King Josiah of Judah

¹Josiah was eight years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. His mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from the town of Bozkath.

²Josiah did what was pleasing to the Lord; he followed the example of his ancestor King David, strictly obeying all the laws of God.

The Book of the Law Is Discovered

³In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent the court secretary Shaphan, the son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshullam, to the Temple with the order:

⁴“Go to the High Priest Hilkiah and get a report on the amount of money that the priests on duty at the entrance to the Temple have collected from the people.

⁵Tell him to give the money to the men who are in charge of the repairs in the Temple. They are to pay

⁶the carpenters, the builders, and the masons, and buy the timber and the stones used in the repairs.

⁷The men in charge of the work are thoroughly honest, so there is no need to require them to account for the funds.”

⁸Shaphan delivered the king's order to Hilkiah, and Hilkiah told him that he had found the book of the Law in the Temple. Hilkiah gave him the book, and Shaphan read it.

⁹Then he went back to the king and reported: “Your servants have taken the money that was in the Temple and have handed it over to the men in charge of the repairs.”

¹⁰And then he said, “I have here a book that Hilkiah gave me.” And he read it aloud to the king.

¹¹When the king heard the book being read, he tore his clothes in dismay,

¹²and gave the following order to Hilkiah the priest, to Ahikam son of Shaphan, to Achbor son of Micaiah, to Shaphan, the court secretary, and to Asaiah, the king's attendant:

¹³“Go and consult the Lord for me and for all the people of Judah about the teachings of this book. The Lord is angry with us because our ancestors have not done what this book says must be done.”

¹⁴Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to consult a woman named Huldah, a prophet who lived in the newer part of Jerusalem. (Her husband Shallum, the son of Tikvah and grandson of Harhas, was in charge of the Temple robes.) They described to her what had happened,

¹⁵and she told them to go back to the king and give him

¹⁶the following message from the Lord: “I am going to punish Jerusalem and all its people, as written in the book that the king has read.

¹⁷They have rejected me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and so have stirred up my anger by all they have done. My anger is aroused against Jerusalem, and it will not die down.

¹⁸As for the king himself, this is what I, the Lord God of Israel, say: You listened to what is written in the book,

¹⁹and you repented and humbled yourself before me, tearing your clothes and weeping, when you heard how I threatened to punish Jerusalem and its people. I will make it a terrifying sight, a place whose name people will use as a curse. But I have heard your prayer,

²⁰and the punishment which I am going to bring on Jerusalem will not come until after your death. I will let you die in peace.” The men returned to King Josiah with this message.

King Manasseh of Judah

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years.

²Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against the Lord.

³He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He built altars for the worship of Baal, made images of the goddess Asherah, and worshiped the stars.

⁴He built pagan altars in the Temple, the place that the Lord had said was where he should be worshiped forever.

⁵In the two courtyards of the Temple he built altars for the worship of the stars.

⁶He sacrificed his sons in Hinnom Valley as burnt offerings. He practiced divination and magic and consulted fortunetellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against the Lord and stirred up his anger.

⁷He placed an image in the Temple, the place about which God had said to David and his son Solomon: “Here in Jerusalem, in this Temple, is the place that I have chosen out of all the territory of the twelve tribes of Israel as the place where I am to be worshiped.

⁸And if the people of Israel will obey all my commands and keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them, then I will not allow them to be driven out of the land that I gave to their ancestors.”

⁹Manasseh led the people of Judah to commit even greater sins than those committed by the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the land as his people advanced.

Manasseh Repents

¹⁰Although the Lord warned Manasseh and his people, they refused to listen.

¹¹So the Lord let the commanders of the Assyrian army invade Judah. They captured Manasseh, stuck hooks in him, put him in chains, and took him to Babylon.

¹²In his suffering he became humble, turned to the Lord his God, and begged him for help.

¹³God accepted Manasseh's prayer and answered it by letting him go back to Jerusalem and rule again. This convinced Manasseh that the Lord was God.

¹⁴After this, Manasseh increased the height of the outer wall on the east side of David's City, from a point in the valley near Gihon Spring north to the Fish Gate and the area of the city called Ophel. He also stationed an army officer in command of a unit of troops in each of the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵He removed from the Temple the foreign gods and the image that he had placed there, and the pagan altars that were on the hill where the Temple stood and in other places in Jerusalem; he took all these things outside the city and threw them away.

¹⁶He also repaired the altar where the Lord was worshiped, and he sacrificed fellowship offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it. He commanded all the people of Judah to worship the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁷Although the people continued to offer sacrifices at other places of worship, they offered them only to the Lord.

The End of Manasseh's Reign

¹⁸Everything else that Manasseh did, the prayer he made to his God, and the messages of the prophets who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

¹⁹The king's prayer and God's answer to it, and an account of the sins he committed before he repented—the evil he did, the pagan places of worship and the symbols of the goddess Asherah that he made and the idols that he worshiped—are all recorded in The History of the Prophets.

²⁰Manasseh died and was buried at the palace, and his son Amon succeeded him as king.

King Amon of Judah

²¹Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years.

²²Like his father Manasseh, he sinned against the Lord, and he worshiped the idols that his father had worshiped.

²³But unlike his father, he did not become humble and turn to the Lord; he was even more sinful than his father had been.

²⁴Amon's officials plotted against him and assassinated him in the palace.

²⁵The people of Judah killed Amon's assassins and made his son Josiah king.

¹My child, remember what I say and never forget what I tell you to do.

²Do what I say, and you will live. Be as careful to follow my teaching as you are to protect your eyes.

³Keep my teaching with you all the time; write it on your heart.

⁴Treat wisdom as your sister, and insight as your closest friend.

⁵They will keep you away from other men's wives, from women with seductive words.

The Immoral Woman

⁶Once I was looking out the window of my house,

⁷and I saw many inexperienced young men, but noticed one foolish fellow in particular.

⁸He was walking along the street near the corner where a certain woman lived. He was passing near her house

⁹in the evening after it was dark.

¹⁰And then she met him; she was dressed like a prostitute and was making plans.

¹¹She was a bold and shameless woman who always walked the streets

¹²or stood waiting at a corner, sometimes in the streets, sometimes in the marketplace.

¹³She threw her arms around the young man, kissed him, looked him straight in the eye, and said,

¹⁴“I made my offerings today and have the meat from the sacrifices.

¹⁵So I came out looking for you. I wanted to find you, and here you are!

¹⁶I've covered my bed with sheets of colored linen from Egypt.

¹⁷I've perfumed it with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come on! Let's make love all night long. We'll be happy in each other's arms.

¹⁹My husband isn't at home. He's on a long trip.

²⁰He took plenty of money with him and won't be back for two weeks.”

²¹So she tempted him with her charms, and he gave in to her smooth talk.

²²Suddenly he was going with her like an ox on the way to be slaughtered, like a deer prancing into a trap

²³where an arrow would pierce its heart. He was like a bird going into a net—he did not know that his life was in danger.

²⁴Now then, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to what I say.

²⁵Do not let such a woman win your heart; don't go wandering after her.

²⁶She has been the ruin of many men and caused the death of too many to count.

²⁷If you go to her house, you are on the way to the world of the dead. It is a shortcut to death.