Jerusalem

So Helcias, the priest, and Ahicam, and Achobor, and Sapham, and Asaia, went to Holda, the prophetess, the wife of Sellum, the son of Thecua, the son of Araas, keeper of the wardrobe, who dwelt in Jerusalem, in the Second: and they spoke to her.

And they brought the king word again what she had said. And he sent: and all the ancients of Juda and Jerusalem were assembled to him.

And the king went up to the temple of the Lord, and all the men of Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both little and great: and in the hearing of them all he read all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord.

And the king commanded Helcias, the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to cast out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that had been made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burnt them without Jerusalem, in the valley of Cedron, and he carried the ashes of them to Bethel.

And he destroyed the soothsayers, whom the kings of Juda had appointed to sacrifice in the high places in the cities of Juda, and round about Jerusalem: them also that burnt incense to Baal, and to the sun, and to the moon, and to the twelve signs, and to all the host of heaven.

And he caused the grove to be carried out from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, to the valley of Cedron, and he burnt it there, and reduced it to dust, and cast the dust upon the graves of the common people.

However, the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord, in Jerusalem: but only eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

The high places also that were at Jerusalem, on the right side of the Mount of Offence, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built to Astaroth, the idol of the Sidonians, and to Chamos, the scandal of Moab, and to Melchom, the abomination of the children of Ammon, the king defiled.

And he slew all the priests of the high places, that were there, upon the altars; and he burnt men's bones upon them: and returned to Jerusalem.

As was this Phase, that was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem, in the eighteenth year of king Josias.

Moreover the diviners by spirits, and soothsayers, and the figures of idols, and the uncleannesses, and the abominations, that had been in the land of Juda and Jerusalem, Josias took away: that he might perform the words of the law, that were written in the book, which Helcias the priest had found in the temple of the Lord.

And the Lord said: I will remove Juda also from before my face, as I have removed Israel: and I will cast off this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house, of which I said: My name shall be there.

And his servants carried him dead from Mageddo: and they brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Joachaz, the son of Josias: and they anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.

Joachaz was three and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias, of Lobna.

And Pharao Nechao bound him at Rebla, which is in the land of Emath, that he should not reign in Jerusalem: and he set a fine upon the land, of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

Joakim was five and twenty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Zebida, the daughter of Phadaia, of Ruma.

And for the innocent blood that he shed, filling Jerusalem with innocent blood: and therefore the Lord would not be appeased.

Joachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Nohesta, the daughter of Elnathan, of Jerusalem.

At that time the servants of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came up against Jerusalem, and the city was surrounded with their forts.

And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the valiant men of the army, to the number of ten thousand, into captivity: and every artificer and smith: and none were left, but the poor sort of the people of the land.

And he carried away Joachin into Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his eunuchs: and the judges of the land he carried into captivity, from Jerusalem, into Babylon.

Sedecias was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias, of Lobna.

For the Lord was angry against Jerusalem and against Juda, till he cast them out from his face: and Sedecias revolted from the king of Babylon.

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem: and they surrounded it: and raised works round about it.

In the fifth month, the seventh day of the month, the same is the nineteenth year of the king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan, commander of the army, a servant of the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem.