The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 230

23:21. And he commanded all the people, saying: Keep the Phase to the Lord your G.o.d, according as it is written in the book of this covenant.

23:22. Now there was no such a Phase kept from the days of the judges, who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Juda,

23:23. As was this Phase, that was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem, in the eighteenth year of king Josias.

23:24. 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.

23:25. There was no king before him like unto him, that returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses: neither after him did there arise any like unto him.

23:26. But yet the Lord turned not away from the wrath of his great indignation, wherewith his anger was kindled against Juda: because of the provocations, wherewith Mana.s.ses had provoked him.

23:27. 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.

23:28. Now the rest of the acts of Josias, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda?

23:29. In his days Pharao Nechao, king of Egypt, went up against the king of a.s.syria to the river Euphrates: and king Josias went to meet him: and was slain at Mageddo, when he had seen him.

23:30. 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.

23:31. 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.

23:32. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.

23:33. 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.

23:34. And Pharao Nechao made Eliacim, the son of Josias, king in the room of Josias his father: and turned his name to Joakim. And he took Joachaz away and carried him into Egypt, and he died there.

23:35. And Joakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharao, after he had taxed the land for every man, to contribute according to the commandment of Pharao: and he exacted both the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every man according to his ability: to give to Pharao Nechao.

23:36. 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.

23:37. And he did evil before the Lord according to all that his fathers had done.

4 Kings Chapter 24

The reign of Joakim, Joachin, and Sedecias.

24:1. In his days Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon came up, and Joakim became his servant three years: then again he rebelled against him.

24:2. And the Lord sent against him the rovers of the Chaldees, and the rovers of Syria, and the rovers of Moab, and the rovers of the children of Ammon: and he sent them against Juda, to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by his servants, the prophets.

The Lord sent against him the rovers... Latrunculos. Bands or parties of men, who pillaged and plundered wherever they came.

24:3. And this came by the word of the Lord against Juda, to remove them from before him for all the sins of Mana.s.ses which he did;

24:4. And for the innocent blood that he shed, filling Jerusalem with innocent blood: and therefore the Lord would not be appeased.

24:5. But the rest of the acts of Joakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda?

And Joakim slept with his fathers:

24:6. And Joachin, his son, reigned in his stead.

24:7. And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his own country: for the king of Babylon had taken all that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt, unto the river Euphrates.

24:8. 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.

24:9. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that his father had done.

24:10. At that time the servants of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came up against Jerusalem, and the city was surrounded with their forts.

24:11. And Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came to the city, with his servants, to a.s.sault it.

24:12. And Joachin, king of Juda, went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his n.o.bles, and his eunuchs: and the king of Babylon received him in the eighth year of his reign.

24:13. And he brought out from thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house: and he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the temple of the Lord, according to the word of the Lord.

24:14. 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.

24:15. 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.

24:16. And all the strong men, seven thousand, and the artificers, and the smiths, a thousand, all that were valiant men, and fit for war: and the king of Babylon led them captives into Babylon.

24:17. And he appointed Matthanias, his uncle, in his stead: and called his name Sedecias.

24:18. 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.

24:19. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that Joakim had done.

24:20. 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.

4 Kings Chapter 25

Jerusalem is besieged and taken by Nabuchodonosor: Sedecias is taken: the city and temple are destroyed. G.o.dolias, who is left governor, is slain. Joachin is exalted by Evilmerodach.

25:1. And it came to pa.s.s 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.

25:2. And the city was shut up and besieged till the eleventh year of king Sedecias,

25:3. The ninth day of the month: and a famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land.

25:4. And a breach was made into the city: and all the men of war fled in the night between the two walls by the king's garden (now the Chaldees besieged the city round about), and Sedecias fled by the way that leadeth to the plains of the wilderness.

25:5. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all the warriors that were with him were scattered, and left him:

25:6. So they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon, to Reblatha, and he gave judgment upon him.

25:7. And he slew the sons of Sedecias before his face, and he put out his eyes, and bound him with chains, and brought him to Babylon.

25:8. 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.