to Babylon, and his mother, the king's women, and the king's eunuchs, and the elders of the land, he turned them all back to Babylon. And all the angels of their armies, seventy thousand men, and their vessels, and he smashed them, ten thousand of all the strong ones who could fight, he turned them all back to the king in Babylon. And the king of Babylon appointed Natanian, his brother, in his place, and he changed his name, calling him Zedekias. The twenty-first year of Zedekian when he reigned, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Amithel, daughter of Jeremiah. And he did evil before the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. For the wrath of the Lord was upon Jerusalem and upon Judah until he expelled them from before his face, and Zedekian shut out the king of Babylon.

And when the tenth year of his reign had passed, in the month of Tebet, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came with his armies against Jerusalem, and he besieged it and blockaded it. And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, until the ninth month. And there was a great famine, and there was no food for the peoples of the land. And the city was breached, and all the strong warriors went out by night by the path of the middle gate, which is toward the king’s garden, and the Persians set fire to the city, and they themselves went out through the breaches. And the Persian army found them and seized the king, and they captured him in the breaches of Jericho, and they killed all his men and left him. And they seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Diblath, and he spoke with him. And he killed his sons before him, and he blinded Zedekiah, and he put him in fetters and took him to Babylon. And on the seventh day of the month of Sivan, in the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, the chief of the cooks of the king who stands before him, and he came to Jerusalem.

And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and he burned the chief of the cooks of the king. And the armies of the Persians took the spoils of Jerusalem. And the people who remained in the city, and those who went to the king of Babylon, and also all who remained, Nebuzaradan, the chief of the cooks, scattered them into Carmel and into Ereb. And from among the poor of the land, the chief of the cooks increased the vineyard and the plowland. And the Persians broke the bronze pillars of the house of the Lord, and the candlesticks, and the bronze sea of the house of the Lord, and they brought the bronze to Babylon. And the basins and the ewers and the bowls, all the vessels of bronze that were there, they took. And the chief of the cooks took the censers and the bowls of gold and of silver. Two pillars and one sea and the candlesticks which Solomon the king made for the house of the Lord, and there is no measure of their bronze.

And in the eighth year, one pillar of bronze and its capital, and the height of the capital, three cubits, and a chain upon the capital, and one whole of bronze, and likewise the second pillar, and one hundred pomegranates upon the porch of the court. And he took the chief of the cooks, Sereya, the great priest, and Sophonias his son from under him, and the Levites. And he took from within the city one measure of the angel of the destruction of the combatants, and they added to those who stand before the king, those who were found within the city, and he wrote for the angel of the destruction of those who lead the peoples of the land, and sixty men from among the peoples of the land who were found within the city. And Nabuzardan, the chief of the cooks, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Deblata. And the king of Babylon killed them at Deblata in the land of Emath, and he turned Judah away from their land. And for the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had left, he set over them Godolias, son of Achikam, son of Saphan.

And all the captains of their armies and their peoples heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, and they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah. And Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and Johanan son of Kareah, and Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Ozeniah son of Mecath—these also with their men. And Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, “Do not fear the Persians; dwell in the land and submit to the king of Babylon, and he will do good to you.” And in the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah came, a descendant of Elishama and of the royal lineage, and ten men with him, and he killed Gedaliah; and he died, and also the Jews and the Persians who were with him in Mizpah. Then all the people, young and old, and the captains of their armies arose and fled to the land of Egypt, because they feared the Persians. And in the thirty-seventh year from the time Jehoiakim king of Judah fled, in the tenth month, on the twenty-seventh day, Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, honored Jehoiakim king of Judah and brought him out from the house of prison.

And he spoke well of him and magnified his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. And he clothed him in fine garments, and he anointed him with oil continually. And he gave him a portion of every meal from the king's table, and he gave him what he desired for all the days of his life.