Jehoahaz Succeeds Josiah

¹Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.

²Jehoahazwas twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months.

³And the king of Egypt dethroned him in Jerusalem and imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silverand a talent of gold.

⁴Then Neco king of Egypt made Eliakim brother of Jehoahaz king over Judah and Jerusalem, and he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Eliakim’s brother Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt.

Jehoiakim Reigns in Judah

⁵Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

⁶Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jehoiakim and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.

⁷Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon some of the articles from the house of the LORD, and he put them in his templein Babylon.

⁸As for the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, the abominations he committed, and all that was found against him, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place.

Jehoiachin Reigns in Judah

⁹Jehoiachin was eighteenyears old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹⁰In the spring,King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relativeZedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Zedekiah Reigns in Judah

¹¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.

¹²And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke for the LORD.

¹³He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. But Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardenedhis heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁴Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem

¹⁵Again and againthe LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.

¹⁶But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

¹⁷So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans,who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,

¹⁸who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king and his officials.

¹⁹Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value.

²⁰Those who escaped the sword were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into exile in Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.

²¹So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah.

The Proclamation of Cyrus

²²In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:

²³“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.Whoever among you belongs to His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and may he go up.’”

The Proclamation of Cyrus

¹In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:

²“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:‘The LORD, the God of heaven, who has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, has appointed me to build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judah.

³Whoever among you belongs to His people, may his God be with him, and may he go to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem.

⁴And let every survivor, wherever he lives, be assisted by the men of that region with silver, gold, goods, and livestock, along with a freewill offering for the house of God in Jerusalem.’”

⁵So the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and Levites—everyone whose spirit God had stirred—prepared to go up and rebuild the house of the LORD in Jerusalem.

⁶And all their neighbors supported them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all their freewill offerings.

Cyrus Restores the Holy Vessels

⁷King Cyrus also brought out the articles belonging to the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and placed in the temple of his gods.

⁸Cyrus king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

⁹This was the inventory:30 gold dishes,1,000 silver dishes,29 silver utensils,

¹⁰30 gold bowls,410 matching silver bowls,and 1,000 other articles.

¹¹In all, there were 5,400 gold and silver articles. Sheshbazzar brought all these along when the exiles went up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ahaz Reigns in Judah

¹In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah.

²Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. And unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God.

³Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire,according to the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

⁴And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to wage war against Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him.

⁶At that time Rezin king of Aram recovered Elathfor Aram,drove out the men of Judah, and sent the Edomites into Elath, where they live to this day.

⁷So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hands of the kings of Aram and Israel, who are rising up against me.”

⁸Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.

⁹So the king of Assyria responded to him, marched up to Damascus, and captured it. He took its people to Kir as captives and put Rezin to death.

The Idolatry of Ahaz

¹⁰Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria. On seeing the altar in Damascus, King Ahaz sent Uriah the priest a model of the altar and complete plans for its construction.

¹¹And Uriah the priest built the altar according to all the instructions King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, and he completed it before King Ahaz returned.

¹²When the king came back from Damascus and saw the altar, he approached it and presented offerings on it.

¹³He offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured out his drink offering, and splattered the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.

¹⁴He also took the bronze altar that stood before the LORD from the front of the temple (between the new altar and the house of the LORD) and he put it on the north side of the new altar.

¹⁵Then King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, “Offer on the great altar the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, and the king’s burnt offering and grain offering, as well as the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings of all the people of the land. Splatter on the altar all the blood of the burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I will use the bronze altar to seek guidance.”

¹⁶So Uriah the priest did just as King Ahaz had commanded.

¹⁷King Ahaz also cut off the frames of the movable stands and removed the bronze basin from each of them. He took down the Sea from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a stone base.

¹⁸And on account of the king of Assyria, he removed the Sabbath canopythey had built in the temple and closed the royal entryway outside the house of the LORD.

¹⁹As for the rest of the acts of Ahaz, along with his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

²⁰And Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David, and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.

Why Have You Rejected Us Forever?

¹Why have You rejected us forever, O God?Why does Your anger smolderagainst the sheep of Your pasture?

²Remember Your congregation,which You purchased long agoand redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance—Mount Zion, where You dwell.

³Turn Your steps to the everlasting ruins,to everything in the sanctuary the enemy has destroyed.

⁴Your foes have roared within Your meeting place;they have unfurled their banners as signs,

⁵like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees

⁶and smashing all the carvings with hatchets and picks.

⁷They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground;they have defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.

⁸They said in their hearts,“We will crush them completely.”They burned down every placewhere God met us in the land.

⁹There are no signs for us to see.There is no longer any prophet.And none of us knows how long this will last.

¹⁰How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You?Will the foe revile Your name forever?

¹¹Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand?Stretch it out to destroy them!

¹²Yet God is my King from ancient times,working salvation on the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by Your strength;You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;

¹⁴You crushed the heads of Leviathan;You fed him to the creatures of the desert.

¹⁵You broke open the fountain and the flood;You dried up the ever-flowing rivers.

¹⁶The day is Yours, and also the night;You established the moonand the sun.

¹⁷You set all the boundaries of the earth;You made the summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD,how a foolish people has spurned Your name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of Your dove to beasts;do not forget the lives of Your afflicted forever.

²⁰Consider Your covenant,for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land.

²¹Do not let the oppressed retreat in shame;may the poor and needy praise Your name.

²²Rise up, O God; defend Your cause!Remember how the fool mocks You all day long.

²³Do not disregard the clamor of Your adversaries,the uproar of Your enemies that ascends continually.