2 Kings 25

2 Kings 25:1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.

2 Kings 25:2 The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

2 Kings 25:3 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was so strong in the city that the common people had no food.

2 Kings 25:4 Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. As the king made his way along the route to the Arabah,

2 Kings 25:5 the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.

2 Kings 25:6 The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.

2 Kings 25:7 They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.

2 Kings 25:8 On the seventh day of the fifth month– which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon– Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, a slave of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.

2 Kings 25:9 He burned Yahveh’s temple, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses.

2 Kings 25:10 The whole Chaldean army, with the captain of the guards, tore down the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

2 Kings 25:11 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported the rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the population.

2 Kings 25:12 But the captain of the guards left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.

2 Kings 25:13 Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars of Yahveh’s temple, the water carts, and the bronze basin, which were in Yahveh’s temple, and carried the bronze to Babylon.

2 Kings 25:14 They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the priests’ service.

2 Kings 25:15 The captain of the guards took away the firepans and sprinkling basins—whatever was gold or silver.

2 Kings 25:16 As for the two pillars, the one basin, and the water carts that Solomon had made for Yahveh’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.

2 Kings 25:17 One pillar was twenty-seven feet tall and had a bronze capital on top of it. The capital, encircled by a grating and pomegranates of bronze, stood five feet high. The second pillar was the same, with its grating.

2 Kings 25:18 The captain of the guards also took away Seraiah, the chief priest, Zephaniah, the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.

2 Kings 25:19 From the city, he took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors; five trusted royal aides found in the town; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and sixty men from the common people who were found within the city.

2 Kings 25:20 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

2 Kings 25:21 The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So, Judah went into exile from its land.

2 Kings 25:22 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over the rest of the people he left in the land of Judah.

2 Kings 25:23 When all the commanders of the armies — they and their men — heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The commanders included Ishmael, son of Nethaniah; Johanan, son of Kareah; Seraiah, son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite; and Jaazaniah, son of the Maacathite — they and their men.

2 Kings 25:24 Gedaliah swore an oath to them and their men, assuring them, “Don’t be afraid of the slaves of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and slave for the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you.”

2 Kings 25:25 In the seventh month, however, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah, and he died. Also, they killed the Judeans and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.

2 Kings 25:26 Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, and the commanders of the army, left and went to Egypt because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

2 Kings 25:27 On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, he pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.

2 Kings 25:28 He spoke kindly to him and set his throne over the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.

2 Kings 25:29 So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly in the presence of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life.

2 Kings 25:30 As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king, a portion for each day for the rest of his life.

links:

God does not need me
still options
when the worst happens – Devotions

The 2 KINGS shelf in Jeff’s library

2 Kings 24

2 Kings 24:1 During Jehoiakim’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, and then he turned and rebelled against him.

2 Kings 24:2 Yahveh sent Chaldean, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Jehoiakim. He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahveh he had spoken through his slaves the prophets.

2 Kings 24:3 Indeed, this happened to Judah at Yahveh’s command to remove them from his presence. It was because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all he had done,

2 Kings 24:4 and also because of all the innocent blood he had shed. He had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahveh was not willing to forgive.

2 Kings 24:5 The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

2 Kings 24:6 Jehoiakim lied down with his fathers, and his son Jehoiachin became king in his place.

2 Kings 24:7 Now the king of Egypt did not march out of his land again, for the king of Babylon took everything that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.

2 Kings 24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem.

2 Kings 24:9 He did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight just as his father had done.

2 Kings 24:10 At that time, King Nebuchadnezzar, of Babylon’s slaves, marched up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.

2 Kings 24:11 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his slaves were besieging it.

2 Kings 24:12 King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his slaves, his commanders, and his officials, surrendered to the king of Babylon. So, the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign.

2 Kings 24:13 He also carried off from there all the treasures of Yahveh’s temple and the treasures of the king’s palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that King Solomon of Israel had made for Yahveh’s sanctuary, just as  Yahveh had predicted.

2 Kings 24:14 He deported all Jerusalem and all the commanders and all the best soldiers– ten thousand captives, including all the craftsmen and metalsmiths. Except for the poorest people of the land, no one remained.

2 Kings 24:15 Nebuchadnezzar deported Jehoiachin to Babylon. He took the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

2 Kings 24:16 The king of Babylon brought captive into Babylon all seven thousand of the best soldiers and one thousand craftsmen and metalsmiths — all strong and fit for war.

2 Kings 24:17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.

2 Kings 24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

2 Kings 24:19 Zedekiah did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.

2 Kings 24:20 Because of Yahveh’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence. Then, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

links:

banished from his presence – Devotions
God does not need me
whatever happens

The 2 KINGS shelf in Jeff’s library

2 Kings 23

2 Kings 23:1 So the king sent agents, and they gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him.

2 Kings 23:2 Then the king went to Yahveh’s temple with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets — all the people from the youngest to the oldest. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in Yahveh’s temple.

2 Kings 23:3 Next, the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant in Yahveh’s presence to follow Yahveh and keep his commands, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and with all his throat to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book; all the people agreed to the covenant.

2 Kings 23:4 Then the king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second rank, and the doorkeepers to bring out of Yahveh’s sanctuary all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the stars in the sky. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

2 Kings 23:5 Then he did away with the idolatrous priests the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places in the cities of Judah and the areas surrounding Jerusalem. They had burned incense to Baal and the sun, moon, constellations, and all the stars in the sky.

2 Kings 23:6 He brought the Asherah pole from Yahveh’s temple to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem, burned it there, beat it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.

2 Kings 23:7 He also tore down the houses of the male cult prostitutes that were in Yahveh’s temple, in which the women were weaving tapestries for Asherah.

2 Kings 23:8 Then Josiah brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and he defiled the high places from Geba to Beer-sheba, where the priests had burned incense. He tore down the high places of the city gates at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city (on the left at the city gate).

2 Kings 23:9 The priests of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of Yahveh in Jerusalem; instead, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

2 Kings 23:10 He defiled Topheth, which is in Ben Himmon Valley so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech.

2 Kings 23:11 He did away with the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They had been at the entrance of Yahveh’s temple in the precincts by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the eunuch. He also burned the chariots of the sun.

2 Kings 23:12 The king tore down the altars that the kings of Judah had made on the roof of Ahaz’s upper chamber. He also tore down the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courtyards of Yahveh’s temple. Then he smashed them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.

2 Kings 23:13 The king also defiled the high places across from Jerusalem to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth, the abhorrent idol of the Sidonians; Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab; and Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites.

2 Kings 23:14 He broke the sacred pillars into pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and then filled their places with human bones.

2 Kings 23:15 He even tore down the altar at Bethel and the high place made by Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He burned the high place, crushed it to dust, and burned the Asherah.

2 Kings 23:16 As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mountain. He sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar. He defiled it according to the word of Yahveh proclaimed by the man of God who proclaimed these things.

2 Kings 23:17 Then he said, “What is this monument I see?” The men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done to the altar at Bethel.”

2 Kings 23:18 So he said, “Let him rest. Don’t let anyone disturb his bones.” So, they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

2 Kings 23:19 Josiah also removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to anger Yahveh. Josiah did the same things to them that he had done at Bethel.

2 Kings 23:20 He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of those high places, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

2 Kings 23:21 The king commanded all the people, “Observe the Passover of Yahveh your God as written in the book of the covenant.”

2 Kings 23:22 No such Passover had ever been observed from the time of the judges who judged Israel through the entire time of the kings of Israel and Judah.

2 Kings 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, Yahveh’s Passover was observed in Jerusalem.

2 Kings 23:24 In addition, Josiah eradicated the mediums, spiritists, household idols, images, and all the abhorrent things that were seen in the land of Judah and Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that the priest Hilkiah found in Yahveh’s temple.

2 Kings 23:25 Before him, no king like him turned to Yahveh with all his heart and with all his throat and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him.

2 Kings 23:26 In spite of all that, Yahveh did not turn from the fury of his intense burning anger, which burned against Judah because of all the affronts with which Manasseh had angered him.

2 Kings 23:27 Because Yahveh had said, “I will also remove Judah from my presence just as I have removed Israel. I will reject this city Jerusalem, that I have chosen, and the temple about which I said, ‘My name will be there.'”

2 Kings 23:28 The rest of the events of Josiah’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

2 Kings 23:29 During his reign, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to confront him, and at Megiddo, when Neco saw him, he killed him.

2 Kings 23:30 His slaves carried his dead body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the common people took Jehoahaz, son of Josiah, anointed him and made him king in place of his father.

2 Kings 23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

2 Kings 23:32 He did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight just as his ancestors had done.

2 Kings 23:33 Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath to keep him from reigning in Jerusalem, and he imposed on the land a fine of seventy-five hundred pounds of silver and seventy-five pounds of gold.

2 Kings 23:34 Then Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and he died there.

2 Kings 23:35 So Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but at Pharaoh’s command, he taxed the land to provide it. He exacted the silver and the gold from the common people, each according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.

2 Kings 23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah.

2 Kings 23:37 He did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight just as his ancestors had done.

links:

cleaning up
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, November 1, 2024
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, October 23, 2023
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, October 25, 2021
the courage of Josiah – Devotions
The LORD gave, the LORD has taken away – Devotions
whatever happens

The 2 KINGS shelf in Jeff’s library

2 Kings 22

2 Kings 22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath.

2 Kings 22:2 He did what was right in Yahveh’s sight and walked in all the ways of his ancestor David; he did not turn to the right or the left.

2 Kings 22:3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent the court secretary Shaphan, son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to Yahveh’s temple, saying,

2 Kings 22:4 “Go up to the high priest Hilkiah so that he may total up the silver brought into Yahveh’s temple — the silver the doorkeepers have collected from the people.

2 Kings 22:5 It is to be given to those doing the work—those who oversee Yahveh’s temple. They, in turn, are to give it to the workmen in Yahveh’s temple to strengthen the damaged area.

2 Kings 22:6 They are to give it to the carpenters, builders, and masons to buy timber and quarried stone to make the temple strong.

2 Kings 22:7 But no accounting is to be required from them for the silver given to them since they work with integrity.”

2 Kings 22:8 The high priest Hilkiah told the court secretary Shaphan, “I have found the book of the law in Yahveh’s temple,” and he gave the book to Shaphan, who read it.

2 Kings 22:9 Then the court secretary Shaphan went to the king and reported, “Your slaves have emptied the silver that was found in the temple and have given it to those doing the work– those who oversee Yahveh’s temple.”

2 Kings 22:10 Then the court secretary Shaphan told the king, “The priest Hilkiah has given me a book,” and Shaphan read it in the king’s presence.

2 Kings 22:11 When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.

2 Kings 22:12 Then he commanded the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam, son of Shaphan, Achbor, son of Micaiah, the court secretary Shaphan, and the king’s slave Asaiah:

2 Kings 22:13 “Go and inquire of Yahveh for me, the people, and all Judah about the words in this book that has been found. For great is Yahveh’s wrath that is kindled against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this book in order to do everything written about us.”

2 Kings 22:14 So the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah, wife of Shallum, son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the Second District. They spoke with her.

2 Kings 22:15 She said to them, “This is what Yahveh God of Israel says: Say to the man who sent you to me,

2 Kings 22:16 ‘This is what Yahveh says: I am about to bring disaster on this place and its inhabitants, fulfilling all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read,

2 Kings 22:17 because they have abandoned me and burned incense to other gods to anger me with all the work of their hands. My wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.’

2 Kings 22:18 Say this to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Yahveh: ‘This is what Yahveh God of Israel says: As for the words that you heard,

2 Kings 22:19 because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before Yahveh when you heard what I spoke against this place and its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I have heard’ — this is Yahveh’s declaration.

2 Kings 22:20 ‘Therefore, I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place.'” Then, they reported to the king.

links:

“To be gathered to his people”
a right relationship with God
blaspheming heaven – Revelation 13-6
Excursus- “To Be Gathered”
gathered in peace – Devotions
Gender Equality in Ministry
The consequences of separation

The 2 KINGS shelf in Jeff’s library

2 Kings 21

2 Kings 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.

2 Kings 21:2 He did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that Yahveh had dispossessed before the Israelites.

2 Kings 21:3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and reestablished the altars for Baal. He made an Asherah, as King Ahab of Israel had done; he also bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and slaved for them.

2 Kings 21:4 He built altars in Yahveh’s temple, where Yahveh had said, “Jerusalem is where I will put my name.”

2 Kings 21:5 He built altars to all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of Yahveh’s temple.

2 Kings 21:6 He sacrificed his son in the fire, practiced witchcraft and divination and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in Yahveh’s sight, angering him.

2 Kings 21:7 Manasseh set up the carved image of Asherah, which he made, in the temple that Yahveh had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: “I will establish my name forever in this temple and Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.

2 Kings 21:8 I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land I gave to their ancestors if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them — the whole law that my slave Moses commanded them.”

2 Kings 21:9 But they did not listen; Manasseh caused them to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations Yahveh had destroyed before the Israelites.

2 Kings 21:10 Yahveh said through his slaves the prophets,

2 Kings 21:11 “Since King Manasseh of Judah has committed all these detestable acts — worse evil than the Amorites who preceded him had done — and by means of his idols has also caused Judah to sin,

2 Kings 21:12 this is what Yahveh God of Israel says: ‘I am about to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that everyone who hears about it will shudder.

2 Kings 21:13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line used on Samaria and the mason’s level used on the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem clean as one wipes a bowl—wiping it and turning it upside down.

2 Kings 21:14 I will abandon the remnant of my inheritance and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies,

2 Kings 21:15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have angered me from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until today.'”

2 Kings 21:16 Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another. This was in addition to his sin that he caused Judah to commit, so that they did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight.

2 Kings 21:17 The rest of Manasseh’s reign, including all his accomplishments and sins, is written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

2 Kings 21:18 Manasseh rested with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, the garden of Uzza. His son Amon became king in his place.

2 Kings 21:19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah.

2 Kings 21:20 He did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight, just as his father Manasseh had done.

2 Kings 21:21 He walked in all the ways his father had walked; he slaved for the idols his father had slaved for, and he bowed in worship to them.

2 Kings 21:22 He abandoned Yahveh, God of his ancestors, and did not walk in the ways of Yahveh.

2 Kings 21:23 Amon’s slaves conspired against him and put the king to death in his own house.

2 Kings 21:24 The common people killed all who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.

2 Kings 21:25 The rest of the events of Amon’s reign, along with his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

2 Kings 21:26 He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah became king in his place.

links:

business as usual
normal can be deadly – Devotions

The 2 KINGS shelf in Jeff’s library