# verses

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And Elijah said to her, Do not fear. Go, do as you have said. But make me a little cake out of it first, and bring it out to me; then make something for yourself and for your son afterward.


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For thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, The barrel of meal will not give out, nor will the jar of oil fail, until the day that Jehovah sends rain upon the face of the earth.


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And she went and did according to the word of Elijah. And she and he and her house ate for many days.


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The barrel of meal did not give out, nor did the jar of oil fail, according to the word of Jehovah, which He had spoken through Elijah.


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Then after these things the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.


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And she said to Elijah, What have I done to you, O man of God, that you have come to me to recall my iniquity and kill my son?


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And he said to her, Bring me your son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into the upper chamber where he was staying, and he laid him upon his own bed.


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And he cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, have You also brought evil upon the widow, to whom I am a guest, by slaying her son?


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And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to Jehovah and said, Jehovah, my God, I beg You, let this child's soul come into him again!


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And Jehovah listened to the voice of Elijah; and the child's soul came into him again, and he lived.


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And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, See, your son is alive.


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And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that you are a man of God and that the word of Jehovah in your mouth is truth.


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Then after many days the word of Jehovah came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, present yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the face of the earth.


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And when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Jehovah, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and kept them fed with bread and water.)


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And Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land, to all the springs of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and the mules alive and not lose some of the animals.


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And they divided the land between them in order to pass through it:Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.


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And while Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him at that moment; and he recognized him and fell on his face and said, Is it indeed you, my lord Elijah?


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And he said, What sin have I committed, that you give your servant into the hand of Ahab to put me to death?


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As Jehovah your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom that my lord has not sent men into in order to seek you; and when they said, He is not here, he had an oath taken from the kingdom or nation that they had not found you there.


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And it will happen that when I go away from you, the Spirit of Jehovah will carry you off, I know not where; and when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will slay me, although I your servant have feared Jehovah since my youth.


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Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of Jehovah, that I hid a hundred of Jehovah's prophets by fifties in a cave and kept them fed with bread and water?


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Then Elijah said, As Jehovah of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will present myself to him today.


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And he said, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of Jehovah and have gone after the Baals.


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And now send word, and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, as well as the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.


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So Ahab sent word to all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets together unto Mount Carmel.


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Then Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go hopping between two opinions? If Jehovah is God, follow Him; but if Baal is, follow him. And the people did not answer him a word.


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And Elijah said to the people, I alone am left as a prophet of Jehovah, but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men.


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Let them therefore give us two bulls. And let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and put it on the wood, but let them apply no fire; and I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood, and I will apply no fire.


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Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Jehovah; and the God who answers by fire, He will be God. And all the people answered and said, The word seems good.


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And Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose one bull for yourselves, and prepare it first, for there are many of you. And call on the name of your god, but apply no fire.


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So they took the bull which had been given them and prepared it; and they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us! But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they leaped around the altar that had been made.


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Then at noon Elijah mocked them and said, Cry out with a loud voice, for he is a god; for he is meditating or has wandered off or is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and will awake.


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And they cried out with a loud voice and cut themselves, according to their custom, with swords and spears until blood gushed out all over them.


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And when noon had past, they prophesied until the time of the offering up of the meal offering; but there was no voice nor any that answered nor any attention paid.


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Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me. And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of Jehovah which was broken down.


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And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob (to whom the word of Jehovah came, saying, Israel shall be your name);


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And with the stones he built an altar in the name of Jehovah, and he made a trench around the altar, with a capacity of two measures of seed.


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And he arranged the wood and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, Fill four jars with water, and pour the water on the burnt offering and on the wood.


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And he said, Do it a second time. And they did it a second time. And he said, Do it a third time. And they did it a third time.


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Then at the offering up of the meal offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and that I have done all these things by Your w


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Answer me, O Jehovah; answer me, that this people may know that You, O Jehovah, are God and that You have turned their heart back again.


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And the fire of Jehovah fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.


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And when all the people saw this, they fell on their faces and said, Jehovah - He is God! Jehovah - He is God!


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And Elijah said to them, Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape! And they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.


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And Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he bowed down on the earth and put his face between his knees.


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And he said to his attendant, Go up now; look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, There is nothing. And he said seven times, Go back.


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And at the seventh time the attendant said, Now there is a cloud, small as a man's hand, coming up out of the sea. And Elijah said, Go up and say to Ahab, Prepare a chariot and go down, so that the rain does not stop you.


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And in the meantime the heavens became black with clouds, and there was wind and a great rain. And Ahab mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel.


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And the hand of Jehovah was upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.


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And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and all about how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.


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And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, The gods do so to me and even more, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like the life of one of them!


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And because he was afraid, he rose up and went away for his life; and he came to Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his attendant there.


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And he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a certain broom shrub; and he requested for himself that he might die and said, It is enough; now, O Jehovah, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.


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And he lay down and slept under the broom shrub. And suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, Rise up and eat.


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And he looked, and there at his head was a cake, baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again.


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And the angel of Jehovah came again the second time and touched him and said, Rise up and eat; for the journey is too great for you.


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And he rose up and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.


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And there he went into a cave and lodged there. And at that time the word of Jehovah came to him; and He said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah?


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And he said, I have been very jealous for Jehovah the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and slain Your prophets with the sword; and I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.


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And He said, Go out, and stand upon the mountain before Jehovah. And suddenly Jehovah passed by, and a great, strong wind rent the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before Jehovah - Jehovah was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake - Je


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And after the earthquake, a fire - Jehovah was not in the fire. And after the fire, a gentle, quiet voice.


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And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And then a voice came to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?


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And Jehovah said to him, Go; return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; and when you come there, anoint Hazael as king over Syria;


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And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint as king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.


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And him who escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and him who escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.


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Yet I have left Myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him.


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And he went from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat. And he was plowing with twelve yokes before him, and he was with the twelfth. And Elijah went over to him and threw his mantle upon him.


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And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow you. And he said to him, Go back again; for what have I done to you?


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And he returned from him and took the yoke of oxen and slaughtered them; and he boiled their flesh with the implements of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. And he rose up and went after Elijah and ministered to him.


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And Ben-hadad the king of Syria assembled all his army together; and there were thirty-two kings with him, as well as horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria and fought against it.


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And the king of Israel answered and said, As you say, my lord the king, I and all that I have are yours.


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And the messengers came again and said, Thus speaks Ben-hadad, saying, I sent word to you, saying, You shall give me your silver and your gold and your wives and your children;


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But tomorrow at this time I will send my servants to you, and they will search your house and your servants' houses; and whatever is pleasant in your sight, they will put in their hand and take away.


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And the king of Israel called all the elders of the land and said, Look now, and see how this man seeks trouble; for he sent word to me for my wives and my children and my silver and my gold; and I did not deny him.


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And all the elders and all the people said to him, Do not listen to him, nor shall you give consent.


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And he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, Tell my lord the king, All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I cannot do. And the messengers departed and brought word back to him.


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And Ben-hadad sent word to him and said, The gods do so to me and even more, if the dust of Samaria will provide even a handful for all the people who follow me!


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And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him who puts on his armor boast like him who takes it off.


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And when he heard this word, as he and the kings in the tents were drinking, he said to his servants, Set yourselves in position. And they set themselves in position against the city.


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Then at that moment a certain prophet approached Ahab the king of Israel and said, Thus says Jehovah, Have you seen all this great multitude? I am now delivering it into your hand today, and you will know that I am Jehovah.


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And Ahab said, Through whom? And he said, Thus says Jehovah, Through the attendants of the leaders of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall begin the battle? And He said, You.


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And he numbered the attendants of the leaders of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two; and after them he numbered all the people, all the children of Israel, seven thousand.


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And they went out at noon; and Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the tents, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him.


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And the attendants of the leaders of the provinces went out first. And Ben- hadad sent out men, and they told him, saying, Some men have come forth from Samaria.


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And he said, If they have come forth for peace, take them alive; or if they have come forth for war, take them alive.


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But these had come forth from the city, the attendants of the leaders of the provinces and the army that followed them.


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And each man struck down his opponent; and the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. And Ben-hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with the horsemen.


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And the king of Israel went forth and struck down the horses and chariots, and he struck down the Syrians with a great slaughter.


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And the prophet approached the king of Israel and said to him, Go; strengthen yourself, and consider and see what you should do; for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against you.


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And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, Their gods are gods of the mountains; therefore they were stronger than we. But if we fight against them in the plain, we will surely be stronger than they.


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And you number an army, like the army that you lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot; and we will fight against them in the plain. We will surely be stronger than they. And he listened to their voice and did so.


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And at the return of the year Ben- hadad numbered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight with Israel.


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And the children of Israel were numbered and supplied with food, and they went to meet them. And the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Syrians filled the land.


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And the man of God approached and spoke to the king of Israel and said, Thus says Jehovah, Because the Syrians have said, Jehovah is a God of the mountains, but He is not a God of the valleys, I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand; and yo


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And they camped, one army against the other, for seven days. Then on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel struck down a hundred thousand footmen of the Syrians in one day.


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And the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on the twenty-seven thousand of them who were left. And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city, hiding from one room to another.


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And his servants said to him, Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. We beg you, let us put sackcloth on our loins and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will preserve your life.


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And they girded sackcloth on their loins and ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, Your servant Ben-hadad says, I beg you, preserve my life. And he said, Is he still alive? He is my brother.


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And the men were looking for some sign and quickly caught what came from him; and they said, Ben-hadad is your brother. And he said, Go and bring him. And Ben-hadad came forth to him, and he brought him up into the chariot.


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And said to him, The cities that my father took from your father I will restore; and you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. And I, will send you away with this treaty. So he made a treaty with him and sent him awa


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And a certain one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion by the word of Jehovah, Strike me. But the man refused to strike him.


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Then he said to him, Because you have not listened to the voice of Jehovah, as soon as you depart from me, the lion will strike you down. And when he had departed from him, the lion found him and struck him down.


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And the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, and he disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes.


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And when the king passed by, he cried out to the king and said, Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and then a man turned aside and brought man to me and said, Guard this man; if he is missing at all, your life will be for his life, or yo


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And because your servant was doing things here and there, he got away. And the king of Israel said to him, So be your judgment; you have determined it yourself.


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Then he quickly took the bandage away from over his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized that he was one of the prophets.


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And he said to him, Thus says Jehovah, Because you have released out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.


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And after these things, it so happened that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, alongside the palace of Ahab the king of Samaria.


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And Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden; for it is nearby, alongside my house. And I will give you in its place a better vineyard than it; if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in mo


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And Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed because of the word that Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.


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And Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, Why is your spirit so sullen that you will not eat any food?


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And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it; and he said, I will not give you my vineyard.


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And Jezebel his wife said to him, Do you now exercise sovereignty over Israel? Rise up, eat some food, and let your heart be glad:I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.


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And she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who dwelt with Naboth in his city.


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And put two worthless fellows before him, and they shall testify against him, saying, You cursed God and the king. Then carry him out, and stone him that he may die.


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And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, did according to the instructions that Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letters that she had sent to them.


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And the two worthless fellows came and sat before him; and the worthless men testified against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth cursed God and the king. And they carried him out of the city and stoned him with stones, an


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And when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, Rise up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive but dead.


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And when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it.


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Rise up and go down to meet Ahab the king of Israel, who is in Samaria. He is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it.


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And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says Jehovah, Have you killed and also taken possession? Then you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says Jehovah, In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick up your blood also.


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And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, my enemy? And he said, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of Jehovah.


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I am now bringing evil upon you, and I will take away your posterity and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond and free, in Israel;


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And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah because of the provocation by which you have provoked Me to anger and caused Israel to sin.


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And concerning Jezebel, Jehovah also spoke, saying, The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel.


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Him of Ahab's who dies in the city, the dogs will eat; and him who dies in the field, the birds of heaven will eat.


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(Indeed there was none like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of Jehovah because Jezebel his wife urged him on.


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And he acted very abominably in going after idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.)


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And when Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted; and he lay in sackcloth and went about carefully.


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Do you see how Ahab humbles himself before Me? Because he humbles himself before Me, I will not bring the evil upon him in his days; in his son's days I will bring the evil upon his house.


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And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you know that Ramoth-gilead is ours, and yet we keep quiet without taking it out of the hand of the king of Syria?


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And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me into battle at Ramoth-gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I will be as you are; my people will be as your people; my horses, as your horses.


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And the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and said to them, Shall I go against Ramoth- gilead to battle, or shall I refrain? And they said, Go up, and the Lord will give it into the king's hand.


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But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not yet another prophet of Jehovah here, that we might inquire of him?


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And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Jehovah; but I hate him, for he prophesies no good concerning me, but evil. It is Micaiah the son of Imlah. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.


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Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting, each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, on the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.


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And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron; and he said, Thus says Jehovah, With these you will push the Syrians until you have destroyed them.


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And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and succeed; for Jehovah will deliver it into the king's hand.


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And the messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, See, the words of the prophets, being of one accord, seem good to the king. Let your word, I beg you, be like the word of one of them, and speak good.


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And when he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we refrain? And he said to him, Go up, and succeed; for Jehovah will deliver it into the hand of the king.


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And the king said to him, How many times shall I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Jehovah?


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And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, like sheep that have no shepherd. And Jehovah said, These have no master; let each of them return to his house in peace.


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And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he prophesies no good concerning me, but evil?


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And Micaiah said, Hear therefore the word of Jehovah, I saw Jehovah sitting upon His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him, on His right hand and on His left.


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And Jehovah said, Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said after this manner, and another said after that manner.


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And Jehovah said unto him, How? And he said, I will go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, You shall entice him and surely prevail. Go forth, and do so.


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So now Jehovah has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets, and Jehovah has spoken evil concerning you.


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Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah approached and struck Micaiah upon the cheek and said, Which way did the Spirit of Jehovah pass from me to speak to you?


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And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son.


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And you shall say, Thus says the king, Put this man in prison, and feed him with the bread of affliction and with the water of affliction, until I come in peace.


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And Micaiah said, If you return in peace at all, Jehovah has not spoken by me. And he said, Listen, O peoples, all of you!


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And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle; but you put on your robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle.


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And the king of Syria commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, but with the king of Israel only.


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And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, Surely this is the king of Israel. And they turned against him to fight, and Jehoshaphat cried out.


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And when the captains of the chariots perceived that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.


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And a man drew a bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the scale armor and the breastplate. And the king of Israel said to his charioteer, Turn your hand, and drive me out of the camp; for I am wounded.


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And the battle increased that day; and the king was propped up in his chariot before the Syrians, and he died in the evening; and the blood of the wound ran out into the hollow of the chariot.


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And the cry went throughout the army at the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own land!


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And someone washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked his blood, where the harlots bathed, according to the word of Jehovah, which he had spoken.


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And the rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did and the ivory house that he built and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?


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And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab the king of Israel.


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Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.


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And he walked in all the way of Asa his father; he turned not aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of Jehovah. Nevertheless the high places were not removed; the people offered sacrifices and burned incense still on the high places.


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And the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat and his might that he showed and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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And the remainder of the male cult prostitutes, which were left in the days of his father Asa, he put away from out of the land.


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Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish go to Ophir for gold; but they did not go, for the ships were wrecked at Ezion-geber.


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Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat was not willing.


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And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Jehoram his son reigned in his place.


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Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah; and he reigned two years over Israel.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.


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And he served Baal and worshipped him and provoked Jehovah the God of Israel to anger, according to all that his father had done.


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And Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria and became ill. And he sent messengers and said to them, Go and inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I will recover from this sickness.


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But the Angel of Jehovah said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise; go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?


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Now therefore thus says Jehovah, You shall not come down from the bed on which you have gone up, but you shall surely die. And Elijah departed.


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And they said to him, A man came up to meet us and said to us, Go return to the king who sent you, and say to him, Thus says Jehovah, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you send to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall no


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And they said to him, A hairy man, and he was girded with a leather girdle around his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.


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And he sent a captain of fifty with his fifty to him. And the captain went up to him, and there he was, sitting on the top of the hill. And he said to him, O man of God, the king says, Come down!


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And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.


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And again the king sent another captain of fifty with his fifty. And the captain answered and said to him, O man of God, thus says the king, Come down quickly.


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And Elijah answered and said to them, If I am the man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.


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And again sent a captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up; and he came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and he entreated him and said to him, O man of God, may my soul and the soul of these fifty servants of you


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Already fire has come down from heaven and consumed the first two captains of fifty and their fifties; and now may my soul be precious in your sight.


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And the Angel of Jehovah said to Elijah, Go down with him; do not be afraid of him. And he rose up and went down with him to the king.


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Then he said to him, Thus says Jehovah, Because you sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron - was it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word? - therefore you shall not come down from the bed on which you have gone up, bu


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And he died according to the word of Jehovah which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram began to reign in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, because he had no son.


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And the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?


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And when Jehovah was about to take up Elijah by a whirlwind into heaven, Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.


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And Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, for Jehovah has sent me as far as Bethel. And Elisha said, As Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel.


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Then the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, Do you know that Jehovah will take away your master from over your head today? And he said, I too know it; be silent.


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And Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here, for Jehovah has sent me to Jericho. And he said, As Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And they came to Jericho.


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And the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho approached Elisha and said to him, Do you know that Jehovah will take away your master from over your head today? And he said, I too know it; be silent.


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And Elijah said to him, Stay here, for Jehovah has sent me to the Jordan. And he said, As Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So the two of them went on.


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And fifty men from the sons of the prophets went and stood opposite them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan.


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And Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and struck the water; and it parted to this side and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.


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And when they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I should do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha said, Let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.


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And he said, You have asked a hard thing. If you see me when I am taken from you, so will it be to you; but if not, it will not be so.


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And as they went on and talked, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared; and they separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.


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And Elisha saw it and cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen! And he did not see him anymore. And he grasped his clothes and tore them in two pieces.


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And he picked up Elijah's mantle, which had fallen from him, and returned and stood by the bank of the Jordan.


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And he took Elijah's mantle, which had fallen from him, and struck the water and said, Where is Jehovah, the God of Elijah? And when he also struck the water, it parted to this side and that, and Elisha crossed over.


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And when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho opposite him saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him.


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And they said to him, Here with your servants are fifty strong men; let them go and seek your master, lest the Spirit of Jehovah has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley. And he said, You shall not send them.


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But when they urged him until he was ashamed, he said, Send them. So they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him.


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And they returned to him while he stayed at Jericho; and he said to them, Did I not say to you, Do not go?


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And the men of the city said to Elisha, The location of the city is good, as my lord can see; but the water is bad, and the land is barren.


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And he went out to the source of the water and threw salt there; and he said, Thus says Jehovah, I have healed this water; there will not be any more death or barrenness from there.


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And he went up from there to Bethel. And as he was going up on the way, some little boys came out from the city and mocked him and said to him, Go up, baldhead; go up, baldhead.


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And he turned around and looked at them and cursed them in the name of Jehovah. Then two female bears came out of the woods and tore up forty-two children among them.


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Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, but not as his father and his mother had done, for he put away the pillar of Baal, which his father had made.


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Yet he clung to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin; he did not turn away from them.


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Now Mesha the king of Moab was a sheep breeder, who would pay as tribute to the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams.


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And he went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to Moab to fight? And he said, I will go up:I will be as you are; my people will be as your people; my horses, as your horses.


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So the king of Israel and the king of Judah and the king of Edom set out, and they circled about on a journey of seven days. And there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them.


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And the king of Israel said, Alas! Jehovah has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.


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But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no prophet of Jehovah here, by whom we may inquire of Jehovah? And one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.


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And Jehoshaphat said, The word of Jehovah is with him. And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.


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And Elisha said to the king of Israel, What do I have in this that concerns you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother. And the king of Israel said to him, No; for Jehovah has called these three kings together to deliver the


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And Elisha said, As Jehovah of hosts, before whom I stand, lives, were it not that I regard Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not even look at you or see you.


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For thus says Jehovah, You will not see wind, nor will you see rain; but that valley will be filled with water, and you will drink, as will your cattle and your animals.


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And you will strike every fortified city and every choice city, and every good tree you will fell, and all the springs of water you will stop, and every fine portion of land you will mar with stones.


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And in the morning, at about the time of the offering up of the meal offering, there came water from the direction of Edom, and the land was filled with water.


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Now when all Moab heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, any of those old enough to strap on armor and upward were called out; and they stationed themselves at the border.


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And when they rose up early in the morning, the sun shone on the water; and the Moabites saw the water before them as red as blood.


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And they said, This is blood; the kings have no doubt fought against themselves, and each has struck down his companion. Now therefore to the spoil, O Moab!


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And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them. And they went among them and struck down the Moabites.


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And they overturned the cities, and on every fine portion each man threw his stone and filled it up, and every spring of water they stopped, and every good tree they felled. Only at Kir-hareseth did they leave stones but the slingers encircled and stru


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And when the king of Moab saw that the battle went hard against him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew the sword, in order to break through to the king of Edom; but they were not able to do it.


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So he took his firstborn son, who was to reign in his place, and offered him up as a burnt offering upon the wall. And great wrath came upon Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their land.


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Now a certain woman from among the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared Jehovah. And the creditor has come to take my two children to himself as servants.


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And Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in your house? And she said, Your servant has nothing at all in the house, except a jar of oil.


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And he said, Go and borrow vessels outside, from all your neighbors, empty vessels, and not just a few.


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Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all those vessels; and each one you fill set aside.


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So she went away from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons; and they brought the vessels to her, and she poured out into them.


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And when she had filled the vessels, she said to her son, Bring me another vessel. But he said to her, There is no other vessel. And the oil stopped.


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And she went and told the man of God. And he said, Go and sell the oil, and pay your debt; and you and your sons can live off the rest.


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And one day Elisha was passing through Shunem; and there was a wealthy woman there, who compelled him to have a meal. So whenever he passed through, he would turn aside and have a meal there.


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And she said to her husband, Now I know that this man who continually passes through unto us is a holy man of God.


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Let us make a little walled upper room and put a bed and a table and a chair and a lamp for him; and when he comes to us, he can turn aside there.


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And he said to Gehazi his attendant, Call this Shunammite. And he called her, and she stood before him.


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And he said to him, Say to her, You have gone to all this trouble for us; what can be done for you? Should you be spoken of to the king or to the captain of the army? And she said, I dwell in the midst of my people.


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And he said, What then can be done for her? And Gehazi said, Indeed she has no son, and her husband is old.


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And he said, At this time next year you shall embrace a son. And she said, No, my lord, O man of God, do not deceive your servant.


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And when he had carried him in and brought him to his mother, the child lay upon her lap until noon, then died.


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And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and she shut the door behind him and went out.


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Then she called her husband and said, Send me one of the attendants and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and return.


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And he said, Why will you go to him today? It is neither the new moon nor the Sabbath. But she said, It will be fine.


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Then she saddled the donkey and said to her attendant, Urge the beast, and do not restrain the ride for me unless I tell you.


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So she went. And she came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. And when the man of God saw her at a distance, he said to Gehazi his attendant, That is the Shunammite over there.


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Run now to meet her, and say to her, Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child? And she said, It is well.


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And when she came to the man of God on the mountain, she clung to his feet. And Gehazi approached to pull her away, but the man of God said, Leave her alone; for she is bitter in soul, and Jehovah has hidden from me and has not told me


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Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not respond to him. And lay my staff upon the face of the boy.


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And the mother of the boy said, As Jehovah lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. And he rose up and followed her.


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And Gehazi passed on before them and set the staff upon the boy's face, but there was no sound or reaction. Therefore he returned to meet him and told him, saying, The boy has not awakened.


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Then he got up and lay on the child, and he put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his palms on his palms; and he stretched himself over him, and the flesh of the child became warm.


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And he got down and walked about in the house once to and fro. Then he got up and stretched himself over him, and the boy sneezed seven times. Then the boy opened his eyes.


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And he called Gehazi and said, Call that Shunammite. So he called her. And when she came to him, he said, Take up your son.


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And she came and fell at his feet and bowed herself to the ground. And she took up her son and went out.


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Then Elisha returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. And the sons of the prophets sat before him. And he said to his attendant, Put on the big pot, and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.


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And one went out into the field to gather herbs. And he found a wild vine and gathered from it a lapful of wild gourds. And he came and cut them up into the pot of stew, though they did not know what they were.


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And they poured out the stew for the men to eat. And while they were eating some of the stew, they cried out and said, O man of God, there is poison in the pot. And they were not able to eat it.


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And he said, Then bring some flour. And he threw it into the pot and said, Pour it out for the people that they may eat. And there was nothing harmful in the pot.


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Then a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought to the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, Give it to the people that they may eat.


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And his servant said, How can I set this before a hundred people? And he said, Give it to the people that they may eat; for thus says Jehovah, They shall eat and have some left.


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Now Naaman, the captain of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man in the sight of his master and highly respected, because by him Jehovah had given deliverance to Syria. But the man, though a mighty man of valor, was a leper.


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And the Syrians had gone out in bands and had taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman's wife.


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And she said to her mistress, If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.


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And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, Thus and thus did the girl who is from the land of Israel say.


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Then the king of Syria said, Go then, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he went and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes.


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And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read:And now, when this letter comes to you, I am sending Naaman my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.


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And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, Am I God to put to death and to give life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Therefore consider now and see how he seeks an occasion against me.


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And when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent word to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.


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And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored; and you shall be clean.


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But Naaman became furious and went away and said, I thought, He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.


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Are not the Abana and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.


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And his servants came near and spoke to him and said, My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, Wash and be clean?


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So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times according to the word of the man of God. And his flesh was restored to be like the flesh of a little boy, and he was clean.


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And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him and said, Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except with Israel. And now, please accept a present from your servant.


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But he said, As Jehovah lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing. And Naaman urged him to take it, but he refused.


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And Naaman said, Then if not, please let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth, for your servant will no more offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to other gods, but to Jehovah only.


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In this matter may Jehovah pardon your servant:When my master goes into the house of Rimmon to bow down there and leans on my arm, and I bow down in the house of Rimmon, when I bow down in the house of Rimmon, may Jehovah pardon your servant in this matt


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Gehazi, the attendant of Elisha the man of God said, Now my master has spared Naaman this Syrian by not receiving from his hand that which he brought. As Jehovah lives, I will run after him and take something from him.


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So Gehazi pursued Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he alighted from the chariot to meet him and said, Is all well?


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And he said, All is well. My master has sent me, saying, Now at this moment two young men from among the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim; please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothes.


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And Naaman said, Please take two talents. And he urged him and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothes, and gave them to two of his attendants; and they carried them before him.


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And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand and deposited them in the house. And he sent the men away, and they departed.


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And he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, Where have you come from, Gehazi? And he said, Your servant has not gone anywhere.


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And he said to him, Did not my heart go with you when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive silver and to receive clothing and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male servants and female servants?


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Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cleave to you and to your seed forever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.


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Then the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, The place here where we dwell before you is too narrow for us.


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Let us go to the Jordan and each take a beam from there, and let us make for ourselves a place there, where we may dwell. And he said, Go.


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But as one was felling a beam, the ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, Alas, my master! It was borrowed.


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And the man of God said, Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick and threw it there and made the iron float.


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Now the king of Syria waged war against Israel. And he took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall my camp be.


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And the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you do not pass such a place, for the Syrians are going down there.


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And the king of Israel sent word to the place that the man of God told him about. So the king alerted the place and put it on guard not merely once or twice.


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And the heart of the king of Syria was enraged over this matter. And he called his servants and said to them, Tell me, which of us sides with the king of Israel?


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And one of his servants said, None, my lord O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words which you speak in your bedroom.


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And he said, Go and see where he is, that I may send for him and seize him. And it was told him, saying, He is in Dothan.


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And he sent horses and chariots and a massive army there. And they came by night and surrounded the city.


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And the servant of the man of God rose early and went out, and there it was:an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. And his attendant said to him, Alas, my master! What shall we do?


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And Elisha prayed and said, O Jehovah, open his eyes that he may see. And Jehovah opened the eyes of the attendant, and he saw:The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.


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And when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to Jehovah and said, Strike this nation with blindness. And He struck them with blindness according to Elisha's word.


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Then Elisha said to them, This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. And he brought them to Samaria.


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And when they came to Samaria, Elisha said, O Jehovah, open the eyes of these men that they may see. And Jehovah opened their eyes and they saw that they were in the midst of Samaria.


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And when he saw them, the king of Israel said to Elisha, Shall I strike them? Shall I strike them, my father?


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And he said, You shall not strike them. Would you strike those whom you have taken captive by your sword and your bow? Set bread and water before them, and let them eat and drink and go back to their master.


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Then he prepared a great feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the bands of Syria no longer came into the land of Israel.


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And there was a great famine in Samaria; and they besieged it until the head of a donkey was sold for eighty pieces of silver and a fourth part of a kab of doves' dung was sold for five pieces of silver.


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And once, as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, Help me, my lord O king.


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And he said, If Jehovah does not help you, from where shall I help you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?


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And the king said to her, What is your trouble? And she said, This woman said to me, Give up your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.


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So we boiled my son and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, Give up your son that we may eat him; but she hid her son.


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And when the king heard the woman's words, he tore his clothes. And as he passed by upon the wall, the people could see that he had sackcloth upon his flesh underneath.


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And he said, God do so to me, and even more, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today.


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Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. And had sent a man from before him. Before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, Do you see that this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? When the messeng


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While he was still talking with them, the king came down to him and said, This evil is from Jehovah; why should I wait for Jehovah any longer?


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And Elisha said, Hear the word of Jehovah:Thus says Jehovah, At about this time tomorrow a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel and two seahs of barley will be sold for a shekel in the gate of Samaria.


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Then the captain on whose arm the king leaned answered the man of God and said, Even if Jehovah made windows in heaven, could this thing happen? And he said, Your eyes shall indeed see it, but you shall not eat from it.


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Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. And they said to one another, Why are we sitting here until we die?


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If we say, Let us enter the city, the famine is in the city and we will die there; but if we sit here, we will also die. Now therefore let us go and desert to the camp of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we will live; and if they kill us, we will die.


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So they rose up in the twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. And when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, there was not a man there.


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Now the Lord had made the camp of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots the sound of horses, the sound of a great army; and each man said to his brother, Now the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come ag


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And they rose up and fled in the twilight, and they abandoned their tents and their horses and their donkeys, indeed the whole camp just as it was, and fled for their lives.


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So when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they entered one tent and began to eat and drink. And they took silver and gold and clothing from there, and went and hid And they went back and entered another tent and took from there and went and hid


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Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. This day is a day of good tidings, and we remain silent. If we delay until the morning's light, our iniquity will find us out. Now therefore, come and let us go and tell the king's household.


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So they went and called out to the gatekeepers of the city and told them saying, We went to the camp of the Syrians, and there was not a man there nor even the sound of a man; but the horses were tied, and the donkeys were tied, and the tents were as they


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And the king rose up in the night and said to his servants, I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us:They know that we are hungry; and they have gone out from the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out from the city, we


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And one of his servants answered and said, Let take five of the remaining horses that are left in the city - they are like all the multitude of Israel which remain in the city; they are like all the multitude of Israel which have perished - and let us s


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So they took two chariots with horses, and the king sent them after the army of Syria, saying, Go and see.


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And when they went after them toward the Jordan, all the way was full of garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown off in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.


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And the people went forth and plundered the camp of the Syrians. And a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of Jehovah.


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Now the king had appointed the captain on whose arm he leaned to have charge of the gate; and the people trampled him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king had come down to him.


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So just as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two seahs of barley will be sold for a shekel and a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel at about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria;


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And the captain had answered the man of God and said, Even if Jehovah made windows in heaven, could this thing happen? and the man of God had said, Your eyes shall indeed see it, but you shall not eat from it;


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Now Elisha had spoken to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, Rise up, and you and your household go and dwell wherever you can; for Jehovah has called for a famine, and it will also come upon the land for seven years.


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So the woman rose up and did according to the word of the man of God. And she and her household went and dwelt in the land of the Philistines for seven years.


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And at the end of the seven years the woman returned from the land of the Philistines. And she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and her land.


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And the king was talking to Gehazi the attendant of the man of God, saying, Recount to me all the great things that Elisha has done.


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And while was telling the king how had restored the dead to life, there the woman whose son he had restored to life, crying to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha re


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And the king asked the woman, and she recounted it to him. And the king appointed a certain officer for her, saying, Restore all that was hers and all the produce of her land from the day that she left the country until now.


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And Elisha went to Damascus. And Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick. And it was told him, saying, The man of God has come here.


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And the king said to Hazael, Take a gift with you, and go to meet the man of God; and inquire of Jehovah through him, saying, Will I recover from this sickness?


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So Hazael went to meet him; and he took a gift with him, even all good things of Damascus, forty camel loads. And he came and stood before him and said, Your son Ben-hadad the king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, Will I recover from this sickness?


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And Elisha said to him, Go and say to him, You shall certainly recover; however Jehovah has shown me that he shall certainly die.


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And Hazael said, Why are you weeping, my lord? And he said, Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel:Their strongholds you will set on fire, and their choice young men you will slay with the sword, and their little ones you will


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And Hazael said, But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing? And Elisha said, Jehovah has shown me that you will be king over Syria.


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And he went from Elisha and came to his master. And his master said to him, What did Elisha say to you? And he said, He told me that you shall certainly recover.


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But on the next day he took the heavy covering over Ben-hadad and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, so that he died; and Hazael reigned in his place.


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Now in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, the king of Israel, while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, began to reign.


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And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel and as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab's daughter was his wife; and he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah.


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But Jehovah would not destroy Judah, because of David His servant, as He had promised him that for his sake He would provide a lamp for his children always.


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So Joram crossed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him. And he rose up at night and struck the Edomites all around him and the captains of the chariots, but his people fled to their tents.


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So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, as it is to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time.


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And the rest of the acts of Joram and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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And Joram slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.


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In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, the king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, the king of Judah, began to reign.


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Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri the king of Israel.


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And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the house of Ahab; for he was a son-in-law to the house of Ahab.


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And he went with Joram the son of Ahab to fight with Hazael the king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead. And the Syrians struck Joram.


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And Joram the king returned to heal in Jezreel of his wounds that the Syrians had inflicted in Ramah when he fought with Hazael the king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, the king of Judah, went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he


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And Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, Gird up your loins, and take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.


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And when you arrive there, look there for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi; and go in and make him rise up from among his brothers, and bring him to an inner room.


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Then take the flask of oil and pour it on his head and say, Thus says Jehovah, I have anointed you king over Israel. Then open the door and flee, and do not delay.


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And when he came, there the captains of the army were sitting. And he said, I have a word for you, O captain. And Jehu said, To which one of all of us? And he said, To you, O captain.


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And he rose up and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head and said to him, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I have anointed you king over the people of Jehovah, over Israel.


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And you shall strike the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of My servants the prophets and the blood of all the servants of Jehovah at the hand of Jezebel.


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And the whole house of Ahab will perish, and I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond and free, in Israel;


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And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah;


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And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the lot of Jezreel, and there will be none to bury her. Then he opened the door and fled.


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And when Jehu came out to the servants of his master, someone said to him, Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you? And he said to them, You know the man and his ranting.


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And they said, That is a lie; please tell us. And he said, Thus and thus he said to me, saying, Thus says Jehovah, I have anointed you king over Israel.


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Then they moved quickly; and every man took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps; and they blew the trumpet and said, Jehu is king!


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And Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram had been defending Ramoth-gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael the king of Syria,


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But Jehoram the king returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had inflicted on him when he fought Hazael the king of Syria). And Jehu said, If this is your desire, let no fugitive depart from the city and go and tell it in Jezreel.


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So Jehu rode off in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying ill there. And Ahaziah the king of Judah had come down to see Joram.


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And the watchman stood on the tower in Jezreel and saw Jehu's multitude as he came, and he said, I see a multitude. And Jehoram said, Take a horseman, and send him to meet them; and let him say, Is there peace?


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So the horseman went to meet him and said, Thus says the king, Is there peace? And Jehu said, What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me. And the watchman reported, saying, The messenger went to them but did not return.


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And he sent out a second horseman; and he came to them and said, Thus says the king, Is there peace? And Jehu said, What do you have to do with peace? Turn behind me.


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And the watchman reported, saying, He went to them but did not return; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, because he drives furiously.


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And Jehoram said, Yoke the chariot! And someone yoked his chariot. And Jehoram the king of Israel and Ahaziah the king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and went to meet Jehu; and they found him in the lot of Naboth the Jezreelite.


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And when Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, Is there peace, Jehu? And he said, What peace can there be, so long as the harlotries and sorceries of Jezebel your mother are so many?


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And Jehu drew his bow with full strength and struck Jehoram between his arms; and the arrow went through his heart, and he sank down in his chariot.


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And Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, Take him up, and throw him in the lot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how you and I were riding together behind Ahab his father, and Jehovah uttered this oracle against him:


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Surely I have seen the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons yesterday, declares Jehovah; and I will repay you in this lot, declares Jehovah. And now, take him up and throw him in the lot, according to the word of Jehovah.


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And Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this and fled toward the garden house; and Jehu pursued after him and said, Strike him too in his chariot. So they struck him at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo and died there.


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And his servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his grave with his fathers in the city of David.


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And Jehu came to Jezreel; and Jezebel heard of it. And she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head, and she looked out the window.


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And he lifted up his face to the window and said, Who is on my side? Who? And two or three eunuchs looked out at him.


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And he said, Throw her down. And they threw her down. And some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her.


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And he came in, and ate and drank, and said, Attend now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter.


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But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than her skull and her feet and the palms of her hands.


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And they returned and reported it to him. And he said, This is the word of Jehovah, which He spoke through His servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the lot of Jezreel the dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel;


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And the corpse of Jezebel will be like dung upon the surface of the field in the lot of Jezreel, so that they will not say, This is Jezebel.


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Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria, and Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria to the rulers of Jezreel, the elders, and to the guardians of the children of Ahab, saying,


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Now then, when this letter comes to you, since your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons,


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Look for the best and fittest of your master's sons, and set him on the throne of his father, and fight for your master's house.


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But they feared very greatly and said, If the two kings could not stand before him, how then can we stand before him?


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And he who was over the household and he that was over the city and the elders and the guardians sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants; all that you say to us, we will do. We will not make anyone king. What is good in your sight, do.


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Then he wrote a letter to them a second time, saying, If you are mine and listen to my voice, take the heads of the sons of your master, and come to me at Jezreel tomorrow at this time. Now the king's sons, seventy men, were with the great men of the cit


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And when the letter reached them, they took the king's sons and slaughtered them, seventy men; and they placed their heads in baskets and sent them to him in Jezreel.


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And the messenger came and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Put them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.


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And in the morning he went out and stood and said to all the people, You are righteous. I conspired against my master and have killed him; but who struck all these?


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Know therefore that nothing of the word of Jehovah, which Jehovah spoke concerning the house of Ahab, shall fall to the earth; for Jehovah has done that which He spoke through His servant Elijah.


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So Jehu killed all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel and all his great men and his acquaintances and his priests, until he left him no one remaining.


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Then he rose up and departed and came into Samaria. And while he was at the shepherds' meeting place on the way,


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Jehu came upon the brothers of Ahaziah the king of Judah; and he said, Who are you? And they said, We are the brothers of Ahaziah, and have come down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen mother.


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And he said, Take them alive. And they took them alive and slew them, forty- two men, at the pit of the meeting place; and he left not one of them remaining.


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And when he departed from there, he came upon Jehonadab the son of Rechab to meet him; and he greeted him and said to him, Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart? And Jehonadab said, It is. And , If it is, give your hand. And gave him his


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And when he came to Samaria, he struck all who were left to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of Jehovah, which He spoke to Elijah.


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And Jehu gathered all the people together and said to them, Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much.


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Now call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests; let none be missing. For I have a great sacrifice to Baal. Whoever is missing will not live. But Jehu acted in subtlety, in order that he might destroy the worshippers of Baa


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And Jehu sent word throughout all Israel, and all the worshippers of Baal came; and there was not one left who did not come. And they came to the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was filled from one end to the other.


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And he said to the one who was over the wardrobe, Bring out garments for all the worshippers of Baal. And they brought out the garments to them.


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And Jehu and Jehonadab the son of Rechab came to the house of Baal; and he said to the worshippers of Baal, Search and see that none of the servants of Jehovah are here with you; only the worshippers of Baal should be here.


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And they came to offer sacrifice and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed for himself eighty men outside; and he had said, He who allows any of the men to escape whom I bring into your hands will give up his life instead.


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And when he finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guards and to the captains, Go in and slay them; let no one get out. And they struck them with the edge of the sword. And the guards and the captains threw out, and they went to the inner


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And they broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal and made it a latrine, as it is to this day.


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However as regards the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin, Jehu did not turn away from them, that is, the golden calves which were in Bethel and in Dan.


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And Jehovah said to Jehu, Because you have done well in executing what is right in My eyes and have dealt with the house of Ahab according to all that was in My heart, your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.


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But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of Jehovah the God of Israel with all his heart; he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam, by which he caused Israel to sin.


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In those days Jehovah began to cut away portions of land in Israel, and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel


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From the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of Arnon, both Gilead and Bashan.


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And the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?


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And Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place.


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Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose up and destroyed all the royal seed.


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But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were to be killed; she put him and his nurse into the bedchamber. So they hid him from Athaliah, and he was


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And he was with her, hidden in the house of Jehovah, for six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.


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Then in the seventh year Jehoiada sent and gathered the captains of the hundreds over the Carites and over the guards and brought them to him at the house of Jehovah. And he made a covenant with them and put them under an oath in the house of Jehovah, th


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And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that you shall do:A third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath shall keep watch over the king's house;


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And another third shall keep watch in the gate of Sur; and another third shall keep watch at the gate behind the guards. You shall keep watch over the house for a defense.


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And the two divisions of you, all who go off duty on the Sabbath, shall keep watch over the house of Jehovah for the king.


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And you shall surround the king, each man with his weapons in his hand; and whoever enters the ranks shall be put to death; and you shall be with the king in his goings and comings.


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And the captains of the hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded them. And each took his men, those who came on duty on the Sabbath with those who went off duty on the Sabbath; and they came to Jehoiada the priest.


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And the priest gave the spears and shields that had belonged to King David, which were in the house of Jehovah, to the captains of the hundreds.


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And the guards stood, each man with his weapons in his hand, from the right flank of the house to the left flank of the house, by the altar and by the house, to guard the king all around.


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And he brought the king's son out and gave him the crown and the testimony. And they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, Long live the king!


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Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went to the people at the house of Jehovah.


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And she looked, and there was the king, standing by the pillar, according to the custom, with captains and their trumpets near the king. And all the people of the land rejoiced and blew the trumpets. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, Treason! T


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And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds who had been set over the army and said to them, Bring her out between the ranks, and anyone who follows her kill with a sword; for the priest said, She shall not be killed in the house of Jeh


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And they made way for her, and she went to the house of the king through the horses' entrance and was killed there.


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And Jehoiada made a covenant between Jehovah and the king and the people that they would be Jehovah's people, and also between the king and the people.


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And all the people of the land went to the house of Baal and broke it down:The altars to him and his images they shattered to pieces, and they slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of Jehovah.


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And Jehoiada gathered the captains of the hundreds and the Carites and the guards and all the people of the land. And they brought the king down from the house of Jehovah and came by way of the guard gate to the house of the king, and he sat upon the thr


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And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet; for they had slain Athaliah with the sword at the house of the king.


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In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.


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And Jehoash did what was right in the sight of Jehovah all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.


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However the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.


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And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the sanctified things which goes into the house of Jehovah - the money of everyone who passes the money of each person's assessment, all he money that comes up in the heart of anyone to bring into the ho


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Let the priests take, each man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair what is broken in the house, wherever anything is found broken.


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But as of the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not repaired what was broken in the house.


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So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the priests and said to them, Why have you not been repairing what is broken in the house? Now therefore take no more money from your acquaintances, but deliver it for what is broken in the house.


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And the priests agreed that they would neither take money from the people nor repair what was broken in the house.


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Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid, and he put it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Jehovah. And the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money that came into the house of Jehovah in


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And whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the king's scribe and the high priest would go up and bind the money that came into the house of Jehovah in bags and count it.


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And they would give the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and these would pay it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of Jehovah,


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And to the masons and to the stone hewers and for the purchase of timber and hewn stone, to repair what was broken in the house of Jehovah, and for any other outlay to repair the house.


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But there were no cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, or any vessels of gold or any vessels of silver prepared for the house of Jehovah out of the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah;


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And they did not ask for an accounting from the men into whose hands they had given the money to use for doing the work, for these worked faithfully.


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The money from the trespass offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of Jehovah; it was the priests'.


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At that time Hazael the king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it. And Hazael set his face to go up toward Jerusalem.


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And Jehoash the king of Judah took all the sanctified things which Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers the kings of Judah, had sanctified and his own sanctified things and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of Jehovah


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And the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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And his servants rose up and formed a conspiracy. And they struck Joash down in the house of Millo, on the way that leads down to Silla.


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And it was Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down; and he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.


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In the twenty-third year of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, the king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned seventeen years.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and followed after the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat by which he caused Israel to sin; he did not turn away from them.


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And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel; and He gave them continually into the hand of Hazael the king of Syria and into the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael.


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(And Jehoahaz entreated Jehovah; and Jehovah listened to him, for He saw the oppression of Israel, for the king of Syria oppressed them.


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And Jehovah gave Israel a deliverer, and they went out from under the hand of Syria; and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as they had before.


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However they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, by which he caused Israel to sin, but walked in them. And also the Asherah remained standing in Samaria.)


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For he left to Jehoahaz of the people not more than fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers, for the king of Syria destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.


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And the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz and all that he did and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?


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And Jehoahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Joash his son reigned in his place.


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In the thirty-seventh year of Joash the king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned sixteen years.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah; he did not turn away from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin; he walked in them.


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And the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did and his might with which he fought with Amaziah the king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?


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And Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat upon his throne. And Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.


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Now when Elisha was ill with his illness by which he eventually died, Joash the king of Israel went down to him and wept over him and said, My father! My father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!


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And he said to the king of Israel, Grasp the bow; and he grasped the bow. And Elisha put his hands over the hands of the king,


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And he said, Open the window toward the east; and he opened it. And Elisha said, Shoot; and he shot. And he said, Jehovah's arrow of victory, an arrow of victory against Syria; for you will strike Syria in Aphek until you have consumed it.


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And he said, Take the arrows; and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, Strike the ground; and he struck the ground three times then stopped.


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And the man of God became angry with him and said, You should have struck it five or six times; then you would have struck Syria until you had consumed them. But now you shall strike Syria only three times.


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And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites would invade the land at the coming in of the new year.


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And it so happened that as the people were burying a man, they saw a band; and they cast the man into the grave of Elisha. And as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he came to life and stood up on his feet.


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But Jehovah was gracious to them and had compassion on them and turned to them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He would not destroy them; and He has not cast them from His presence until now.


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And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz retook the cities out of the hand of Ben- hadad the son of Hazael that he had taken in war out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father; Joash struck him three times and recovered the cities of Israel.


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In the second year of Joash the son of Joahaz, the king of Israel, Amaziah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, began to reign.


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He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; and his mother's name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem.


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And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, yet not like David his father; he did according to all that Joash his father had done.


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And when the kingdom was established in his hand, he struck down his servants who had struck down his father the king.


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But the children of the murderers he did not put to death, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, in which Jehovah commanded, saying, Fathers shall not be put to death because of children, nor shall children be put to death because of fathers


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He struck ten thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt; and he captured Sela in battle and called the name of it Joktheel, as it is to this day.


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Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying, Come, let us confront each other.


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And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah the king of Judah, saying, The thornbush that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son as wife; but a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled


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You have surely struck Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Glorify yourself, but remain in your home. Why should you stir up trouble so that you and Judah with you fall?


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But Amaziah would not listen; so Jehoash the king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah the king of Judah confronted each other in Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah.


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And Jehoash the king of Israel captured Amaziah the king of Judah the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah in Beth- shemesh; and he came to Jerusalem and tore down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits.


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And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels that were found in the house of Jehovah and in the treasuries of the king's house as well as hostages, and returned to Samaria.


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And the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did and his might and how he fought with Amaziah the king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?


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And Jehoash slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. And Jeroboam his son reigned in his place.


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And Amaziah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz, the king of Israel.


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And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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And they formed a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; and they sent men after him to Lachish, and they killed him there.


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And they brought him on horses, and he was buried in Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.


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And all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.


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In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash, the king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria; he reigned forty-one years.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah; he did not turn away from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin.


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He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Jehovah the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet who was of Gath-hepher.


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For Jehovah saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter, for there was neither bond nor free left, nor was there anyone to help Israel.


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And Jehovah did not say that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven but saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.


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And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did and his might, how he warred and how he restored for Israel Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?


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And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, with the kings of Israel. And Zechariah his son reigned in his place.


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In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah, the king of Judah, began to reign.


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He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.


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And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.


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And Jehovah struck the king, so that he was a leper until the day of his death; and he dwelt in a separate house. And Jotham, the king's son, was over the household, judging the people of the land.


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And the rest of the acts of Azariah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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And Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David. And Jotham his son reigned in his place.


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In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah the king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned six months.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, as his fathers had done; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin.


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And Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him and struck him down before the people. So he killed him and reigned in his place.


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And the rest of the acts of Zechariah are there written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.


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This was the word of Jehovah which He spoke to Jehu, saying, Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel; and it was so.


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Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah the king of Judah, and he reigned one month in Samaria.


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And Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria. And he struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and killed him. And he reigned in his place.


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And the rest of the acts of Shallum and the conspiracy which he formed are there written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.


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Then Menahem struck Tiphsah and all who were in it and its borders from Tirzah; because they did not open to him, he struck it; all its pregnant women he ripped open.


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In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah the king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel; he reigned ten years in Samaria.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin, throughout all his days.


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Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that he would support his efforts to keep the kingdom in his hand.


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And Menahem exacted the money from Israel, from all the great men of wealth, each one man giving fifty shekels of silver, so that he could give it to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria returned and did not stay there in the land.


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And the rest of the acts of Menahem and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?


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In the fiftieth year of Azariah the king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned two years.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, by which he caused Israel to sin.


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And Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him. And he struck him down, along with Argob and Arieh, in Samaria in the palace of the king's house; and with him were fifty men from among the Gileadites. So he killed him and reigned in his


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And the rest of the acts of Pekahiah and all that he did are there written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.


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In the fifty-second year of Azariah the king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned twenty years.


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In the days of Pekah the king of Israel Tiglath-pileser the king of Assyria came and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them away captive to Assyria.


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And Hoshea the son of Elah formed a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and he struck him down and killed him and reigned in his place in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.


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And the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did are there written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.


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In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, began to reign.


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He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.


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And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done.


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However the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of Jehovah.


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And the rest of the acts of Jotham that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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In those days Jehovah began to send Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah.


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And Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father. And Ahaz his son reigned in his place.


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In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, the king of Judah, began to reign.


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Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the sight of Jehovah his God, as David his father had done,


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But walked in the way of the kings of Israel; and he even caused his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.


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And he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places and on the hills and under every flourishing tree.


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Then Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to battle. And they besieged Ahaz, but they were not able to fight with him.


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At that time Rezin the king of Syria restored Elath to Syria and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath and have dwelt there to this day.


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And Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser the king of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son; come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen up against me.


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And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the house of Jehovah and in the treasuries of the king's house, and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria.


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And the king of Assyria listened to him. And the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and he took it and carried the people of it away captive to Kir. And he killed Rezin.


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And King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath- pileser the king of Assyria at Damascus, and he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the form of the altar and the pattern of it, according to all its workmanship.


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And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent him from Damascus. Urijah the priest made it that way before King Ahaz came from Damascus.


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And when the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar; and the king approached the altar and offered upon it.


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And he burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings upon the altar.


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And the bronze altar which was before Jehovah, he brought forward from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of Jehovah, and put it by the side of his altar on the north.


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And King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering and the evening meal offering, and the king's burnt offering and his meal offering, and the burnt offering of all the people of the land and their meal


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And King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases and removed the laver from off them; and he took down the sea from off the bronze oxen that were under it and put it upon a pavement of stone.


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And the covered way for use on the Sabbath, which they had built in the house, and the king's entry outside, he removed from the house of Jehovah because of the king of Assyria.


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And the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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And Ahaz slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.


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In the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel; he reigned for nine years.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, but not like the kings of Israel that had been before him.


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Against him Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came up, and Hoshea became his servant and rendered presents to him.


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But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So the king of Egypt and did not send up a present to the king of Assyria as he had from year to year. And the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.


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And the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, and he went up against Samaria and besieged it three years.


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In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria; and he placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.


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And this happened because the children of Israel sinned against Jehovah their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and had feared other gods;


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And they walked in the statutes of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed from before the children of Israel and those of the kings of Israel, which they had made.


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And the children of Israel secretly did things against Jehovah their God that were not right; and they built high places in all their cities for themselves, from the watchmen's tower to the fortified city.


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And they set up for themselves pillars and Asherahs on every high hill and under every flourishing tree;


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And there they burned incense in all the high places, as did the nations that Jehovah had carried away from before them, and they did wicked things to provoke Jehovah to anger;


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And Jehovah testified against Israel and against Judah through all the prophets all the seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways; and keep My commandments My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you throug


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But they would not hear; and they stiffened their necks, which became like the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in Jehovah their God.


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And they rejected His statutes and His covenant, which He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies, which He had testified unto them; and they followed vanity and became vain, and after the nations that were around them, concerning whom Jehovah h


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And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God and made for themselves molten images, that is, two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshipped all the host of heaven; and they served Baal.


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And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through fire and practiced divination and enchantments; and they sold themselves to do what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, in order to provoke Him to anger.


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Therefore Jehovah was very angry with Israel, and He removed them out of His sight; nothing remained except the tribe of Judah.


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Judah also did not keep the commandments of Jehovah their God but walked in the statutes of Israel, which they had made.


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And Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel; and He afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.


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For He tore Israel from the house of David. Now they had made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam drove Israel away from following Jehovah and made them commit a great sin.


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And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them,


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Until Jehovah removed Israel from His sight, as He had said through all His servants the prophets. And Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria; as it is unto this day.


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And the king of Assyria brought from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and from Sepharvaim, and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.


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And when they began dwelling there, they did not fear Jehovah, so Jehovah sent lions among them, which killed some of them.


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And they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations that you have carried away and made to dwell in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and now they are killing them because t


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And the king of Assyria gave a command, saying, Take there one of the priests whom you have carried away from there; and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the custom of the God of the land.


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Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and he taught them how to fear Jehovah.


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And every nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they dwelt.


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And the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the people of Cuth made Nergal, and the people of Hamath made Ashima,


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And the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.


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So they feared Jehovah; and they made for themselves from all their classes priests for the high places, who offered sacrifices for them in the houses of the high places.


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They feared Jehovah but served their own gods after the custom of the nations, from which they had been carried away.


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Unto this day they have done according to their former customs:They do not fear Jehovah; nor do they act according to their statutes and their ordinances, nor according to the law and commandment that Jehovah commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Is


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And Jehovah had made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them.


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But Jehovah alone, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him shall you fear, and Him shall you worship, and to Him shall you sacrifice.


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And the statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote out for you, you shall be certain to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods.


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So these nations feared Jehovah but served their graven images, as well as their children and their children's children; as their fathers had done, so they have done unto this day.


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And in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, the king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, the king of Judah, began to reign.


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He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty- nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.


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He removed the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherah and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel had burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.


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He trusted in Jehovah the God of Israel, so that after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any among those who were before him.


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And he clung to Jehovah; he did not turn away from following after Him but kept His commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses.


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And Jehovah was with him; everywhere he went, he prospered. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him.


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He struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from the watchmen's tower to the fortified city.


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And in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, the king of Israel, Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it.


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And at the end of three years they took it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Israel, Samaria was taken.


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And the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria and settled them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes;


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For they would not listen to the voice of Jehovah their God but transgressed His covenant, that is, all that Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded; and they would not listen to it nor do it.


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And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib the king of Assyria went up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.


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And Hezekiah the king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, I have sinned; withdraw from me. I will bear whatever you impose upon me. And the king of Assyria imposed upon Hezekiah the king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and th


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And Hezekiah gave all the silver that was found in the house of Jehovah and in the treasuries of the king's house.


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At that time Hezekiah stripped the doors of the temple of Jehovah and the posts that Hezekiah the king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave them to the king of Assyria.


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And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great force. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they came up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is o


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And they called out to the king. And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them.


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And Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria:What is this confidence in which you trust?


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You say (but it is a vain word), There is counsel and strength for war. Now in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me?


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You now have put your trust in the staff of this broken reed, in Egypt, in that which, if a man should lean on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it; so is Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.


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And if you say to me, We trust in Jehovah our God; is it not He whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and Jerusalem, You shall worship only before this altar in Jerusalem?


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Now therefore give pledges to my master, the king of Assyria; and I will give you two thousand horses, if indeed you are able to set the riders on them.


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How then can you refuse one official of the least of my master's servants and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?


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Have I now come up apart from Jehovah against this place to destroy it? Jehovah said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.


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And Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and Shebnah and Joah said to Rab-shakeh, Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we understand it; and do not speak with us in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people who are upon the wall.


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But Rab-shakeh said to them, Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?


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And Rab-shakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language and spoke and said, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria:


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Thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, because he is not able to deliver you out of my hand.


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Neither let Hezekiah cause you to trust in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.


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Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and let each eat from his own vine and each from his own fig tree, and let each drink the waters of his own cistern,


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Until I come and take you away to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey, that you may live and not die. So do not listen to Hezekiah when he tries to persuade you, saying, Jehov


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Have any of the gods of the nations delivered at all their land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?


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Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?


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Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land out of my hand, that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?


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But the people were silent and did not answer him a word, because of the commandment of the king that said, You shall not answer him.


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Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rab-shakeh.


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And when King Hezekiah heard, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah.


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And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, who had covered themselves with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.


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And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of affliction and rebuke and contempt, for children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.


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It may be that Jehovah your God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which Jehovah your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant which i


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And Isaiah said to them, Thus shall you say to your master, Thus says Jehovah, Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.


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Indeed, I will put a spirit in him, so that he will hear a report and return to his land. And I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.


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And Rab-shakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, because he had heard that the king had departed from Lachish.


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And he heard a report about Tirhakah the king of Ethiopia, which said, He has now come forth to make war with you. And he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,


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Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah the king of Judah, saying, Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.


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Indeed, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them utterly. And will you be delivered?


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Have the gods of the nations whom my fathers have destroyed delivered them:Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden, who were in Telassar?


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Where are the king of Hamath and the king of Arpad and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivvah?


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And Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and Hezekiah went up to the house of Jehovah and spread it before Jehovah.


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And Hezekiah prayed before Jehovah and said, O Jehovah, God of Israel, who dwells between the cherubim, You, You alone, are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; You made the heavens and the earth.


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Incline Your ear, O Jehovah, and hear; open Your eyes, O Jehovah, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, who has sent him to reproach the living God.


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And have cast their gods into the fire, because they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; so they destroyed them.


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And now, O Jehovah our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Jehovah, are God.


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Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Because you have prayed to Me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.


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This is the word which Jehovah has spoken concerning him:The virgin daughter of Zion Has despised you and laughed at you; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind you.


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Whom have you reproached and reviled? Against whom have you lifted up your voice And lifted up your eyes haughtily? Against the Holy One of Israel.


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By your messengers you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, In the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, To the sides of Lebanon; And I have cut down its tall cedars, the choicest of its cypresses; And I have ente


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I have dug And have drunk foreign waters, And with the sole of my feet I have dried up All the rivers of Egypt.


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Have you not heard That long ago I did it And that from the days of old I had formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should destroy fortified cities And make them into ruinous heaps.


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Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength; They were dismayed and felt ashamed; They were like vegetation of the field And green shoots of tender grass, Like grass which grows on the housetops And is scorched before it has grown up.


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Because your raging against Me And your arrogance have come up into My ears, I will put My hook in your nose, And My bridle in your lips; And I will turn you back on the way by which you came.


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And this shall be the sign to you:This year you shall eat that which grows up of itself, and in the second year that which shoots up from the same, and in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.


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And the remnant of those who have escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.


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For a remnant will go forth out of Jerusalem, and from Mount Zion those who have escaped. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.


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Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, Nor shoot an arrow there; Neither shall he come against it with a shield And build up a mound against it.


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By the way on which he came, By the same shall he return, And into this city he shall not come, Declares Jehovah.


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And around this city I will put an enclosure, To save it, For My own sake, And for the sake of David, My servant.


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And that night an angel of Jehovah went out and struck the Assyrians' camp, a hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when they rose up early in the morning, all of them were dead corpses.


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And as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him down with the sword; and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.


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In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill; and Isaiah the son of Amoz, the prophet, came to him and said to him, Thus says Jehovah, Put your house in order, for you are about to die and will not live.


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Now, O Jehovah, please remember how I have walked before You in truth and with a perfect heart and have done what is good in Your sight. And Hezekiah wept many tears.


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Return and speak to Hezekiah the leader of My people, Thus says Jehovah, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. I will now heal you:On the third day you will go up to the house of Jehovah;


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And I will add to your life fifteen years; and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will put an enclosure around this city for My own sake and for the sake of David My servant.


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And Isaiah said, Bring a cake of figs. And they brought it and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.


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And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What will be the sign that Jehovah will heal me and that I will go up to the house of Jehovah on the third day?


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And Isaiah said, This will be the sign from Jehovah to you, that Jehovah will do this thing which He has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?


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And Hezekiah said, It is an easy matter for the shadow to go down ten steps. No; rather let the shadow go backward ten steps.


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And Isaiah the prophet cried to Jehovah; and He brought the shadow on the steps, which had descended on the steps of Ahaz, ten steps backward.


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At that time Berodach-baladan the son of Baladan, the king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, because he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.


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And Hezekiah listened to them and showed them all his treasury, the silver and the gold, and the spices and the fine oil, and his armory and everything which was found among his treasures; there was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezeki


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Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say? And from where have they come to you? And Hezekiah said, They have come from a distant land, from Babylon.


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And he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said, They have seen everything that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.


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The days are now coming when everything that is in your house and that your fathers have laid up as a treasure unto this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left, says Jehovah.


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And they will take away some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.


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And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of Jehovah which you have spoken is good. He said moreover, Indeed there will be peace and truth in my days.


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And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought the water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hephzibah.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah had dispossessed from before the children of Israel.


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And he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he raised up altars to Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab the king of Israel had done; and he worshipped all the host of heaven and served them.


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And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, concerning which Jehovah had said, In Jerusalem will I put My name.


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And he caused his son to pass through fire and practiced soothsaying and enchantments, and appointed mediums and spiritists; he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah beyond measure, provoking Him to anger.


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And he put the engraved image of the Asherah that he had made in that house concerning which Jehovah had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;


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And I will no longer cause the foot of Israel to wander away from the land that I gave their fathers, if only they will be certain to act according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.


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But they would not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations which Jehovah had destroyed from before the children of Israel.


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Because Manasseh the king of Judah has done these abominations and has done more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has caused Judah also to sin with his idols;


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Therefore thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I am now bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah that both ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.


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And over Jerusalem I will stretch the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a pan, wiping it and turning it upside down.


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And I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies;


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Because they have done what is evil in My sight and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt even to this day.


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And Manasseh also shed very much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another, besides his sin by which he caused Judah to sin, doing what was evil in the sight of Jehovah.


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And the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. And Amon his son reigned in his place.


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Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.


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And he walked in all the way that his father had walked, and he served the idols that his father had served and worshipped them;


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But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.


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And the rest of the acts of Amon that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah from Bozkath.


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And he did what was right in the eyes of Jehovah and walked in all the way of David his father and did not turn to the right or to the left.


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In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Jehovah, saying,


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Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him sum up the money that is brought to the house of Jehovah, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people.


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And let them deliver it into the hand of those who do the work, who have the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and let them deliver it to those who do the work who are in the house of Jehovah, for the repair of what was broken in the house,


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To the carpenters and the builders and the masons, and for the purchase of timber and hewn stones to repair the house.


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But do not ask them for an accounting of the money delivered into their hand, for they work faithfully.


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Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.


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And Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought back word to the king and said, Your servants have emptied out the money which was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who have the oversight of the house of


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And Shaphan the scribe reported to the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it aloud before the king.


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And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam the son of Shaphan and Achbor the son of Micaiah and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,


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Go; inquire of Jehovah for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for the anger of Jehovah which is kindled against us is great, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book by doi


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So Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter), and they spoke to he


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Thus says Jehovah, I am now bringing evil to this place and upon its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read;


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Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, so as to provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands. Therefore My anger is kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched.


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But to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus shall you say to him:Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, regarding the words which you have heard,


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Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Jehovah when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I also h


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Therefore I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought back word to the king.


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And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were with him, as well as the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; and he read aloud, in their hearing, all the words


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And the king stood beside the pillar and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all heart and with all soul, so as to establish the words of this covenant which were w


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And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that were made for Baal and for Asherah and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside


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And he did away with the idol priests, whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and the surrounding Jerusalem, as well as those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the const


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And he brought the Asherah from the house of Jehovah out of Jerusalem to the brook Kidron and burned it in the brook Kidron and ground it to dust and cast its dust on the graves of the children of the people.


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He also broke down the houses of the cult prostitutes which were in the house of Jehovah, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.


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Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of


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However the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of Jehovah in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.


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And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or his daughter pass through fire to Molech.


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And he did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance of the house of Jehovah, by the chamber of Nathan- melech the officer, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.


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And the altars which were on the roof the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Jehovah, the king tore down; and he removed them quickly from there and cast their


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And the high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built to Ashtoreth, the detestable thing of the Sidonians, and to Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moab, and to Milco


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And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherahs and filled their places with human bones.


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And furthermore the altar which was at Bethel, the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down. And he burned the high place and beat it into dust and burned the Asherah.


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Then Josiah turned and saw the graves which were there in the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of Jehovah, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things


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Then he said, What is this monument which I see? And the men of the city said to him, It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar in Bethel.


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And he said, Let him rest; let no man move his bones. So they left his bones alone with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.


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And Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel made, provoking Jehovah to anger, and did to them according to all that he had done in Bethel.


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And all the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.


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And the king commanded all the people saying, Hold the Passover to Jehovah your God according to all that is written in this book of the covenant.


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Surely no Passover like this had been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah.


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And moreover Josiah utterly removed the mediums and the soothsayers and the teraphim and the idols and all the detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the boo


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And before him there was no king like him who turned to Jehovah with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the law of Moses, and after him no one has risen up like him.


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However Jehovah did not turn from His great burning anger with which His anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocations by which Manasseh provoked Him.


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And Jehovah said, I will remove Judah also from My sight, as I have removed Israel. And I will cast off this city which I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name will be there.


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And the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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In his days Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went out to meet him; and when Pharaoh Neco saw him at Megiddo, he killed him.


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And his servants drove him dead in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his grave. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in the place of his father.


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Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.


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And Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him in Riblah, in the land of Hamath, so that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.


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And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And he took Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt, and he died there.


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And Jehoiakim gave silver and gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the silver according to Pharaoh's word. He exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, from each man according to his estimation, to give it to Pharaoh Neco.


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Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Zebidah, the daughter of Pediah from Rumah.


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In his days Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.


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And Jehovah sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the children of Ammon; and He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Jehovah, which He spoke through his servants


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Surely it was at the command of Jehovah that this came to pass against Judah, to remove them out of His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,


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And also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and Jehovah would not forgive.


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And the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?


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And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land again, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates.


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Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan from Jerusalem.


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At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon went up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.


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And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his captains and his eunuchs; and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.


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And he brought out from there all the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the king's house. And he cut in pieces all the golden vessels which Solomon the king of Israel had made in Jehovah's temple, as Jehovah had said.


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And he carried away into exile all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land.


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And he carried Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon; and the king's mother and the king's wives and his eunuchs and the leading men of the land, he carried away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.


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And all the seven thousand men of valor and the one thousand craftsmen and smiths, all mighty men fit for war, even these the king of Babylon carried away into exile to Babylon.


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Then the king of Babylon made Jehoiachin's uncle Mattaniah king in his place, and he changed his name to Zedekiah.


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Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.


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For it was through the anger of Jehovah that this came to pass in Jerusalem and in Judah until He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.


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In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came, he and his whole army, against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around.


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On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was so severe within the city that there was no food for the people of the land.


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Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden, while the Chaldeans were all around the city; and the king went on the way toward the Arabah.


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And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.


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And they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment upon him.


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And they slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes then put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon.


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In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (this was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, the servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.


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And he burned the house of Jehovah and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every large house he burned with fire.


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And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the bodyguard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.


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And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard carried away into exile.


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But the captain of the bodyguard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and field workers.


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And the Chaldeans broke in pieces the bronze pillars, which were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases and the bronze sea, which were in the house of Jehovah. And they carried their bronze to Babylon.


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And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the spoons and all the bronze vessels with which they ministered.


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And the captain of the bodyguard took away the firepans and the bowls:that which was of gold, for its gold, and that which was of silver, for its silver.


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As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of Jehovah, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight.


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The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a bronze capital was upon it; and the height of the capital was three cubits; and a network and pomegranates were upon the capital all around, all of bronze; and the second pillar was like these with a net


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And the captain of the bodyguard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three doorkeepers.


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And from the city he took one eunuch, who was overseer of the men of war, and five men from the king's inner circle who were found in the city, and the scribe the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of t


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And Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon in Riblah.


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And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath; so Judah was carried away into exile out of its land.


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And for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon left behind, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan over them.


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And when all the captains of the forces, they and men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, that is, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and Johanan the son of Kareah and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netopha


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And Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them, Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.


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In the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, came with ten men with him; and they struck down Gedaliah and he died. And they did the same to the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.


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And all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces rose up and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.


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In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach the king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin the king of Judah from prison.


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And he spoke with him kindly and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.


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And Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes and ate his food in his presence continually all the days of his life.


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And for his allowance, a continual allowance was given to him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.


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 And the sons of Cush:Seba and Havilah and Sabta and Raama and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah:Sheba and Dedan.


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 The sons of Shem:Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram and Uz and Hul and Gether and Meshech.


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 And to Eber were born two sons:The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.


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 And the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine:She bore Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan:Sheba and Dedan.


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 And the sons of Midian:Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah.


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The sons of Shobal:Alian and Manahath and Ebal, Shephi and Onam. And the sons of Zibeon:Aiah and Anah.


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And these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before a king of the children of Israel reigned:Bela the son of Beor; and the name of his city was Dinhabah.


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And Baal-hanan died, and Hadad reigned in his place. And the name of his city was Pai; and his wife's name was Mehetabel the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.


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The sons of Judah:Er and Onan and Shelah, which three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanitess. And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Jehovah; and He slew him.


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And their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And the sons of Zeruiah:Abishai and Joab and Asahel, three.


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And Caleb the son of Hezron had children by Azubah his wife, and by Jerioth; her sons are these:Jesher and Shobab and Ardon.


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And afterward Hezron went to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead and took her when he was sixty years old; and she bore him Segub.


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And Geshur and Aram took the villages of Jair from them, with Kenath and its villages, sixty cities. All these were sons of Machir the father of Gilead.


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And after the death of Hezron in Caleb-ephrathah, Abijah, Hezron's wife, bore him Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.


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And the sons of Jerahmeel, the firstborn of Hezron, were:Ram the firstborn and Bunah and Oren and Ozem and Ahijah.


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And the sons of Caleb, the brother of Jerahmeel, were Mesha his firstborn, who was the father of Ziph; and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron.


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And she bore Shaaph the father of Madmannah, Sheva the father of Machbena and the father of Gibea. And the daughter of Caleb was Achsah.


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These are the sons of Caleb. The sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah:Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim,


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And the families of Kiriath-jearim were the Ithrites and the Puthites and the Shumathites and the Mishraites; from them came the Zoreathites and the Eshtaolites.


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The sons of Salma:Bethlehem and the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-joab and half the Manahathites, the Zorites.


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And the families of the scribes who dwelt at Jabez:the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.


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And these are the sons of David, who were born to him in Hebron:the firstborn Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; the second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelitess;


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The third, Absalom the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai the king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith;


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Six were born to him in Hebron. And he reigned there seven years and six months; and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-three years.


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And these were born to him in Jerusalem:Shimea and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon:four, by Bath-shua the daughter of Ammiel;


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And the sons of Josiah:the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum.


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And the sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimei. And the sons of Zerubbabel:Meshullam and Hananiah, and Shelomith their sister;


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And the sons of Hananiah:Pelatiah and Isaiah, the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shecaniah.


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And the sons of Shecaniah:Shemaiah; and the sons of Shemaiah:Hattush and Igal and Bariah and Neariah and Shaphat, six.


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And the sons of Elioenai:Hodaviah and Eliashib and Pelaiah and Akkub and Johanan and Delaiah and Anani, seven.


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And Reaiah the son of Shobal begot Jahath; and Jahath begot Ahumai and Lahad. These are the families of the Zorathites.


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And these were the sons of the father of Etam:Jizreel and Ishma and Idbash; and the name of their sister was Hazzelelponi;


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And Penuel the father of Gedor and Ezer the father of Hushah; these were the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Bethlehem.


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And Jabez was held in more honor than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him with pain.


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And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh that You would richly bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand would be with me, and that You would so keep me from evil that it would not grieve me! And God caused what he had requested to come t


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And Eshton begot Bethrapha and Paseah and Tehinnah the father of Ir-nahash; these were the men of Recah.


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And Meonothai begot Ophrah; and Seraiah begot Joab the father of Gerharashim, for they were craftsmen.


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And the sons of Ezrah:Jether and Mered and Epher and Jalon; and she conceived and bore Miriam and Shammai and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa.


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And his Judahite wife bore Jered the father of Gedor and Heber the father of Soco and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah. And these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took.


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And the sons of the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Naham:the father of Keilah the Garmite and Eshtemoa the Maacathite.


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And the sons of Shimon:Amnon and Rinnah, Ben-hanan and Tilon. And the sons of Ishi:Zoheth and Ben-zoheth.


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The sons of Shelah the son of Judah:Er the father of Lecah and Laadah the father of Mareshah and the families of the house of those who worked with fine linen at Beth-ashbea


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And Jokim and the men of Cozeba and Joash and Saraph, who ruled over Moab, and Jashubi-lehem. (But the records are ancient.)


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These were the potters and the inhabitants of Netaim and Gedarah; they dwelt there with the king for his work.


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And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brothers did not have many sons; neither did all their family multiply like the sons of Judah.


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And at Beth-marcaboth and at Hazar- susim and at Beth-biri and at Shaaraim. These were their cities until the reign of David.


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As well as all their villages which were around these cities, as far as Baal. These were their dwelling places and their genealogical enrollment.


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And Ziza the son of Shiphi, the son of Allon, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah -


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These mentioned by name were leaders in their families; and their fathers' houses increased greatly.


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And they went to the entrance of Gedor, as far as the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks.


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And they found rich and good pasture and a spacious and quiet and peaceful land, for they who had formerly dwelt there were of Ham.


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And these written by name came in the days of Hezekiah the king of Judah, and struck their tents and the Meunim who were found there, and destroyed them utterly, as they are to this day; and they have dwelt in place of them; for there was pasture there fo


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And some of them from among the sons of Simeon, five hundred men, went to Mount Seir, having at their head Pelatiah and Neariah and Rephaiah and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi;


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And they struck down the rest of the Amalekites who had escaped; and they have dwelt there to this day.


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And the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn; but because he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; but he was not to be enrolled in the genealogy according to the birthright


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For Judah prevailed among his brothers, and from him was the leader, but the birthright was Joseph's) -


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Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-pilneser the king of Assyria carried away captive; he was the leader of the Reubenites.


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And his brothers by their families, in the genealogical enrollment of their generations, were:Jeiel the chief and


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And Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who dwelt in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-meon;


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And he dwelt on the east as far as the entrance to the wilderness from the river Euphrates; for their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead.


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And in the days of Saul they waged war with the Hagarites, who fell by their hand; and they dwelt in their tents throughout the east side of Gilead.


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And their brothers according to their fathers' houses were Michael and Meshullam and Sheba and Jorai and Jacan and Zia and Eber, seven.


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These were the sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz:


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And they dwelt in Gilead in Bashan and in its towns and in all the pasture lands of Sharon as far as their limits.


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All these were enrolled in genealogies in the days of Jotham the king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the king of Israel.


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The children of Reuben and the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh were among the valiant men, men who carried shield and sword, and drew the bow and were skillful in war - forty-four thousand seven hundred sixty ready for war.


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And they were helped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand, as well as all who were with them; for they cried out to God in the battle, and He was entreated for them because they trusted in Him.


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And they took their livestock:their fifty thousand camels, and two hundred fifty thousand sheep, and two thousand donkeys, as well as one hundred thousand people.


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For many fell down slain, for the war was of God. And they dwelt in their place until the captivity.


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And the children of the half-tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land, from Bashan as far as Baal-hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon; they were many.


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And these were the heads of their fathers' houses:Epher and Ishi and Eliel and Azriel and Jeremiah and Hodaviah and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, famous men, heads of their fathers' houses.


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But they trespassed against the God of their fathers, and went as harlots after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.


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And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul the king of Assyria and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser the king of Assyria; and He carried them away, the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half- tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah and Habor an


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And the children of Amram:Aaron and Moses and Miriam. And the sons of Aaron:Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.


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And Johanan begot Azariah (it was he who served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem);


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And Jehozadak went into captivity when Jehovah carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.


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And these are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of Jehovah after the Ark was at rest.


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And they ministered before the tabernacle of the Tent of Meeting with singing until Solomon built the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem; and they attended to their service according to their order.


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And these are they who attended and their sons:Of the sons of the Kohathites:Heman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel,


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And their brothers the sons of Merari were on the left hand:Ethan the son of Kishi, the son of Abdi, the son of Malluch,


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And Aaron and his sons made offerings upon the altar of burnt offering and upon the altar of incense for all the work of the Holy of Holies and in order to make expiation for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.


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And these are their dwelling places according to their encampments, within their borders. To the sons of Aaron, to the family of the Kohathites (for to them did the lot come):


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And to the children of Aaron they gave the city of refuge, Hebron; and Libnah and its pasture lands, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa and its pasture lands,


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And out of the tribe of Benjamin:Geba and its pasture lands, and Alemeth and its pasture lands, and Anathoth and its pasture lands. All their cities were thirteen cities, according to their families.


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And to the rest of the children of Kohath were given by lot out of the family of the tribe, out of the half-tribe, half of Manasseh, ten cities.


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And to the children of Gershom, according to their families, out of the tribe of Issachar and out of the tribe of Asher and out of the tribe of Naphtali and out of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.


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To the children of Merari were given by lot, according to their families, out of the tribe of Reuben and out of the tribe of Gad and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities.


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And they gave by lot those cities which were mentioned by name out of the tribe of the children of Judah and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon and out of the tribe of the children of Benjamin.


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And some of the families of the children of Kohath had cities of their territory from the tribe of Ephraim.


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And they gave them the city of refuge Shechem and its pasture lands in the hill country of Ephraim, and Gezer and its pasture lands,


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And out of the half-tribe of Manasseh:Aner and its pasture lands, and Bileam and its pasture lands, for the rest of the families of the children of Kohath.


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To the children of Gershom were given out of the family of the half-tribe of Manasseh:Golan in Bashan and its pasture lands, and Ashtaroth and its pasture lands;


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And out of the tribe of Naphtali:Kedesh in Galilee and its pasture lands, and Hammon and its pasture lands, and Kiriathaim and its pasture lands.


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To the rest of the children of Merari were given out of the tribe of Zebulun:Rimmono and its pasture lands, and Tabor and its pasture lands;


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And on the other side of the Jordan by Jericho, on the east side of the Jordan, out of the tribe of Reuben:Bezer in the wilderness and its pasture lands, and Jahzah and its pasture lands,


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And out of the tribe of Gad:Ramoth in Gilead and its pasture lands, and Mahanaim and its pasture lands,


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And the sons of Tola:Uzzi and Rephaiah and Jeriel and Jahmai and Ibsam and Shemuel, the heads of their fathers' houses. The sons of Tola were mighty men of valor in their generations; their number in the days of David was twenty-two thousand six hundred.


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And the sons of Uzzi:Izrahiah; and the sons of Izrahiah:Michael and Obadiah and Joel and Isshiah; all five of them were chief men.


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And with them by their generations, according to their fathers' houses, were bands for war, thirty-six thousand; for they had many wives and sons.


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And their brothers among all the families of Issachar were valiant men of valor, enrolled by genealogy, in all eighty- seven thousand.


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And the sons of Bela:Ezbon and Uzzi and Uzziel and Jerimoth and Iri, five; they were the heads of fathers' houses, mighty men of valor, and were enrolled by genealogy, twenty-two thousand thirty-four.


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And the sons of Becher:Zemirah and Joash and Eliezer and Elioenai and Omri and Jeremoth and Abijah and Anathoth and Alemeth; all these were the sons of Becher.


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And they were enrolled by genealogy by their generations, the heads of their fathers' houses, mighty men of valor, twenty thousand two hundred.


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And the son of Jediael:Bilhan; and the sons of Bilhan:Jeush and Benjamin and Ehud and Chenaanah and Zethan and Tarshish and Ahishahar.


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All these were the sons of Jediael, according to the heads of their fathers' houses, mighty men of valor, seventeen thousand two hundred, ready for the service of war.


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And Machir took a wife, the sister of Huppim and Shuppim; and the name of their sister was Maachah. And the name of the second son was Zelophehad, and Zelophehad had daughters.


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And Maachah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she called his name Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem.


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And the sons of Ephraim:Shuthelah and Bered his son and Tahath his son and Eleadah his son and Tahath his son


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And Zabad his son and Shuthelah his son and Ezer and Elad. And the men of Gath who had been born in the land slew them, because they came down to take their cattle.


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And he went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son; and he called his name Beriah, for it was when misfortune was in his house.


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And their possession and dwelling places were Bethel and its villages, and Naaran to the east, and Gezer to the west and its villages, and Shechem and its villages as far as to Ayyah and its villages.


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And in the hands of the children of Manasseh were Beth-shean and its villages, Taanach and its villages, Megiddo and its villages, Dor and its villages. In these dwelt the children of Joseph the son of Israel.


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All these were the sons of Asher, the heads of fathers' houses, choice and mighty men of valor, chiefs of the princes. And the number of them enrolled by genealogy for the service in war was twenty-six thousand men.


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And these are the sons of Ehud (these were the heads of fathers' houses of the inhabitants of Geba; and they carried them away to Manahath,


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And Shaharaim begot children in the field of Moab after he had sent away Hushim and Baara his wives.


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And Beriah and Shema, who were heads of fathers' houses of the inhabitants of Aijalon; they drove away the inhabitants of Gath.


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These were heads of fathers' houses, according to their generations, chief men; these dwelt in Jerusalem.


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And Mikloth begot Shimeah. And these also dwelt opposite their brothers in Jerusalem, with their brothers.


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And Ner begot Kish; and Kish begot Saul; and Saul begot Jonathan and Malchishua and Abinadab and Esh-baal.


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And Azel had six sons, and these are their names:Azrikam, Bocheru, and Ishmael, and Sheariah and Obadiah and Hanan; all these were sons of Azel.


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And the sons of Eshek his brother were Ulam his firstborn, Jeush the second, and Eliphelet the third.


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And the sons of Ulam were mighty men of valor, archers; and they had many children and grandchildren, one hundred fifty. All these were of the sons of Benjamin.


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So all Israel was enrolled by genealogy, and they are now written in the book of the kings of Israel; and Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their unfaithfulness.


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Now the first ones to dwell in their possessions in their cities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the temple servants.


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And some of the children of Judah and some of the children of Benjamin and some of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh dwelt in Jerusalem:


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Uthai the son of Ammihud, the son of Omri, the son of Imri, the son of Bani, of the children of Perez the son of Judah;


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And Ibneiah the son of Jeroham:and Elah the son of Uzzi, the son of Michri; and Meshullam the son of Shephatiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah;


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And their brothers, according to their generations, nine hundred fifty-six; all these men were heads of fathers' houses according to their fathers' houses.


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And Azariah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God;


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And Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah; and Maasai the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer;


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And their brothers, heads of their fathers' houses, one thousand seven hundred sixty able men for the work of the service of the house of God.


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And of the Levites:Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari;


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And Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal; and Mattaniah the son of Mica, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph;


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And Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun; and Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, who dwelt in the villages of the Netophathites.


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And the gatekeepers:Shallum and Akkub and Talmon and Ahiman and their brothers. Shallum was the chief,


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Being stationed until then at the king's gate on the east. These were the gatekeepers for the camps of the children of Levi.


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And Shallum the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brothers of his father's house, the Korahites, were over the work of the service as keepers of the thresholds of the tent; and their fathers had been over the camp of Jehovah, kee


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All these who were chosen to be gatekeepers in the thresholds were two hundred twelve. These were enrolled by genealogy in their villages; David and Samuel the seer appointed them because of their faithfulness.


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So they and their sons had charge of the gates of the house of Jehovah, the house of the tent, as guards.


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And their brothers in their villages were to come in every seven days from time to time to be with them:


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For the four chief gatekeepers, who were Levites, were faithful and were over the chambers and over the treasuries in the house of God.


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And they spent the night around the house of God because the charge of the watch was upon them; and they had charge of opening it morning by morning.


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And some of them had charge of the vessels of service; for these were counted when they were brought in, and they were counted when they were taken out.


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And some of them also were appointed over the furniture, and over all the vessels of the sanctuary, and over the fine flour and the wine and the oil and the frankincense and the spices.


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And Mattithiah, one of the Levites, who was the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite, was entrusted with the things that were baked in pans.


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And some of their brothers from the sons of the Kohathites were over the rows of bread, to prepare them every Sabbath.


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And these are the singers, heads of fathers' houses of the Levites, who dwelt in the chambers and were free from other service, for they were employed in their work day and night.


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These were heads of fathers' houses of the Levites according to their generations, chief men; these dwelt at Jerusalem.


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And Mikloth begot Shimeam. And they also dwelt with their brothers in Jerusalem, opposite their brothers.


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And Ner begot Kish; and Kish begot Saul; and Saul begot Jonathan and Malchishua and Abinadab and Eshbaal.


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And Azel had six sons, whose names are these:Azrikam, Bocheru, and Ishmael and Sheariah and Obadiah and Hanan; these were the sons of Azel.


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And the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.


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And the battle bore heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was wounded by the archers.


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Then Saul said to his armor bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not, for he was very afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.


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And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.


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And the next day the Philistines came to strip the slain, and they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.


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And they stripped him and took his head and his armor, and they sent them all around, throughout the land of the Philistines in order to announce the good news to their idols and to the people.


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And they put his armor in the house of their gods, and they fastened his head in the house of Dagon.


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All the valiant men rose up and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons; and they brought them to Jabesh and buried their bones under the terebinth at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.


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So Saul died on account of his unfaithfulness which he committed against Jehovah, because of the word of Jehovah which he did not keep, and also because he asked the counsel of a medium, inquiring of it.


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And he did not inquire of Jehovah; therefore He killed him and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.


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Then all Israel gathered themselves to David at Hebron, saying, Here we are, your bone and your flesh.


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Even previously, when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And Jehovah your God said to you, It is you who shall shepherd My people Israel, and you shall be ruler over My people Israel.


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And all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron. And David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Jehovah, and they anointed David king over Israel according to the word of Jehovah spoken by Samuel.


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And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is, Jebus; and the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land there.


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And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, You shall not come in here. But David took the stronghold of Zion, which is now the city of David.


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And David said, Whoever strikes the Jebusites first will be the chief and the captain. And Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, so he became chief.


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And he built the city all around, from the Millo even unto the surrounding area, and Joab repaired the rest of the city.


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And these are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who showed themselves strong with him in his kingdom, with all Israel, to make him king according to the word of Jehovah concerning Israel.


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And these are the number of the mighty men whom David had:Jashobeam the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the thirty; he brandished his spear against three hundred, and they were slain at one time.


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He was with David at Pas-dammim, and the Philistines gathered themselves there for battle, and there was a plot of land full of barley there; and the people fled before the Philistines.


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But they stationed themselves in the midst of the plot and delivered it and struck the Philistines, and Jehovah accomplished a great salvation.


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Now three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David in the cave of Adullam while the army of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim.


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Now at that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was in Bethlehem at that time.


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And the three burst through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate. And they carried it and brought it to David, but David would not drink it; rather he poured it out to Jehovah.


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And he said, Far be it from me, before my God, that I should do this! Shall I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives? For at the risk of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty


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And Abishai the brother of Joab was chief of the three. And he brandished his spear against three hundred, who were slain; and he had a name among the three.


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He was indeed honored among the two of the thirty, and he became their leader; but he did not attain to the three.


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And he struck an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits tall. And the Egyptian had a spear in his hand like a weaver's beam, but he went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the hand of the Egyptian and slew him with his own spear


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He was indeed more honored than the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.


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And the mighty men of the armies were:Asahel the brother of Joab; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem;


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Now these are those who came to David at Ziklag while he was still hidden away because of Saul the son of Kish, and they were among the mighty men who helped him in battle.


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They drew the bow, and with both right and left hands they could sling stones and shoot arrows with the bow; they were from among the brothers of Saul from Benjamin.


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The chief was Ahiezer, then Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite; and Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth; and Beracah and Jehu the Anathothite;


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And Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty and over the thirty; and Jeremiah and Jahaziel and Johanan and Jozabad the Gederathite


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And some of the Gadites separated themselves unto David at the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men fit for the service of war, who could wield shield and spear and whose faces were like the faces of lions; and they were as swift as gaze


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These from among the sons of Gad were heads of the army; he who was least was equal to a hundred, and the greatest to a thousand.


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These are the ones who crossed over the Jordan in the first month, when it overflowed all its banks; and they put to flight all those of the valleys, to the east and to the west.


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And David went out to meet them; and he responded and said to them, If you have come to me in peace in order to help me, my heart will be knit to you; but if you have come to betray me to my adversaries, though there is no wrong in my hands, may the God o


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Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, the head of the thirty, and he said, We are yours, O David, And are with you, O son of Jesse. Peace, peace be with you, And peace with those who help you; For your God helps you. And David received them and made them hea


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And some from Manasseh fell away to David when he came with the Philistines for battle against Saul. (But they did not help them, for the lords of the Philistines, upon deliberation, sent him away, saying, He will fall back to his master Saul at the cost


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As he went to Ziklag, some fell away to him:Adnah and Jozabad and Jediael and Michael and Jozabad and Elihu and Zillethai, captains of thousands who were from Manasseh.


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And they helped David against the band of raiders, for they were all mighty men of valor, and they were captains of the army.


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Indeed day by day they came to David to help him, until there was a great army, like the army of God.


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And these are the numbers of the heads of those who were armed for war and came to David at Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul unto him according to the word of Jehovah:


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And of the children of Benjamin, the brothers of Saul, three thousand; for until that time the greater part of them kept their allegiance to the house of Saul;


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And of the children of Ephraim, twenty thousand eight hundred mighty men of valor, men of renown in their fathers' houses;


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And of the half-tribe of Manasseh, eighteen thousand, who were designated by name to come and make David king.


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And of the children of Issachar, men who understood the times that they might know what Israel should do, the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their command;


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Of Zebulun, those who were able to go forth in war, who could set the battle in array with all the equipment of war, were fifty thousand, and they helped David without a double heart;


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And of Naphtali, one thousand captains, and with them, with shield and spear, thirty-seven thousand;


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And of Asher, those who were able to go forth in war, who could set the battle in array, forty thousand;


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And on the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, with all the equipment of war for the battle, one hundred twenty thousand.


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All these, men of war who could order the battle array, came with a perfect heart to Hebron to make David king over all Israel; and all the rest of Israel as well were of one heart to make David king.


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And they were there with David for three days, eating and drinking; for their brothers had provided for them.


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Moreover those near them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on asses and on camels and on mules and on oxen - provisions of flour, cakes of figs, and clusters of raisins, and wine and oil, and oxen and sheep, in abundance; for the


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And David said to all the congregation of Israel, If it seems good to you, and it is from Jehovah our God, let us send far and wide to our brothers who remain in all the land of Israel and to the priests and the Levites who are with them in their cities w


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And let us bring back the Ark of our God to ourselves, for we did not inquire of it in the days of Saul.


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And all the congregation said that they would do so, for the matter was right in the sight of all the people.


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And David gathered all Israel together from the Shihor of Egypt even to the entrance of Hamath to bring the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.


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And David went up with all Israel to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath-jearim, which is Judah's, to bring up from there the Ark of God, of Jehovah, who sits enthroned between the cherubim, which is called by the Name;


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And they set the Ark of God upon a new cart from the house of Abinadab, and Uzzah and Ahio drove the cart.


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And David and all Israel played before God with all their strength, even with songs and with lyres and with harps and with tambourines and with cymbals and with trumpets.


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And when they came to Chidon's threshing floor, Uzzah stretched out his hand to take hold of the Ark; for the oxen had stumbled.


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And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Uzzah, and He struck him because he stretched out his hand to the Ark; and he died there before God.


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And David was angry because Jehovah had broken forth with an outburst upon Uzzah, and he called that place Perez-uzzah, as it is to this day.


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So David did not remove the Ark to himself to the city of David, but he carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.


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And the Ark of God remained with the house of Obed-edom in his house three months, and Jehovah blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that he had.


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And Hiram the king of Tyre sent messengers to David, as well as cedar timbers and masons and carpenters to build a house for him.


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And David perceived that Jehovah had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of His people Israel.


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And these are the names of those who were born, whom he had in Jerusalem:Shammua and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon


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Now when the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David; and David heard of it and went out against them.


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Then David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand? And Jehovah said to him, Go up, and I will deliver them into your hand.


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And they went up to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there. And David said, God has broken forth upon my enemies by my hand like the breaking forth of a flood. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim.


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And David inquired again of God, and God said to him, You shall not go up after them; go around behind them, and come upon them opposite the balsam trees.


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And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall go out to battle; for God will have gone forth before you to strike the army of the Philistines.


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And David did as God had commanded him, and they struck down the army of the Philistines from Gibeon even unto Gezer.


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And David's fame went forth among all the lands, and Jehovah put the fear of him upon all the nations.


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And David made houses for himself in the city of David, and he prepared a place for the Ark of God and pitched a tent for it.


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Then David said, None should bear the Ark of God except the Levites, for Jehovah has chosen them to bear the Ark of Jehovah and to minister to Him forever.


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So David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem in order to bring up the Ark of Jehovah to its place, which he had prepared for it.


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And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests and the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah and Joel, Shemaiah and Eliel and Amminadab;


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And he said to them, You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, you and your brothers, and bring up the Ark of Jehovah the God of Israel to the place that I have prepared for it.


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For because you did not bring it up the first time, Jehovah our God broke forth upon us; for we did not seek Him according to the ordinance.


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So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves in order to bring up the Ark of Jehovah the God of Israel.


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And the sons of the Levites bore the Ark of God as Moses had commanded, according to the word of Jehovah, upon their shoulders with the poles upon them.


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And David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers with musical instruments - harps, lyres, loud-sounding cymbals - to raise sounds of joy.


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So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brothers, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brothers, Ethan the son of Kushaiah;


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And with them their brothers of the second order:Zechariah, and Jaaziel, and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Unni, Eliab and Benaiah and Maaseiah and Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah, and Obed- edom and Jeiel, the doorkeepers.


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And Zechariah and Aziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Unni and Eliab and Maaseiah and Benaiah with harps set to alamoth;


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And Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel and Azaziah were appointed to lead with lyres set to sheminith.


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And Chenaniah, the leader of the Levites, was over the song; he instructed about the song, because he was skillful.


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And Shebaniah and Joshaphat and Nethanel and Amasai and Zechariah and Benaiah and Eliezer, the priests, blew the trumpets before the Ark of God; and Obed-edom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the Ark.


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So David and the elders of Israel and the captains of thousands went to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah from the house of Obed-edom with rejoicing.


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And because God helped the Levites who bore the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.


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And David was clothed with a fine linen robe, as were all the Levites who bore the Ark and the singers and Chenaniah, the song leader of the singers; and David had on a linen ephod.


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So all Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah with shouting and with the sound of the horn and with trumpets and with cymbals, sounding aloud with harps and lyres.


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And when the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah came to the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked down through a window and saw King David dancing and playing; and she despised him in her heart.


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And they brought the Ark of God and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it. And they offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.


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And when David finished offering up the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Jehovah.


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And he apportioned to everyone of Israel, to both men and women, to each one, a cake of bread and a portion of meat and a cake of raisins.


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And he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the Ark of Jehovah and to commemorate and thank and praise Jehovah the God of Israel:


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Asaph the chief; and second to him Zechariah; Jeiel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Mattithiah and Eliab and Benaiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel, with harps and with lyres; and Asaph sounding aloud with cymbals;


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And Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually before the Ark of the Covenant of God.


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On that day, at that time, David first ordained the giving of thanks to Jehovah by the hand of Asaph and his brothers.


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Ascribe to Jehovah the glory of His name; Bring an offering, and come before Him. Worship Jehovah in holy splendor;


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And say, Save us, O God of our salvation; And gather us and deliver us out of the nations, That we may give thanks to Your holy name, That we may glory in Your praise.


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Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, From eternity to eternity. And all the people aid, Amen, and praised Jehovah.


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So there before the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah he left Asaph and his brothers to minister before the Ark continually, as every day's work dictated;


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As well as Obed-edom and his sixty- eight relatives, with Obed-edom the son of Jeduthun and Hosah as gatekeepers;


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And Zadok the priest and his brothers the priests before the tabernacle of Jehovah in the high place which was at Gibeon,


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To offer up burnt offerings to Jehovah upon the burnt offering altar continually every morning and every evening, according to all that was written in the law of Jehovah, which He commanded Israel.


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And with them were Heman and Jeduthun and the rest of those who had been chosen, who had been mentioned by name, to give thanks to Jehovah, for His lovingkindness endures forever.


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And with them were Heman and Jeduthun with trumpets and cymbals for those who were to sound aloud and with instruments for the songs of God, and the sons of Jeduthun were to be at the gate.


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And as David dwelt in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah dwells under curtains.


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Go and say to David My servant, Thus says Jehovah, It will not be you who builds Me a house to dwell in.


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For I have not dwelt in a house, since the day I brought up Israel to this day; but I have been from tent to tent and from tabernacle to tabernacle.


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In all My going about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people, saying, Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?


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And now thus shall you say to My servant David, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you might be ruler over My people Israel;


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And I have been with you in every place that you have gone and have cut off all your enemies before you; and I will make a name for you, like the name of the great ones who are on the earth.


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And I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them there, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more; and the sons of wickedness will waste them away no more as before,


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Even since the time when I commanded that there be judges over My people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I declare to you that Jehovah will build you a house.


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When your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, which will be from your sons, and I will establish his kingdom.


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I will be his Father, and he will be My son; and My lovingkindness I will not take from him, as I took it away from him who was before you.


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Then King David went and sat before Jehovah; and he said, Who am I, O Jehovah God, and what is my house that You have brought me this far?


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And this was a small thing in Your sight, O God; but You have spoken of the house of Your servant for a great while to come; and You have regarded me according to the custom for a man of high degree, O Jehovah God.


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What more can David add to say to You concerning this honoring of Your servant? For You know Your servant.


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O Jehovah, for Your servant's sake and according to Your own heart, You have done all this greatness to make known all these great things.


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O Jehovah, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.


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And who is like Your people Israel, a nation unique on the earth, which God went to redeem to Himself as a people in order to make for Yourself a name of greatness and awesomeness to drive out nations from before Your people, whom You have redeemed out of


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And You have made Your people Israel to be a people to You forever, and You, O Jehovah, became their God.


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And now, O Jehovah, may the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as You have spoken.


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And may Your name be established and magnified forever when men say, Jehovah of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel; and the house of David Your servant will be established before You.


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For You, O my God, have revealed to Your servant, that You will build him a house; therefore Your servant has found it in his heart to pray before You.


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Now therefore You have been pleased to bless the house of Your servant, that it may be before You forever; for You, O Jehovah, have blessed, and it is blessed forever.


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And after this David struck the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Gath and her villages out of the hand of the Philistines.


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Then David struck Hadadezer the king of Zobah at Hamath, when he went to establish his power at the river Euphrates.


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And David took from him one thousand chariots and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses but left enough of them for a hundred chariots.


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And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem.


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And from Tibhath and Cun, cities of Hadadezer, David took very much bronze, with which Solomon made the bronze sea and the pillars and the vessels of bronze.


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Then when Tou the king of Hamath heard that David had struck down all the army of Hadadezer the king of Zobah,


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He sent Hadoram his son to King David to greet him and congratulate him for fighting against Hadadezer and striking him down, for Hadadezer had been at war with Tou. And Hadoram brought all kinds of articles of gold and of silver and of bronze.


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King David consecrated these also to Jehovah along with the silver and gold that he had carried from all the nations:from the Edomites and from the Moabites and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines and from the Amalekites.


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Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah struck down the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, that is, eighteen thousand men.


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And he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became servants to David. And Jehovah preserved David wherever he went.


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And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and David's sons were chief at the king's side.


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And David said, I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me. And David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun to comfort


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But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Do you really think that David is honoring your father just because he sent to you some men to comfort you? Have not his servants come to you in order to search out and to overthrow and to spy on the


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So Hanun took David's servants and shaved them and cut away half their garments at the hips, and he sent them away.


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Now when they went and told David about the men, he sent some to meet them, for the men were very ashamed. And the king said, Stay in Jericho until your beards grow back, then return.


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And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent one thousand talents of silver to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia and from the Syrians of Maacah and from Zob


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So they hired for themselves thirty- two thousand chariots and the king of Maacah and his people, who came and camped before Medeba. And the children of Ammon gathered together from their cities and came to the battle.


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And the children of Ammon went forth and set the battle in array at the entrance of the city, but the kings who had come were alone in the field.


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And the rest of the people he put under the charge of Abishai his brother, and they arrayed themselves against the children of Ammon.


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And he said, If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me; and if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you.


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And the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians fled, and they also fled from before Abishai his brother and entered the city. And Joab entered Jerusalem.


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Now when the Syrians saw that they had been routed before Israel, they sent messengers and brought forth the Syrians who were beyond the River with Shophach the captain of the army of Hadadezer before them.


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And it was told David, and he gathered all Israel together and passed over the Jordan and came to them and set his men in array against them. When David set his men in array to meet the Syrians in battle, they fought with him.


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And the Syrians fled before Israel. And David slew seven thousand charioteers of the Syrians and forty thousand footmen, and he put Shophach the captain of the army to death.


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And when the servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed before Israel, they made peace with David and served him. So the Syrians were not willing to help the children of Ammon any more.


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Then at the time of the turn of the year, at the time when kings go forth to battle, Joab led the army and devastated the land of the children of Ammon. And he went and besieged Rabah while David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab struck Rabah and overthrew


text:
And David took the crown of their king from off his head and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and in it were precious stones; and it was put upon David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city, a very great amount.


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And he brought out the people who were in it and hewed them with saws and iron cutting tools and axes, and thus did David do to all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.


text:
Then after this a war arose with the Philistines at Gezer; and Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Sippai, one of the children of the giants; and they were subdued.


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And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.


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And again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all; and he also had been born to the giant.


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These had been born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David and by the hands of his servants.


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And David said to Joab and to the captains of the people, Go and count Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, and bring the results to me, that I may know their number.


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And Joab said, May Jehovah add to His people a hundred times as many as they are. But, O my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why does my lord request this? Why should he become a cause of guilt to Israel?


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Nevertheless the king's word prevailed over Joab, and Joab went forth and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem.


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And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. And all Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah was four hundred seventy thousand men who drew the sword.


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And David said to God, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing; but now put away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.


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Go and speak to David, saying, Thus says Jehovah, I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, that I may do it to you.


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Either three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your adversaries, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or three days of the sword of Jehovah, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Jehovah destroying throughout all t


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And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait; let me fall into the hand of Jehovah, for His compassions are very great; and do not let me fall into the hand of man.


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And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was destroying it, Jehovah saw and repented of the harm. And He said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now hold back your hand. And the angel of Jehovah was standing by the threshing floor o


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And David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of Jehovah standing between the earth and the heavens, with his drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, covered with sackcloth, fell on their faces.


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And David said to God, Was it not I who ordered the numbering of the people? And it is I who have sinned and acted very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? O Jehovah my God, let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against the house of my fath


text:
And the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise up an altar to Jehovah on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.


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And Ornan turned back and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves; and Ornan was threshing wheat.


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And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David. And he went forth from the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.


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And David said to Ornan, Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to Jehovah. For the full price you shall give it to me, that the plague may be stayed from the people.


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And Ornan said to David, Take it; and may my lord the king do whatever seems good in his sight. Look, I have given the oxen for the burnt offerings and the threshing instruments for the wood and the wheat for the meal offering - all this I give.


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But King David said to Ornan, No; but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for Jehovah and offer up burnt offerings that cost me nothing.


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And there David built an altar to Jehovah, and he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And he called on Jehovah, and He answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering.


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At that time, when David saw that Jehovah had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.


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And the tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering at that time were in the high place at Gibeon.


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And David was not able to go before it to inquire of God because he was terrified of the sword of the angel of Jehovah.


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Then David said, This is the house of Jehovah God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.


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And David ordered the gathering of the sojourners who were in the land of Israel. And he appointed masons to hew the wrought stones for the building of the house of God.


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And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails of the doors of the gates and for the clasps; and bronze in abundance, without weight;


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And cedar trees without number, for the Sidonians and the Tyrians brought cedar trees in vast quantity to David.


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And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built to Jehovah must be exceedingly great in fame and glory throughout all lands; I will therefore make preparations for it. So David prepared an abundance before his death.


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Then he called for Solomon his son and commanded him to build a house for Jehovah the God of Israel.


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And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was on my heart to build a house for the name of Jehovah my God.


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But the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, You have shed blood abundantly and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house for My name, for you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight.


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Behold, a son will be born to you. He will be a man of rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies around him, for Solomon will be his name, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel throughout his days.


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It is he who will build a house for My name; and he will be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.


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Now, my son, may Jehovah be with you; and may you prosper and build the house of Jehovah your God, as He has spoken concerning you.


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Only, let Jehovah give you insight and understanding, and let Him give you charge over Israel that you may keep the law of Jehovah your God;


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Then you will prosper if you are certain to perform the statutes and ordinances with which Jehovah charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and be bold; do not be afraid or dismayed.


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Now then in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Jehovah one hundred thousand talents of gold and one million talents of silver and bronze and iron without weight, for it is in abundance; and timber and stone I have prepared; and you may add to


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And with you there are workmen in abundance, masons and workers in stone and wood and all manner of men who are skillful in every kind of work.


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To the gold and silver and bronze and iron there is no number. Arise and do it, and may Jehovah be with you.


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Indeed Jehovah your God is with you. And He has given you rest all around. For He has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land has been subdued before Jehovah and before His people.


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Now set your heart and your soul to seek after Jehovah your God; and arise and build the sanctuary of Jehovah God, in order to bring the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah and all the holy vessels of God to the house that is to be built for the name of Jehova


text:
And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward; and their number, head by head and man by man, was thirty-eight thousand.


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Of these twenty-four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of Jehovah, and six thousand were officers and judges,


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And four thousand were gatekeepers, and four thousand were to praise Jehovah with the instruments that I have made for praising, said David.


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The sons of Shimei:Shelomoth and Haziel and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers' houses of Ladan.


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And Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second. But Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons; therefore they became a father's house in one reckoning.


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The sons of Amram:Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was separated that he might sanctify the most holy things forever, he and his sons, by burning incense before Jehovah, by ministering to Him, and by blessing in His name forever.


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And the sons of Eliezer were:Rehabiah the chief; and Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very many.


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The sons of Hebron:Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.


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And Eleazar died and had no sons, only daughters; and their brothers the sons of Kish took them as their wives.


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These were the sons of Levi according to their fathers' houses, the heads of the fathers' houses of those who had been counted, by the number of names, head by head, who did the work for the service of the house of Jehovah, from twenty years old and upwar


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For David said, Jehovah the God of Israel has given rest to His people, and He will dwell in Jerusalem forever;


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For their station was alongside the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of Jehovah in the courts and in the chambers and in the purifying of all the holy things, that is, the work of the service of the house of God;


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And for the rows of bread and the fine flour of the meal offering and the unleavened wafers and what is baked in the pan and what is mixed with oil and all measures of quantity and size;


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And to offer all the burnt offerings to Jehovah, according to the number ordained for them, on the Sabbaths, at the new moons, and on the appointed feasts, continually before Jehovah;


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And they were to keep the charge of the Tent of Meeting and the charge of the sanctuary and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brothers for the service of the house of Jehovah.


text:
And the divisions of the sons of Aaron were these:the sons of Aaron:Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.


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But Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no children; therefore Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests.


text:
And David with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar divided them according to their offices in their service.


text:
Since more chief men were found among the sons of Eleazar than the sons of Ithamar, they were divided thus:of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, heads of fathers' houses; and of the sons of Ithamar, according to their fathers' houses, eight.


text:
And they were divided by lot, each like the others; for there were officers of the sanctuary and officers of God, both from the sons of Eleazar and from the sons of Ithamar.


text:
And Shemaiah the son of Nethanel the scribe, from among the Levites, recorded them in the presence of the king and the leaders and Zadok the priest and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar and the heads of the fathers' houses of the priests and of the Levites, o


text:
These were their offices in their service for coming into the house of Jehovah according to the arrangement given to them by Aaron their father, as Jehovah the God of Israel had commanded him.


text:
And of the rest of the sons of Levi:of the sons of Amram, Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah.


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And the sons of Hebron:Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth.


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And the sons of Mushi:Mahli and Eder and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites according to their fathers' houses.


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These likewise cast lots even as their brothers the sons of Aaron in the presence of David the king and Zadok and Ahimelech and the heads of the fathers' houses of the priests and of the Levites, the head of the fathers' houses even as his younger brother


text:
Moreover David and the leaders of the army set apart for the service some of the sons of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun to prophesy with lyres, harps, and cymbals. And the list of those who did the work according to their service was:


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Of the sons of Asaph:Zaccur and Joseph and Nethaniah and Asharelah, the sons of Asaph, under the hand of Asaph, who prophesied under the king's direction.


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Of Jeduthun:the sons of Jeduthun:Gedaliah and Zeri and Jeshaiah and Shimei and Hashabiah and Mattithiah, six, under the direction of their father Jeduthun with the lyre, who prophesied in giving thanks and praising Jehovah.


text:
Of Heman:the sons of Heman:Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth;


text:
All these were the sons of Heman the king's seer, for exalting His power with the words of God; and God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.


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All these were under the direction of their father for song in the house of Jehovah, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, for the service of the house of God, Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman being under the direction of the king.


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And the number of them, with their brothers who were instructed in singing to Jehovah, all of whom were skillful, was two hundred eighty-eight.


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And they cast lots for their duties, all alike, the small as well as the great, the teacher as well as the student.


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Now the first lot came forth for Asaph to Joseph; the second to Gedaliah, he and his brothers and his sons, twelve:


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For the divisions of the doorkeepers:of the Korahites, Meshelemiah the son of Kore, of the sons of Asaph.


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And Meshelemiah had sons:Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth,


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And Obed-edom had sons:Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third and Sacar the fourth and Nethanel the fifth,


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And to Shemaiah his son were sons born, who ruled over the house of their father, for they were mighty men of valor.


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The sons of Shemaiah:Othni and Rephael and Obed and Elzabad, whose brothers, Elihu and Semachiah, were valiant men.


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All these were among the sons of Obed-edom:they and their sons and their brothers, men of strength able for the service, sixty-two of Obed-edom.


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And Hosah, of the children of Merari, had sons:Shimri the chief (for although he was not the firstborn, his father made him chief),


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Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, the fourth; all the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen.


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To these divisions of the doorkeepers, the chief men, were given duties like those of their brothers, to minister in the house of Jehovah.


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And they cast lots, the small as well as the great, according to their fathers' houses, for every gate.


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And the lot for the east fell to Shelemiah. Then for Zechariah his son, a counselor with insight, they cast lots; and his lot went out for the north.


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For Shuppim and Hosah it went out for the west, by the gate of Shallecheth on the ascending road. Guard corresponded to guard.


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On the east:six Levites; on the north:four a day; on the south:four a day; and for the storehouse:two by two;


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These were the divisions of the doorkeepers, from the sons of the Korahites and from the sons of Merari.


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And of the Levites, Ahijah was over the treasures of the house of God and over the treasures of the dedicated gifts.


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The sons of Ladan, the sons of the Gershonites belonging to Ladan, the heads of the fathers' houses belonging to Ladan the Gershonite:Jehieli.


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The sons of Jehieli:Zetham and Joel his brother, who were over the treasures of the house of Jehovah.


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And his brothers:From Eliezer came Rehabiah his son and Jeshaiah his son and Joram his son and Zichri his son and Shelomoth his son.


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This Shelomoth and his brothers were over all the treasures of the dedicated gifts, which David the king and the heads of the fathers' houses, the captains over thousands and hundreds and the captains of the army, had dedicated;


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And all that Samuel the seer and Saul the son of Kish and Abner the son of Ner and Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated, and whoever had dedicated anything, was under the hand of Shelomoth and his brothers.


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Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were appointed to the outward duties over Israel, as officers and judges.


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Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brothers, men of valor, one thousand seven hundred, had the oversight of Israel beyond the Jordan to the west for all the business of Jehovah, and for the service of the king.


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Of the Hebronites, Jerijah was chief. (As for the Hebronites, in the fortieth year of David's reign a search was made according to their generations by fathers' houses, and among them mighty men of valor were found at Jazer-gilead.)


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And his brothers, men of valor, were two thousand seven hundred, heads of fathers' houses, whom King David made overseers over the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of the Manassites, for every matter pertaining to God and for the affairs of t


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And these are the children of Israel by their number, the heads of fathers' houses, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and their officers who served the king in all the matters of the divisions that came in and went out month by month througho


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Over the first division for the first month was Jashobeam the son of Zabdiel; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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And over the division of the second month was Dodai the Ahohite and his division, with Mikloth being the leader; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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The third captain of the army for the third month was Benaiah the chief, the son of Jehoiada the priest; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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This is that Benaiah who was the mighty man of the thirty and who was over the thirty; and in his division was Ammizabad his son.


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The fourth for the fourth month was Asahel the brother of Joab and Zebadiah his son after him; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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The fifth for this fifth month was the captain Shamhuth the Izrahite and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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The sixth for the sixth month was Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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The seventh for the seventh month was Helez the Pelonite, from the children of Ephraim; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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The eighth for the eighth month was Sibbecai the Hushathite, from the Zerahites; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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The ninth for the ninth month was Abiezer the Anathothite, from the Benjamites; and in his division were twenty- four thousand.


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The tenth for the tenth month was Maharai the Netophathite, from the Zerahites; and in his division were twenty- four thousand.


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The eleventh for the eleventh month was Benaiah the Pirathonite, from the children of Ephraim; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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The twelfth for the twelfth month was Heldai the Netophathite, of Othniel; and in his division were twenty-four thousand.


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And over the tribes of Israel were these:for the Reubenites was Eliezer the son of Zichri, the leader; for the Simeonites, Shephatiah the son of Maacah;


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For the children of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Azaziah; for the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joel the son of Pedaiah;


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For the other half of Manasseh, in Gilead, Iddo the son of Zechariah; for Benjamin, Jaasiel the son of Abner;


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But David did not take the number of those from twenty years old and under, because Jehovah had said He would increase Israel like the stars of heaven.


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Joab the son of Zeruiah had begun to number them but did not finish; and because of this, wrath came upon Israel. Nor was the number put into the account in the chronicles of King David.


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And over the king's treasures was Azmaveth the son of Adiel; and over the treasures in the fields, in the cities, and in the villages and in the towers was Jonathan the son of Uzziah;


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And over the vineyards was Shimei the Ramathite; and over the produce of the vineyards in the wine cellars was Zabdi the Shiphmite;


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And over the olive trees and the sycamore trees that were in the lowland was Baal-hanan the Gederite; and over the oil stores was Joash;


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And over the cattle that grazed in Sharon was Shitrai the Sharonite; and over the cattle that were in the valleys was Shaphat the son of Adlai;


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And over the camels was Obil the Ishmaelite; and over the asses was Jehdeiah the Meronothite; and over the flocks was Jaziz the Hagrite.


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In addition, Jonathan, David's uncle, was a counselor, a man of understanding, and a scribe; and Jehiel the son of Hachmoni was with the king's sons;


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And after Ahithophel was Jehoiada the son of Benaiah, then Abiathar; and the captain of the king's army was Joab.


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And David assembled at Jerusalem all the leaders of Israel:the leaders of the tribes, and the leaders of the divisions who served the king, and the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, and the overseers of all the property and cattle of t


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And David the king rose to his feet and said, Hear me, my brothers and my people:I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah and for the footstool of our God, and I prepared materials for building it.


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But God said to me, You shall not build a house for My name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood.


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But Jehovah the God of Israel chose me out of all my father's house to be king over Israel forever; for He chose Judah as leader, and in the house of Judah the house of my father, and among the sons of my father He took pleasure in me, making me king over


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And out of all my sons - for Jehovah has given me many sons - He has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of Jehovah over Israel.


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And He said to me, Solomon your son, he shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be My son, and I will be his Father.


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And I will establish his kingdom forever, if he is resolute in doing My commandments and My ordinances, as on this day.


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And now in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of Jehovah, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek after all the commandments of Jehovah your God in order that you may possess the good land and leave it as an inheritance forever to your children


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And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve Him with your whole heart and with a willing soul, for Jehovah searches all the hearts and understands every imagination of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you


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Then David gave Solomon his son the pattern of the portico of the temple and its buildings and its storehouses and its upper rooms and its inner rooms and the building for the propitiation cover;


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And the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, for the courts of the house of Jehovah, and for all the chambers around, and for the treasuries of the house of God, and for the treasuries of the dedicated gifts;


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And for the divisions of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of Jehovah, and for all the vessels of the service of the house of Jehovah;


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And for the gold, by weight of the gold for all the vessels of each kind of service; for all the vessels of silver, by weight for all the vessels for each kind of service;


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And for the weight of the lampstands of gold and their lamps of gold, by weight for each lampstand and its lamps; and for the weight of the lampstands of silver, by weight for the lampstand and its lamps, according to the service of each kind of lampstand


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And for the gold, by weight for the tables of the rows of bread for each table, and for the silver for the tables of silver;


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And for the flesh hooks and the basins and the cups, of pure gold; and for the bowls of gold, by weight for each bowl; and for the bowls of silver, by weight for each bowl;


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And for the incense altar of refined gold, by weight; and gold for the figure of the chariot, that is, the cherubim, spreading out their wings and covering the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah.


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All this, said David, has He made clear by a writing from the hand of Jehovah upon me, all the details of the pattern.


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And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and be bold and do it; do not be afraid or dismayed, for Jehovah God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until the completion of all the work for the service of the house of Jehovah.


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And here are the divisions of priests and Levites for all the service of the house of God, and with you in all the work will be every willing man with wisdom for any service; also the leaders and all the people will be wholly at your command.


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And David the king said to all the assembly, Solomon my son, he alone whom God has chosen, is young and tender, and the work is great because the palace is not for man but for Jehovah God.


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And as much as was in my power I have prepared for the house of my God the gold for the things of gold and the silver for the things of silver and the bronze for the things of bronze and the iron for the things of iron and the wood for the things of wood,


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Furthermore, because I set my affection on the house of my God, and since I have a private treasure of gold and silver, I give it for the house of my God over and above all that I have prepared for this holy house:


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Three thousand talents of gold, from the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver for overlaying the walls of the houses,


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Gold for the things of gold and the silver for the things of silver and for all the work by the hands of the craftsmen. And who will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to Jehovah?


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And the leaders of the fathers' houses and the leaders of the tribes of Israel and the captains of thousands and of hundreds with the overseers of the king's work offered willingly;


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And they gave for the service of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, and ten thousand talents of silver, and eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron.


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And those with whom gems were found gave them to the treasure of the house of Jehovah through Jehiel the Gershonite.


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Then the people rejoiced because they offered willingly; for with their whole heart they offered willingly to Jehovah. And David the king also rejoiced with great joy.


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And David blessed Jehovah in the sight of all the assembly. And David said, You are blessed, O Jehovah, God of Israel our Father, from eternity to eternity.


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Yours is the greatness and the power and the splendor and the victory and the majesty, indeed all that is in heaven and on earth; Yours, O Jehovah, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as Head over all.


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Both riches and glory proceed from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand are power and might, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all.


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But who am I, and who are my people, that we should have strength to offer so willingly in this way? For all things are from You, and from Your hand we have given to You.


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For we are strangers before You and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days upon earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.


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O Jehovah our God, as for all this abundance that we have prepared for building You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand, and all is Yours.


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I know also, O my God, that You try the heart and take pleasure in uprightness. I, in the uprightness of my heart, have offered willingly all these things; and now I have seen with joy Your people, who are present here, offering willingly to You.


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O Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of Your people's heart and establish their heart toward You.


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And to Solomon my son give a wholeness of heart to keep Your commandments, Your testimonies, and Your statutes, and to do all and build the palace for which I have prepared these things.


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Then David said to all the assembly, Bless Jehovah your God. And all the assembly blessed Jehovah, the God of their fathers; and they bowed down and paid homage to Jehovah and the king.


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And they offered sacrifices to Jehovah and offered up burnt offerings to Jehovah on the morning after that day - one thousand bulls, one thousand rams, one thousand lambs, with their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel.


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And they ate and drank before Jehovah on that day with great joy. And they made Solomon the son of David king a second time and anointed him as ruler for Jehovah and Zadok as priest.


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And Solomon sat upon the throne of Jehovah as king in place of David his father and prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.


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And all the leaders and mighty men and also all the sons of King David submitted themselves to Solomon the king.


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And Jehovah magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel and bestowed upon him a royal majesty that had never been on any king before him over Israel.


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And the time which he reigned over Israel was forty years; in Hebron he reigned seven years, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three.


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And David died at a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor; and Solomon his son reigned in his place.


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And the acts of David the king, the first and the last, are there written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer and in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet and in the chronicles of Gad the seer,


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With all his reign and his might and the times that befell him and Israel and all the kingdoms of the lands.


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And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and Jehovah his God was with him and magnified him exceedingly.


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And Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every leader of all Israel, the heads of the fathers' houses.


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And Solomon and all the assembly with him went up to the high place that was in Gibeon, for the Tent of Meeting of God was there, which Moses the servant of Jehovah had made in the wilderness.


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However David had brought up the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.


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And the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was there before the tabernacle of Jehovah, and Solomon and the assembly inquired at it.


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And Solomon went up there before Jehovah to the bronze altar, which was at the Tent of Meeting, and he offered upon it one thousand burnt offerings.


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And Solomon said to God, You have shown great lovingkindness to David my father and have made me king in his place.


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And now, O Jehovah God, may Your promise to David my father be fulfilled, for You have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.


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Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?


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Then God said to Solomon, Because this is on your heart and you have not asked for riches, wealth, or honor, nor for the life of those who hate you, nor have you even asked for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself so that you m


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Wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and riches and wealth and honor I will give you, such as no kings who were before you have had, nor any after you will have.


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Then Solomon came to Jerusalemfrom the high place that was in Gibeon, from the Tent of Meeting; and he reigned over Israel.


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And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen together; and he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.


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And the king caused silver and gold to be as plentiful as stones in Jerusalem; and cedars, like the sycamores that are in the lowlands.


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And they could import from Egypt a chariot for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for one hundred fifty shekels, and thus they brought them out to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria by their own means.


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And Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens and eighty thousand men as stonecutters in the mountains and three thousand six hundred men to oversee them.


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And Solomon sent word to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As you did to David my father, in that you sent him cedars to build a house for him to dwell in, so do for me.


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I am now about to build a house for the name of Jehovah my God to sanctify to Him, for the burning of fragrant incense before Him and the arranging of the rows of bread continually and the offering up of burnt offerings in the morning and in the evening,


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But who is able to build Him a house? For the heavens and the heaven of heavens is not able to contain Him. And who am I, that I should build Him a house, except to burn incense before Him?


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So now send me a man, skillful in working with gold and with silver and with bronze and with iron and with purple and crimson and blue cloth, and who knows how to make engravings, to be with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom


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Send me timber of cedar, cypress, and algum from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut the timber of Lebanon. And now my servants will be with your servants,


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To prepare for me timber in abundance; for the house which I am building will be great and wonderful.


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And now I will give to your servants, the hewers who cut timber, twenty thousand cors of crushed wheat and twenty thousand cors of barley and twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty thousand baths of oil.


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And Huram the king of Tyre answered by letter, sending it to Solomon, saying, Because Jehovah loves His people, He has made you king over them.


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Huram also said, Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who made the heavens and the earth, who has given King David a wise son endowed with discernment and understanding, who will build a house for Jehovah and his royal palace.


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The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father is a man of Tyre, who knows how to work in gold and in silver and in bronze and in iron, in stones and in wood, in purple, in blue cloth, and in fine linen and in crimson cloth and who knows how to


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And now let my lord send to his servants the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine of which he spoke;


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And we will cut whatever timber you need from Lebanon and bring it to you on rafts by sea to Joppa, and you can bring it up to Jerusalem.


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And Solomon numbered all the men who were sojourners who were in the land of Israel after the census which David his father had made of them, and they found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.


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And he appointed seventy thousand of them as burden bearers and eighty thousand as stonecutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to make the people work.


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And Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where He had appeared to David his father, at the place that David prepared, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.


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And these are the foundations which Solomon laid to build the house of God. The length in cubits, according to the former standard, was sixty cubits, and it was twenty cubits wide.


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And the portico that was at the front was as long as the width of the house, twenty cubits; and its height was one hundred twenty cubits. And he overlaid it within with pure gold.


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And the greater house he overlaid with cypress wood, and he overlaid it with fine gold and put palm trees and chains on it.


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And he overlaid the house - the beams, the thresholds, and its walls and its doors - with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.


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And he made the house of the Holy of Holies; its length, across the width of the house, was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits; and he overlaid it with fine gold amounting to six hundred talents.


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And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold, and the upper chambers he overlaid with gold.


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And he made two cherubim of sculptured work in the house of the Holy of Holies, and they overlaid them with gold.


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And the wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits; the wing of one, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, touched the wing of the other cherub.


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And the wing of the other cherub, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, was attached to the wing of the first cherub.


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The wings of these cherubim were spread out twenty cubits in length; and they stood on their feet, and their faces were toward the house.


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And he made the veil of blue and purple and crimson cloth and fine linen, and he put cherubim upon it.


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And at the front of the house he made two pillars, thirty-five cubits high; and the capital that was on the top of each was five cubits high.


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And he made chains in the innermost sanctuary and set them on the tops of the pillars, and he made one hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains.


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And he erected the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right and one on the left; and he called the name of the one on the right Jachin and the name of the one on the left Boaz.


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And he made an altar of bronze; its length was twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits, and its height was ten cubits.


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And under it there were figures of oxen all around, encircling it, for ten cubits, surrounding the sea all around; the oxen were cast in two rows when they were cast.


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And it was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was like the work of a cup's brim, like the flower of a lily; it could hold three thousand baths.


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And he made ten basins in which to wash, to rinse the things for the burnt offering, and he set five on the right and five on the left; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.


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Then he made the ten golden lampstands according to the ordinance for them, and he put them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left.


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And he made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left; and he made one hundred golden bowls.


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And he made the court of the priests and the great court and the doors of the court, and he overlaid their doors with bronze.


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And Huram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls. Thus Huram finished doing the work that he was doing for King Solomon in the house of God:


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The two pillars and the bowls and the two capitals that were at the top of the pillars and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were at the top of the pillars;


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And the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.


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And the pots and the shovels and the forks and all their vessels that Huram-abi made for King Solomon for the house of Jehovah were of burnished bronze.


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And Solomon made all these vessels in great number, for the weight of bronze could not be ascertained.


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And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of God:the golden altar; and the tables upon which the bread of the Presence was put;


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And the lampstands and their lamps of pure gold to burn according to their ordinance before the innermost sanctuary;


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And the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the entrance of the house, its innermost doors for the Holy of Holies, and the doors of the house of the temple, of gold.


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Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of Jehovah was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had sanctified, even the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of God.


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Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers' houses of the children of Israel, to Jerusalem in order to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah from the city of David, which is Zion.


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And all the men of Israel assembled themselves before the king at the feast, which is in the seventh month.


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And they brought up the Ark and the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; the priests and Levites brought them up.


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And King Solomon and all the assembly of Israel, who had assembled before him before the Ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen which could not be counted or numbered for multitude.


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And the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the Ark, and the cherubim covered the Ark and its poles overhead.


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And the poles extended out, so that the ends of the poles could be seen coming out from the Ark before the innermost sanctuary, but they were not seen outside; and they are there to this day.


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There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets, which Moses put there at Horeb when Jehovah made a covenant with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt.


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And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves without regard to their divisions),


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All the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers clothed in fine linen, with cymbals and with harps and lyres, were standing east of the altar; and one hundred twenty priests who blew the trumpets were with them.


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And when the trumpeters and the singers were one to make themselves heard with one voice in praising and in giving thanks to Jehovah, and when they lifted up their voice with trumpets and with cymbals and with musical instruments in praise to Jehovah, say


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And the priests were not able to stand and minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of God.


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And he said, Blessed be Jehovah the God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to David my father and fulfilled it with His hands, saying,


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Since the day when I brought My people out from the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house for My name that it might be there; nor did I choose a man to be a ruler over My people Israel;


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But I have chosen Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.


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And there I have set the Ark, in which is the covenant of Jehovah, which He made with the children of Israel.


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Then he stood before the altar of Jehovah in front of all the congregation of Israel and spread out his hands.


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Now Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long and five cubits wide and three cubits high and had put it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in front of all the congregation of Israel and spread out his hand


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And he said, O Jehovah, God of Israel, there is no god like You, in heaven or on earth, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with Your servants who walk before You with all their heart;


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And now, O Jehovah, God of Israel, keep with Your servant David my father that which You promised him, saying, There shall not fail you a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel, if only your children keep their way by walking in My law as you ha


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Now therefore, O Jehovah, God of Israel, may Your word that You spoke to Your servant David be confirmed.


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But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain You, how much less this house which I have built.


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Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplication, O Jehovah my God, and listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant is praying before You;


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That Your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, toward the place of which You have said that You would put Your name there, to listen to the prayer which Your servant will pray toward this place.


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And listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place. Hear then from Your dwelling place, from the heavens; and when You hear, forgive.


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Then hear from the heavens and act and judge Your servants, repaying the wicked by bringing his way on his head and justifying the righteous by giving to him according to his righteousness.


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And if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they turn and confess Your name and pray and make supplication before You in this house;


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Then hear from the heavens, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and to their fathers.


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If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, swarming locust or consuming locust, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague, and whatever sickness there is;


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Whatever prayer, whatever supplication, which will be made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own plague and his own pain, when he spreads out his hands toward this house;


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Then hear from the heavens Your dwelling place, and forgive and render to each man according to all his ways, whose heart You know; for You, You alone know the hearts of the children of men;


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That they may fear You to walk in Your ways all the days that they live in the land which You have given to our fathers.


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And also concerning the foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel but comes from a distant country for the sake of Your great name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house;


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Then hear from the heavens, from Your dwelling place, and act according to all that the foreigner calls upon You for, that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and that they may fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that th


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If Your people go out to battle against their enemies by the way which You have sent them, and they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the house which I have built for Your name;


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If they have sinned against You (for there is no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them up to the enemy, so that they are carried away captive unto a land, far away or nearby;


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And if they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and they pray toward their land that You have given to their fathers, and the city that You have chosen, and to th


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Then hear their prayer and their supplications from the heavens, from Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.


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Now, O my God, may Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.


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And now arise, O Jehovah God, to Your resting place, You and the Ark of Your strength. Let Your priests, O Jehovah God, be clothed with salvation, And let Your saints rejoice in what is good.


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O Jehovah God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed one, Remember Your lovingkindness to David Your servant.


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And when Solomon had finished praying, the fire came down from heaven and devoured the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Jehovah filled the house.


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And the priests were not able to enter the house of Jehovah, for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah.


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And all the children of Israel, seeing the fire coming down and the glory of Jehovah upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground and worshipped and thanked Jehovah, saying, For He is good; for His lovingkindness endures forev


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And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. Thus the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.


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And the priests stood at their posts and the Levites with the musical instruments of Jehovah, which David the king had made for praising Jehovah (for His lovingkindness endures forever) whenever David praised with them. And the priests sounded the trumpet


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And Solomon sanctified the middle of the court that was before the house of Jehovah, for there he offered the burnt offering and the fat of peace offerings because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering and the


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And Solomon held a feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt.


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And on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for they held the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days;


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And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, rejoicing and happy in heart for the goodness that Jehovah had shown to David and to Solomon and to Israel His people.


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Thus Solomon finished the house of Jehovah and the king's house; and all that had come up in Solomon's heart to do in the house of Jehovah and in his own house he successfully accomplished.


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And Jehovah appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.


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If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,


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And My people, who are called by My name, humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways; then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.


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For now I have chosen and have sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there continually.


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And as for you, if you walk before Me, as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you and keep My statutes and My ordinances;


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Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, You will not lack a man to be ruler in Israel.


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But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments that I have put before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them;


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Then I will pluck them out of My land which I have given them, and this house, which I have sanctified for My name, I will cast out of My sight and make it a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.


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And concerning this house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, Why has Jehovah done this to this land and to this house?


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And they will say, Because they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold of other gods, and they worshipped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this evil upon them.


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And at the end of the twenty years in which Solomon had built the house of Jehovah and his own house,


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And Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, even all the cities for the chariots, and the cities for the horsemen and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land of his dominion.


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All the people who were left of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel,


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From their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel had not destroyed utterly, these Solomon levied as forced labor, as they are unto this day.


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But Solomon did not make slaves of the children of Israel for his work, for they were the men of war and the officers over his captains and the officers over his chariots and his horsemen.


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And these were the chief of the officers of King Solomon, two hundred fifty, who ruled over the people.


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Then Solomon brought up Pharaoh's daughter from the city of David into the house which he had built for her; for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David the king of Israel, for the places where the Ark of Jehovah has entered are holy.


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Then Solomon offered up burnt offerings to Jehovah on the altar of Jehovah which he had built before the portico,


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Even as required daily, offering them up according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths and on the new moons and on the appointed feasts three times in a year, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Tabernac


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And according to the ordinance of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their charges to praise and to minister before the priests even as required daily, and the gatekeepers by their divisions


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And they did not turn aside from the commandment of the king concerning the priests and the Levites concerning any matter and concerning the treasuries.


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So all the work of Solomon was carried out, from the day of the foundation of the house of Jehovah even until its completion. Thus the house of Jehovah was finished.


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And Huram sent him ships by his servants, and servants who knew the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and took four hundred fifty talents of gold from there and brought it to King Solomon.


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And the queen of Sheba had heard of Solomon's fame, and she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue and with camels bearing spices and much gold and precious stones to test Solomon with hard questions. And when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him


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And Solomon answered every matter of hers, and there was nothing hidden from Solomon that he did not answer her.


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And the food of his table and the seating of his servants and the service and apparel of his ministers and his cupbearers and their apparel and his ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah, there was no more spirit in her.


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But I did not believe their words until I came and my own eyes saw. And indeed the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me, and you exceed the report that I heard.


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Happy are your men! And happy are these your servants, who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom!


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Blessed be Jehovah your God, who has delighted in you and set you upon His throne as king for Jehovah your God. Because your God loves Israel to establish them forever, He has placed you as king over them to execute justice and righteousness.


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And she gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold and a very great store of spices and precious stones, and there had never been spices like those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.


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Moreover Huram's servants and Solomon's servants who brought gold from Ophir brought algum trees and precious stones.


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And the king made of the algum trees steps for the house of Jehovah and for the king's house and lyres and harps for the singers; such as these had not been seen before in the land of Judah.


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And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked for, besides that which she brought to the king. And she turned and went to her own land, she and her servants.


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Besides that which was brought by the traders and the merchants and by all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land, who brought gold and silver to Solomon.


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And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; he put six hundred shekels of beaten gold upon each large shield.


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And he made three hundred smaller shields of beaten gold; he put three hundred shekels of gold upon each smaller shield. And the king put them in the Lebanon Forest House.


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And the throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to the throne, and there were armrests on either side next to the place of the seat, and two lions stood next to the armrests.


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And all King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the Lebanon Forest House were of pure gold; silver was considered as nothing in the days of Solomon.


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For the king had a fleet which went to Tarshish with Huram's servants. Once every three years the fleet from Tarshish came bearing gold and silver and ivory and apes and peacocks.


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And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.


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And they each brought their tribute, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes, weapons and spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.


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And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots; and twelve thousand horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.


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And he was the ruler over all the kings from the River unto the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt.


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And the king caused silver to be as plentiful as stones in Jerusalem, and cedars, like the sycamores that are in the lowlands.


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And the rest of the acts of Solomon, the first and the last, are they not written in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?


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And Solomon slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.


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And when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from Solomon the king; and Jeroboam returned from Egypt;


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And they sent word to him and called him), Jeroboam and all of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,


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And they spoke to him, saying, If you will be good to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants always.


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And the young men who grew up with him spoke with him, saying, Thus shall you say to the people who have spoken to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter on us; thus shall you say to them, My little finger is thicker th


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And spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, I will make your yoke heavy, and I will add to it; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.


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So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was of God that Jehovah might establish His word which He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.


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And when all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people returned an answer to the king, saying, What portion do we have in David? Neither do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. Each one to your tents, O Israel. Now see to your o


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Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was over the forced labor, and the children of Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam made haste to get up into his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.


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And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered the house of Judah and Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand choice warriors, to wage war with Israel in order to return the kingdom to Rehoboam.


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Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, the king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,


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Thus says Jehovah, You shall not go up and wage war with your brothers. Every man return to his house; for this matter is of Me. So they listened to the words of Jehovah and returned from going against Jeroboam.


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And he strengthened the fortresses and put commanders in them, as well as stores of food and oil and wine,


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And in every city, shields and spears; and he made them exceedingly strong. And Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.


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And the priests and the Levites who had been throughout all Israel presented themselves to him out of all their territory;


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For the Levites abandoned their pasture lands and their property and went to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out so that they could not function as priests to Jehovah.


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And he appointed priests for himself for the high places and for the goats and the calves that he had made.


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And those from all the tribes of Israel who set their hearts to seek Jehovah the God of Israel came after them to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Jehovah, the God of their fathers.


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And they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years, for they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.


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And Rehoboam took to himself for his wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse.


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And after her he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom; and she bore him Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith.


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And Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines. (For he had taken eighteen wives and sixty concubines and begot twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.)


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And Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah to be chief prince, the leader among his brothers; for he intended to make him king.


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And he acted wisely and dispersed all his sons throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, to all the fortified cities; and he gave them food in abundance and sought many wives for them.


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And when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and when it was strong, he and all Israel with him forsook the law of Jehovah.


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Then in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had been unfaithful to Jehovah,


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With one thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. And the people who came with him from Egypt were without number:Libyans, Sukkiim, and Cushites.


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And Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who were gathered in Jerusalem because of Shishak; and he said to them, Thus says Jehovah, You have forsaken Me, so I also have forsaken you, delivering you into the hand of Shishak.


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And when Jehovah saw that they had humbled themselves the word of Jehovah came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them, but I will give them a little deliverance, and My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem by the h


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For they will become his servants that they may know the difference between serving Me and serving the kingdoms of the lands.


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And Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the king's house; indeed he took away all. And he took away the shields of gold that Solomon had made.


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And King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place and committed them into the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the entrance of the king's house.


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And whenever the king went into the house of Jehovah, the guards came and carried them and returned them to the guardroom.


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And when he humbled himself, the anger of Jehovah turned away from him, and He did not destroy them completely; and also things in Judah were good.


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So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Now Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where Jehovah had chosen, out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name.


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And the acts of Rehoboam, the first and the last, are they not written in the chronicles of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer according to the genealogical records? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.


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And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. And Abijah his son reigned in his place.


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He reigned three years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Micaiah, the daughter of Uriel from Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.


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And Abijah began the battle with an army of valiant men of war, four hundred thousand choice men. And Jeroboam set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand choice men, mighty men of valor.


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And Abijah stood up on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel:


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Do you not know that Jehovah the God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, to him and to his sons, by a covenant of salt?


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But Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord.


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And worthless men, just scoundrels, gathered around him and strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tender in heart and could not withstand them.


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And now you think that you can withstand the kingdom of Jehovah in the hand of the sons of David because you are a great multitude and with you are the golden calves that Jeroboam made as gods for you.


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Have you not cast out the priests of Jehovah, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And you made for yourselves priests like those of the peoples of other lands, so that anyone who comes to consecrate himself with a bull of the herd and seven rams becomes


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But as for us, Jehovah is our God, and we have not forsaken Him; and the priests who minister to Jehovah are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites are in their work.


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And they offer in smoke to Jehovah burnt offerings morning by morning and evening by evening as well as fragrant incense, and they set the rows of bread upon the pure table, and they care for the golden lampstand and its lamps that it may burn evening by


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And here with us is God at our head and His priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound out against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against Jehovah, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.


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Now Jeroboam had sent an ambush around to come up from behind them. So they were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them.


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And when Judah looked back, the battle was right on them, before and behind; and they cried out to Jehovah, and the priests sounded the trumpets.


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And the men of Judah shouted; and when the men of Judah shouted, God struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.


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And Abijah and his people struck a great blow on them, so that five hundred thousand choice men from Israel fell slain.


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Thus the children of Israel were subdued at that time; and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on Jehovah, the God of their fathers.


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And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam and took cities from him:Bethel and its villages, and Jeshanah and its villages, and Ephron and its villages.


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And Abijah grew stronger; and he took to himself fourteen wives and begot twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.


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And the rest of the acts of Abijah and his ways and his words are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo.


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And Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.


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For he removed the foreign altars and the high places and smashed the pillars and hewed down the Asherahs,


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And he commanded Judah to pursue Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and perform the law and the commandment.


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And from all the cities of Judah he removed the high places and the incense altars. And the kingdom was quiet before him.


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And he built fortress cities in Judah; for the land was quiet and there was no war against him during those years, because Jehovah had given him rest.


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For he said to Judah, Let us build these cities and put around them walls with towers, gates, and bars. The land is still before us because we have pursued Jehovah our God; we have pursued Him, and He has given us rest all around. So they built and prospe


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And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who bore shields and spears and of two hundred eighty thousand from Benjamin who bore hand shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor.


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And Zerah the Cushite went out to them with an army of one million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.


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And Asa called out to Jehovah his God and said, O Jehovah, there is none besides You to help us, between the mighty and those without strength. Help us, O Jehovah our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude. O Jehova


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And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar; and so many of the Cushites fell that they could not recover, for they were shattered before Jehovah and before His army. And they carried away very much spoil.


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And they struck all the cities surrounding Gerar, for the fear of Jehovah was upon them. And they plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them.


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And they also struck the cattle tents and carried away sheep in abundance and camels, and they returned to Jerusalem.


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And he went out to meet Asa and said to him, Hear me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin:Jehovah is with you while you are with Him; and if you pursue Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.


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Now for a long time Israel has been without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.


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But in their distress they turned to Jehovah the God of Israel and sought Him, and He was found by them.


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For in those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great afflictions were upon all the inhabitants of the lands.


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For they were crushed, nation against nation and city against city, for God afflicted them with every distress.


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And when Asa heard these words, that is, the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he strengthened himself and put away the detestable things from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim. And he rest


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And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the sojourners with them from Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon, for many from Israel threw in their lot with him when they saw that Jehovah his God was with him.


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So they gathered themselves at Jerusalem in the third month in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.


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And they sacrificed to Jehovah on that day from the spoil they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.


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And they entered into a covenant to pursue Jehovah, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul,


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And covenanted that anyone who did not pursue Jehovah the God of Israel would be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.


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And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for with all their heart they swore and with all their desire they sought Him. And He was found by them, and Jehovah gave them rest all around.


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And he also removed Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother because she had made for Asherah an abominable image; and Asa cut down her abominable image and crushed it to powder and burned it at the brook Kidron.


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But the high places were not taken away from Israel; otherwise Asa's heart was perfect all his days.


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And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had sanctified and that he had sanctified - silver and gold and vessels.


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In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha the king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah that he might prevent anyone from going out or coming to Asa the king of Judah.


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And Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the king's house and sent them to Ben-hadad the king of Syria who was dwelling in Damascus, saying,


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There is an alliance between me and you as there was between my father and your father. I am now sending you silver and gold; go, break your alliance with Baasha the king of Israel, so that he goes away from me.


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And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa. And he sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they struck Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim and all the store cities of Naphtali.


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And Asa the king took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had built it, and built Geba and Mizpah with them.


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And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa the king of Judah and said to him, Because you have trusted in the king of Syria and have not trusted in Jehovah your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped out of your hand.


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Were not the Cushites and the Lubim a large host, with a very great abundance of chariots and horsemen? And because you trusted in Jehovah, He gave them into your hands.


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For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout all the earth to strengthen those whose heart is perfect toward Him. You have acted foolishly in this matter; hence from this time on you will have wars.


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Then Asa became angry with the seer and put him in prison in stocks, for he was in a rage against him because of this matter. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.


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And the acts of Asa, the first and the last, are there written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.


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And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet; his disease was very severe, yet even in his disease he pursued not Jehovah but the physicians.


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And they buried him in his own grave, which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David. And they laid him in the resting place, which he had filled with various kinds of spices blended in the perfumer's art, and they made a very great burning for hi


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And he put forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and put garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa his father had taken.


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And Jehovah was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the former ways of David his father; and he did not pursue the Baals


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Therefore Jehovah established the kingdom in his hand. And all Judah gave tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor in abundance.


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And his heart was exalted in the ways of Jehovah; and even more, he removed the high places and the Asherahs from Judah.


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And in the third year of his reign he sent his officials Ben-hail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nethanel and Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah;


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And with them he sent the Levites Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tob- adonijah, the Levites; and with them, Elishama and Jehoram, the priests.


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And they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of Jehovah; and they went around all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.


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And the fear of Jehovah was upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they waged no war against Jehoshaphat.


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And some of the Philistines would bring presents to Jehoshaphat and silver as tribute; even the Arabians would bring him flocks, seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred male goats.


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And he conducted many works in the cities of Judah and had men of war, mighty men of valor, in Jerusalem.


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And this was the muster of them according to their fathers' house:of Judah, the captains of thousands:Adnah the captain, and with him three hundred thousand mighty men of valor;


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And next to him was Amasiah the son of Zichri, who offered willingly himself to Jehovah, and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valor.


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And of Benjamin:Eliada, a mighty man of valor, and with him two hundred thousand men armed with bow and shield;


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These were those who served the king, besides those whom the king had put in the fortified cities throughout all Judah.


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And after a number of years he came down to Ahab in Samaria. And Ahab slaughtered sheep and oxen in abundance for him and for the people who were with him, and persuaded him to go up against Ramoth-gilead.


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And Ahab the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to him, I will be as you are; my people will be as your people; we will be with you in battle.


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And the king of Israel assembled the prophets, four hundred men, and said to them, Shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain? And they said, Go up, and God will give it into the king's hand.


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And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Jehovah; but I hate him, for he prophesies no good concerning me, but always evil. He is Micaiah the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.


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Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, sitting on the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.


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And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron, and he said, Thus says Jehovah, With these you will push the Syrians until you have destroyed them.


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And the messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, See, the words of the prophets, being of one accord, seem good to the king. So let your word, I beg you, be like one of them, and speak good.


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And when he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain? And he said, Go up, and succeed; for they will be delivered into your hand.


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And Micaiah said, Hear therefore the word of Jehovah, I saw Jehovah sitting on His throne and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and His left.


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And Jehovah said, Who shall entice Ahab the king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said after this manner, and another said after that manner.


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And there came forth a certain spirit and stood before Jehovah and said, I will entice him. And Jehovah said unto him, How?


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And he said, I will go forth and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, You shall entice him and surely prevail. Go forth, and do so.


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So now Jehovah has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets, and Jehovah has spoken evil concerning you.


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And you shall say, Thus says the king, Put this man in prison, and feed him with the bread of affliction and with the water of affliction until I return in peace.


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And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and enter into the battle; but you put on your robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went into the battle.


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And the king of Syria commanded the captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, but with the king of Israel only.


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And when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, This is the king of Israel. And they surrounded him to fight, and Jehoshaphat cried out. And Jehovah helped him, and God diverted them from him.


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And the battle increased that day; and the king of Israel was propped up in his chariot before the Syrians until the evening, and he died at the time of the setting of the sun.


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And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him; and he said to King Jehoshaphat, Should you help the wicked and love those who hate Jehovah? Because of this matter wrath has come upon you from Jehovah.


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Nevertheless there are some good things found in you, for you have purged the Asherahs out of the land and have set your heart to pursue God.


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And Jehoshaphat dwelt in Jerusalem. And he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back to Jehovah, the God of their fathers.


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And he said to the judges, Consider what you are doing, for you judge not for man but for Jehovah, and He is with you in pronouncing judgment.


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Now therefore let the fear of Jehovah be upon you; be careful how you act, for there is no iniquity with Jehovah our God, nor respect of persons, nor the taking of bribes.


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And also in Jerusalem Jehoshaphat set up some of the Levites and priests and heads of the fathers' houses in Israel for the judgment of Jehovah and for disputes. And they came back to Jerusalem.


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And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall you do in the fear of Jehovah, faithfully and with a perfect heart.


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And for every dispute that comes to you from among your brothers who dwell in their cities, whether concerning bloodshed or concerning law or commandment, statute or ordinance, you shall warn them, so that they are not guilty before Jehovah and so that wr


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And now Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters concerning Jehovah; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, is over you in all matters concerning the king. And the Levites will serve before you as officers. Be strong


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Then after this the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and with them some of the Meunim came against Jehoshaphat for battle.


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And some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude has come upon you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are now in Hazazon-tamar (this is En-gedi).


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And Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to pursue Jehovah, and he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.


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And Judah gathered themselves to seek help from Jehovah; indeed out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek Jehovah.


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And Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of Jehovah, before the new court;


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And he said, O Jehovah, the God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? And in Your hand is strength and might, and there is no one who can stand against You.


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Did You not, O our God, dispossess the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it forever to the seed of Abraham Your friend?


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If evil comes upon us, the sword or judgment or pestilence or famine, we will stand before this house and before You - for Your name is in this house - and cry unto You in our affliction, You will hear and save.


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And now at this moment the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned away from them and did not destroy them -


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At this moment they are rewarding us by coming to cast us out of Your possession, which You gave us as a possession.


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O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no strength before this great multitude that is coming against us, and we do not know what to do; but our eyes are upon You.


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Then the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly;


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And he said, Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat. Thus says Jehovah to you, Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's.


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Tomorrow go down against them. They are coming up at the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the river valley before the wilderness of Jeruel.


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It is not for you to fight in this battle. Station yourselves; stand and see the salvation of Jehovah among you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid nor dismayed. Tomorrow go out to meet them, for Jehovah is with you.


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And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before Jehovah to worship Jehovah.


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And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites, rose up to praise Jehovah the God of Israel with an exceedingly loud voice.


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And they rose up early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in Jehovah your God, and you will be established; believe in His


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And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed them to sing to Jehovah and give thanks in holy array as they went out before the army and say, Give thanks to Jehovah, for His lovingkindness endures forever.


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And when they began to shout in song and to praise, Jehovah set ambushes for the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who were coming out against Judah; and they were struck.


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And the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to absolutely destroy and demolish them; and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every man helped to destroy his neighbor.


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And Judah came to the wilderness watchtower and looked upon the multitude; and there they were, fallen corpses on the ground, and no one escaped.


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And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take the spoil of them as plunder, they found among them in abundance both possessions and corpses and precious vessels, and stripped these for themselves, more than they could carry. And they spent three days t


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And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Beracah (for there they blessed Jehovah; therefore they have called the name of that place the valley of Beracah to this day).


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And they turned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat at their head, to go back to Jerusalem with rejoicing; for Jehovah had caused them to rejoice over their enemies.


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And the fear of Jehovah was upon all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that Jehovah had fought with the enemies of Israel.


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And Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah; he was thirty-five years old when he began to reign. And he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.


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And he walked in the way of his father Asa and did not turn away from it, doing what was right in the sight of Jehovah.


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However the high places were not removed, nor as yet did the people set their heart after the God of their fathers.


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And the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, the first and the last, are there written in the chronicle of Jehu the son of Hanani, which is inserted in the book of the kings of Israel.


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Then after this, Jehoshaphat the king of Judah joined himself to Ahaziah the king of Israel; he acted wickedly in so doing.


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And he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion-geber.


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Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu from Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because you have joined yourself with Ahaziah, Jehovah has destroyed your works. And the ships were shattered and were unable to go to Tarshish.


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And Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Jehoram his son reigned in his place.


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And he had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat:Azariah and Jehiel and Zechariah and Azariahu and Michael and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat the king of Israel.


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And their father gave them many gifts of silver and gold and precious things, along with fortified cities in Judah; but the kingdom he gave to Jehoram, for he was the firstborn.


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And when Jehoram rose up over the kingdom of his father and strengthened himself, he slew all his brothers with the sword as well as the princes of Israel.


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But Jehovah would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant He had made with David and since He had promised him that He would provide a lamp for him and for his children always.


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So Jehoram crossed over with his captains and all his chariots with him. And he rose up at night and struck the Edomites all around him and the captains of the chariots.


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So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, as it is to this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time from under his hand, for he had forsaken Jehovah, the God of his fathers.


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He also made high places in the hill country of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotries and led Judah astray.


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And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says Jehovah, the God of David your father, Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father and in the ways of Asa the king of Judah


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But have walked in the way of the kings of Israel and caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit harlotries, as the house of Ahab committed harlotries, and also have slain your brothers, those of your father's house, who were better than you,


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Jehovah is now striking your people and your children and your wives and all your possessions with a great plague;


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And you yourself will be severely ill with a disease of your bowels, to the point that your bowels will come out day by day because of the illness.


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And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of the Philistines and Arabians who are next to the Cushites against Jehoram.


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And they came up against Judah and broke through into it and carried away all the possessions that were found in the king's house as well as his sons and his wives; and no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.


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And in the course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the illness, and he died with severe illnesses. And his people did not make a burning for him, like the burning they had made for his fathers.


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He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he departed with no one's regret; and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.


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And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men who had come up to the camp with the Arabians had slain all the older sons; so Ahaziah the son of Jehoram the king of Judah reigned.


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Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri.


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He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in acting wickedly.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the house of Ahab; for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his own destruction.


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He walked also in their counsel and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab the king of Israel to battle against Hazael the king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead. And the Syrians struck Joram,


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And he returned to heal in Jezreel because of the wounds that they had inflicted on him in Ramah when he fought with Hazael the king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, the king of Judah, went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he


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Now the downfall of Ahaziah was of God, because he went to Joram. And when he arrived, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Jehovah had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.


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And when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the captains of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers serving Ahaziah; and he slew them.


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And he sought for Ahaziah, and they caught him; for he had been hiding in Samaria. And they brought him to Jehu and killed him. And they buried him, for they said, He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who pursued Jehovah with all his heart. And the house of Ahaz


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And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose up and destroyed all the royal seed of the house of Judah.


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But Jehoshabeath the daughter of the king took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him from among the sons of the king who were being killed. And she put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So Jehoshabeath the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada t


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And he was with them, hidden in the house of God, for six years. And Athaliah reigned over the land.


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Then in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself and took the captains of the hundreds - Azariah the son of Jeroham and Ishmael the son of Johanan and Azariah the son of Obed and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah and Elishaphat the son of Zichri - into a c


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And they went around in Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah and the chief fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.


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And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And Jehoiada said to them, Now, the king's son shall reign, as Jehovah spoke concerning the sons of David.


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This is the thing that you shall do:A third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be the doorkeepers;


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And another third shall keep watch in the king's house, and another third shall keep watch in the Gate of the Foundation, and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of Jehovah.


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But let no one come into the house of Jehovah except the priests and the ministering Levites; they can come because they are holy; but all the people shall keep the charge of Jehovah.


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And the Levites shall surround the king, each man with his weapons in his hand; and whoever enters the house shall be put to death; and you shall be with the king in his comings and goings.


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And the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded them. And each took his men, those who came on duty on the Sabbath with those who went off duty on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada the priest did not dismiss the divisions.


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And Jehoiada the priest gave the spears and the large and small shields that had belonged to King David, which were in the house of God, to the captains of the hundreds.


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And he set all the people, each man with his javelin in his hand, from the right flank of the house to the left flank of the house, by the altar and by the house, to guard the king all around.


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And they brought the king's son out and put the crown on him and gave him the testimony, and they made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, Long live the king!


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Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she went to the people at the house of Jehovah.


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And she looked, and there was the king, standing by the pillar at the entrance, with the captains and their trumpets near the king. And all the people of the land rejoiced and blew the trumpets, and the singers with their musical instruments were leading


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And Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of the hundreds who had been set over the army and said to them, Bring her out between the ranks, and anyone who follows her shall be killed with a sword; for the priest said, They shall not kill her in the


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And they made way for her, and she went to the king's house through the entrance of the horses' gate; and they killed her there.


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And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they would be Jehovah's people.


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And all the people went to the house of Baal and broke it down:The altars to him and his images they broke up, and they slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.


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And Jehoiada placed officers of the house of Jehovah under the authority of the Levitical priests whom David had apportioned over the house of Jehovah, to offer up the burnt offerings of Jehovah, as was written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and sin


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And he set the doorkeepers at the doors of the house of Jehovah so that no one would enter who was unclean in any respect.


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And Jehoiada gathered the captains of the hundreds and the nobles and the rulers of the people and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the house of Jehovah. And they went through the upper gate to the king's house and set the king u


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And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet; for they had slain Athaliah with the sword.


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Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.


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And he gathered the priests and Levites and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah, and collect from all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year; and you shall do the matter quickly. But the Levites did not act quickly.


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So the king called for Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, Why have you not required of the Levites to bring from Judah and from Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses the servant of Jehovah on the congregation of Israel for the Tent of Testimony?


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For the sons of the wicked Athaliah had broken up the house of God and even used the holy things of the house of Jehovah for the Baals.


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And the king gave orders, and they made a chest and put it outside, by the gate of the house of Jehovah.


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And they made a proclamation in Judah and in Jerusalem to bring to Jehovah the tax levied by Moses the servant of God on Israel in the wilderness.


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And all the officers and all the people rejoiced, and they brought their taxes and cast them into the chest until they had finished.


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And whenever the chest was brought to the king's officer by the Levites, and whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money, the king's scribe and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and take it and return it to its pl


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And the king and Jehoiada would give it to those who did the work of service of the house of Jehovah, and they would hire stone hewers and carpenters to restore the house of Jehovah, and also to the workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of Jehova


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And those who did the work worked, and the restoration work progressed in their hands; and they restored the house of God to its proper proportions and strengthened it.


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And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada and made with it vessels for the house of Jehovah, vessels for service and for offering up burnt offerings, and cups and vessels of gold and silver. And they offer


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And when Jehoiada became old and full of days, he died; and he was one hundred thirty years old when he died.


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And they buried him in the city of David with the kings, because he had done well in Israel and with God and His house.


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And after the death of Jehoiada the captains of Judah came and bowed down to the king; then the king listened to them.


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And they forsook the house of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and they served the Asherahs and the idols; so wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.


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And He sent prophets to them to bring them back to Jehovah; and they testified to them, but they did not pay attention.


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Then the Spirit of God clothed Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people and said to them, Thus says God, Why do you transgress the commandments of Jehovah, so that you do not prosper? For you have forsaken Jehovah, and He ha


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So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of Jehovah.


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Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had shown him, and he slew his son; and when he died he said, May Jehovah see and avenge!


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And at the turn of the year the army of the Syrians came up against him and came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the leaders of the people from among the people and sent all their spoil to the king of Damascus.


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Although the army of the Syrians had come with a small number of men, Jehovah delivered into their hand a very great army, because they had forsaken Jehovah, the God of their fathers. Thus they executed judgment on Joash.


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And when they went from him - for they left him in great sickness - his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest and slew him on his bed; and he died, and they buried him in the city of David. However they did


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Now those who conspired against him were Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess.


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And concerning his sons and the many oracles against him and his laying the foundations of the house of Jehovah, indeed these things are written in the record of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.


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Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jehoaddan from Jerusalem.


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And when the kingdom was firmly in his control, he slew those servants who had struck down his father the king;


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But their children he did not put to death, but acted according to what is written in the law in the book of Moses, where Jehovah commanded, saying, Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of


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And Amaziah gathered Judah together and arranged them according to the fathers' houses, by captains of thousands and by captains of hundreds, throughout all Judah and Benjamin. And he numbered them from twenty years old and upward and found them to be thr


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He also hired from Israel one hundred thousand mighty men of valor for one hundred talents of silver.


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But a man of God came to him, saying, O king, do not let the army of Israel go out with you, for Jehovah is not with Israel, not with any of the children of Ephraim.


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Rather go by yourself and do it; be strong for the battle. Otherwise God will cast you down before your enemies, for in God there is power to help or cast down.


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And Amaziah said to the man of God, And what shall be done with the hundred talents of silver, which I have given to the company of Israel? And the man of God said, Jehovah can give you much more than this.


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So Amaziah separated them (the company that had come to him from Ephraim) and let them go to their own place. And their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned to their place in fierce anger.


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And Amaziah strengthened himself and led forth his people. And he went to the Valley of Salt and struck down ten thousand of the children of Seir;


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And the children of Judah captured ten thousand alive. And they brought them to the top of Sela and cast them down from the top of Sela, so that all of them were dashed to pieces.


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But the men of the company whom Amaziah had sent back from going into battle with him raided the cities of Judah, from Samaria to Beth-horon; and they struck down three thousand of them and took much spoil.


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And after Amaziah came from striking the Edomites, he brought the gods of the children of Seir and set them up as his gods; and he worshipped before them and burned incense to them.


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And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Amaziah; and He sent a prophet to him and said to him, Why do you seek after the gods of the people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?


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And when he spoke to him, the king said to him, Have we made you a counselor to the king? Stop; why should you be struck down? So the prophet stopped and said, I know that God has determined to destroy you, for you have done this and have not listened to


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Then Amaziah the king of Judah took counsel and sent word to Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying, Come, let us confront each other.


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And Joash the king of Israel sent word to Amaziah the king of Judah, saying, The thornbush that was in Lebanon sent word to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son as his wife; but a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by and


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You say that you have just struck Edom, and your heart exalts you to glorify yourself. Remain now in your home; why should you stir up trouble so that you and Judah with you fall?


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But Amaziah would not listen, for it was of God, so that He might deliver them into his hand, for they had sought after the gods of Edom.


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So Jehoash the king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah the king of Judah confronted each other in Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah.


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And Joash the king of Israel captured Amaziah the king of Judah the son of Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz in Beth- shemesh, and he brought him to Jerusalem and tore down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits.


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And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obed-edom and the treasures of the king's house as well as hostages, and returned to Samaria.


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And Amaziah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the king of Israel.


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And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, the first and the last, are they not there, written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel?


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And from the time that Amaziah turned away from following Jehovah, they formed a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; and they sent men after him to Lachish, and they killed him there.


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And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah.


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Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jechiliah, from Jerusalem.


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And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Amaziah his father had done.


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And he set himself to seek after God during the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God; and as long as he sought after Jehovah, God caused him to prosper.


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And he went out and waged war against the Philistines. And he broke down the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in the vicinity of Ashdod and among the Philistines.


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And God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians who dwelt in Gur-baal and against the Meunim.


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And the Ammonites gave tribute to Uzziah; and his fame went as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he became exceedingly strong.


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And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the Angle, and he fortified them.


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And he built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle, both in the lowlands and in the plain; he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fruitful fields, for he loved the soil.


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Furthermore Uzziah had an army of soldiers that went out to war in companies according to the number of their muster done by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king's captains.


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And under their hand was an army force of three hundred seven thousand five hundred who could make war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy.


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And Uzziah prepared for them, for all the army, shields and spears and helmets and body armor and bows and sling stones.


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And in Jerusalem he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and at the corners for shooting with arrows and great stones. And his fame went out far abroad, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong.


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But when he had become strong, his heart became uplifted, to his own destruction. And he trespassed against Jehovah his God and went into the temple of Jehovah to burn incense upon the incense altar.


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And Azariah the priest went in after him, and with Azariah were eighty priests of Jehovah who were valiant men.


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And they withstood Uzziah the king and said to him, It does not belong to you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Jehovah, but to the priests, the sons of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed and there


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Then Uzziah became angry, and in his hand was a censer for burning incense. And when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of Jehovah beside the incense altar.


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And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there he was, leprous on his forehead; and they rushed him out of there, and he himself also hurried out to go out, for Jehovah had stricken him.


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So Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death; and he dwelt in a separate house as a leper, for he was cut off from the house of Jehovah. And Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land.


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And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, wrote down the rest of the acts of Uzziah, the first and the last.


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And Uzziah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field which belonged to the kings, for they said, He is a leper. And Jotham his son reigned in his place.


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Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.


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And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah according to all that his father Uzziah had done; only he did not enter into the temple of Jehovah. Yet the people still acted corruptly.


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And he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and in the forests he built fortresses and towers.


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And he fought with the king of the children of Ammon and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him that same year one hundred talents of silver and ten thousand cors of wheat and ten thousand of barley. This much did the children of Ammon


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And the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his wars and his ways are there written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.


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And Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Ahaz his son reigned in his place.


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Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the sight of Jehovah as David his father had done,


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And he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom and caused his children to pass through fire, according to the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.


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And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every flourishing tree.


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Therefore Jehovah his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they struck him and carried away captive from him a great multitude. And they brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, and he s


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For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew one hundred twenty thousand in Judah on one day, all of them valiant men, because they had forsaken Jehovah, the God of their fathers.


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And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah, the king's son, and Azrikam, the ruler of the house, and Elkanah, who was second to the king.


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And the children of Israel carried away captive two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters of their brothers, and also plundered much spoil from them; and they brought the spoil to Samaria.


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But a prophet of Jehovah was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army that was coming to Samaria and said to them, Now, because Jehovah, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, He has given them into your hand, and you have slai


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And now you intend to subjugate the children of Judah and Jerusalem as your male and female slaves. Is there not even with you anything but trespasses against Jehovah your God?


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Now therefore listen to me, and return the captives that you have carried away captive from among your brothers, for the burning anger of Jehovah is upon you.


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Then some of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan and Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum and Amasa the son of Hadlai, rose up against those coming from the war;


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And they said to them, You shall not bring the captives here, for you intend to bring a trespass against Jehovah upon us to add to our sins and our trespass; for our trespass is great, and there is burning anger upon Israel.


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And those men who have been mentioned by name rose up and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all who were naked among them. And they clothed them and gave them sandals and fed them and gave them something to drink, and they anointed them and ca


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And the Philistines raided the cities of the lowlands and the south of Judah and took Beth-shemesh and Aijalon and Gederoth and Soco with its villages and Timnah with its villages and Gimzo with its villages; and they dwelt there.


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For Jehovah humbled Judah on account of Ahaz the king of Israel, for he cast off restraint in Judah and trespassed greatly against Jehovah.


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And Tilgath-pilneser the king of Assyria came against him and distressed him and did not strengthen him.


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For Ahaz took away a portion of the house of Jehovah and of the house of the king and the officials and gave it to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.


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For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which had struck him, for he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, to them will I sacrifice, so that they will help me. But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.


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And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God and cut the vessels of the house of God into pieces, and he shut up the doors of the house of Jehovah and made himself altars in every corner in Jerusalem.


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And in every city of Judah he made high places for burning incense to other gods and provoked Jehovah, the God of his fathers, to anger.


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Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, the first and the last, are there written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.


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And Ahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.


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Hezekiah began to reign at the age of twenty-five years, and he reigned twenty- nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.


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He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of Jehovah and repaired them.


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And he said to them, Listen to me, you Levites:Sanctify yourselves now, and sanctify the house of Jehovah, the God of your fathers; and bring out the impurity from the holy place.


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For our fathers were unfaithful and did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah our God, and they forsook Him and turned their faces from the dwelling place of Jehovah, and they turned their backs on Him.


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They also shut up the doors of the portico and extinguished the lamps; and they did not burn the incense, nor did they offer up the burnt offering in the holy place to the God of Israel.


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Therefore the wrath of Jehovah was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He made them an object of horror, astonishment, and hissing, as you see with your own eyes.


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For indeed, our fathers fell by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are captives because of this.


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Now it is on my heart to make a covenant with Jehovah the God of Israel, that His burning anger may turn away from us.


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My sons, do not now be negligent, for Jehovah has chosen you to stand before Him to minister to Him and to be His ministers and burn incense.


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Then the Levites rose up:Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from among the sons of the Kohathites; and from among the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimma


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And they gathered their brothers together and sanctified themselves. And they went in, according to the command of the king by the words of Jehovah, to cleanse the house of Jehovah.


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And the priests went into the inner part of the house of Jehovah to cleanse it; and they brought out into the court of the house of Jehovah all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Jehovah, and the Levites took it to carry it outside to the br


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And they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify the house, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the portico of Jehovah; then they sanctified the house of Jehovah for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they fi


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Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, We have cleansed the whole house of Jehovah:the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels and the table of the rows of bread with all its vessels.


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And all the vessels that King Ahaz cast out during his reign when he trespassed we have prepared and sanctified, and they are now before the altar of Jehovah.


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Then Hezekiah the king rose up early and gathered all the leaders of the city and went up to the house of Jehovah.


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And they brought seven bulls and seven rams and seven lambs and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he ordered the sons of Aaron, the priests, to offer them up on the altar of Jehovah.


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So they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar; then they slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar, and they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar.


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Then they brought the male goats of the sin offering before the king and the congregation, and they laid their hands on them.


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And the priests slaughtered them and offered their blood as a sin offering upon the altar to make expiation for all Israel, for the king had commanded the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.


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And he set the Levites in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, with harps, and with lyres in the way David and Gad the king's seer and Nathan the prophet had commanded, for the commandment was from Jehovah through His prophets.


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And Hezekiah ordered the offering up of the burnt offering at the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of Jehovah began also, as well as the trumpets with the accompaniment of the instruments of David the king of Israel.


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And the whole congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters trumpeted - all this until the burnt offering was finished.


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And when the offering was finished, the king and all who were found with him bowed down and worshipped.


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And Hezekiah the king and the leaders commanded the Levites to praise Jehovah with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they praised with rejoicing and bowed down and worshipped.


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Then Hezekiah responded and said, Now you have consecrated yourselves to Jehovah; come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of Jehovah. So the congregation brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were willing in heart br


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And the number of burnt offerings that the congregation brought was seventy cattle, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for burnt offering to Jehovah.


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However the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings, so their brothers the Levites aided them until the work was finished and until the rest of the priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart than


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And besides the abundance of burnt offerings there were also the fat of the peace offerings and the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. So the service of the house of Jehovah was established.


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And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, for the thing had happened so suddenly.


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And Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh telling them to come to the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem to hold the Passover to Jehovah the God of Israel.


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For the king and his officers and all the congregation in Jerusalem had taken counsel to hold the Passover in the second month,


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Because they could not hold it at that time, for the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number nor had the people gathered to Jerusalem.


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So they established a decree to send a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, telling them to come to hold the Passover to Jehovah the God of Israel in Jerusalem; for they had not held it for a long time, as it was decreed in writing


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And as the king had commanded, the runners went with the letters from the hand of the king and his officers throughout all Israel and Judah, saying, You children of Israel, return to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and He will return to th


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And do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against Jehovah, the God of their fathers, so that He made them a desolation, as you now see.


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Do not now be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; yield to Jehovah, and come to His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve Jehovah your God, that His burning anger may turn away from you.


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For when you turn to Jehovah, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land, for Jehovah your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return t


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So the runners passed from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they laughed them to scorn and mocked them.


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Moreover the hand of God was on Judah, giving them one heart to perform the commandment of the king and the officers by the word of Jehovah.


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And many people gathered at Jerusalem to hold the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month, a very great congregation.


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And they rose up and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they removed all the incense altars and threw them into the brook Kidron.


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Then they slaughtered the passover sacrifice on the fourteenth day of the second month. And the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and they sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of Jehovah.


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And they stood at their station after their custom, according to the law of Moses, the man of God:The priests sprinkled the blood that they received from the hand of the Levites.


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For there were many in the congregation who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites were charged with slaughtering the passover sacrifices for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to Jehovah.


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For a great number of the people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh and Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the passover otherwise than as prescribed; for Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, May Jehovah the Good expiate for everyone


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Who has prepared his heart to seek after God, after Jehovah, the God of his fathers, even though he is not according to the rules of purification for the sanctuary.


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And the children of Israel who were found at Jerusalem held the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great rejoicing, and the Levites and the priests praised Jehovah day by day, with loud instruments played to Jehovah.


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And Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who showed themselves well-skilled in their service to Jehovah, and so they ate the food of the appointed feast for seven days, sacrificing sacrifices of peace offerings and extolling Jehovah, the God o


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And the whole congregation took counsel to hold the feast another seven days, and they held the feast those seven days with rejoicing.


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For Hezekiah the king of Judah contributed one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep to the congregation, and the leaders contributed one thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep to the congregation, and a great number of priests sanctified themselves.


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And all the congregation of Judah with the priests and the Levites and all the congregation who came from Israel and the sojourners who came from the land of Israel and dwelt in Judah rejoiced,


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And there was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon the son of David, the king of Israel, there had not been the like in Jerusalem.


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Then the Levitical priests rose up and blessed the people; and their voice was heard and their prayer went up to His sanctuary, to heaven.


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And when all this was finished, all Israel who were found in the cities of Judah went out and broke down the pillars and hewed down the Asherahs and pulled down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin and in Ephraim and Manasseh until


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And Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each of the priests and the Levites according to his service, for the burnt offering and for the peace offerings, to minister and give thanks and praise in the gates o


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Also he appointed the king's portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, the morning and evening burnt offerings and the burnt offerings of the Sabbaths and the new moon and the appointed feasts, as written in the law of Jehovah.


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And he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion for the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to the law of Jehovah.


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And when the commandment went out, the children of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of the grain and of the new wine and of the fresh oil and of the honey and of all the produce of the field; and they brought the tithe of everything in abundance.


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And the children of Israel and Judah who dwelt in the cities of Judah also brought the tithe of the herd and of the flock and the tithe of the dedicated things, which had been dedicated to Jehovah their God, and laid them heap upon heap.


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In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and in the seventh month they finished.


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And when Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed Jehovah and His people Israel.


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And Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, spoke to him and said, Since the time that the people began to bring the contributions into the house of Jehovah, there has been eating and satisfaction and an abundance left over, for Jehovah has bless


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And they brought in the contribution and the tithe and dedicated things faithfully. And Conaniah the Levite was ruler over them, and Shimei his brother was second,


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And Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah were overseers under Conaniah and Shimei his brother by appointment of Hezekiah the king and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.


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And Kore the son of Imna the Levite, the gatekeeper on the east, was over the freewill offerings of God, to distribute the contributions of Jehovah and the most holy things.


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And under him were Eden and Miniamin and Jeshua and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, serving faithfully in the cities of the priests, to distribute the portion to their brothers by divisions, great and small alike,


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Except for those who were enrolled by genealogy, males from three years old and upward, all who went to the house of Jehovah for their day-to-day duties, for their service in their offices by their divisions.


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Now concerning the enrollment of the priests by genealogy, it was by their fathers' houses; and that of the Levites of those twenty years old and upward was by their offices in their divisions.


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And the enrollment by genealogy included all their little ones, their wives, and their sons and daughters, the whole congregation of them; for they sanctified themselves faithfully in holiness.


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And for the sons of Aaron the priests, who were in the pasture lands of their cities, in each and every city, there were men who were mentioned by name, to distribute portions to all the males among the priests and to all who were enrolled by genealogy am


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And Hezekiah did this throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and upright and faithful before Jehovah his God.


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And in every work that he began in service to the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandment, to seek after his God, he did it with all his heart and prospered.


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After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib the king of Assyria came and entered Judah. And he encamped against the fortified cities and intended to break into them for himself.


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And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that his face was set to fight against Jerusalem,


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He took counsel with his officers and mighty men to stop the water of the fountains that were outside the city, and they helped him.


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So many people gathered together and stopped all the fountains and the brook that flowed through the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find an abundance of water?


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And he took courage and built up all the wall that was broken down and erected towers on it and built another wall outside; and he strengthened the Millo in the city of David and made weapons and shields in abundance.


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And he set battle captains over the people and gathered them to himself in the square at the gate of the city. And he encouraged them, saying,


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Be strong and be bold; do not be afraid or dismayed because of the king of Assyria or because of all the multitude that is with him, for there is Someone greater with us than with him:


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With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is Jehovah our God to help us and to fight our battles. And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah the king of Judah.


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After this Sennacherib the king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem - now he was before Lachish and all his forces were with him - to Hezekiah the king of Judah and to all Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying,


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Thus says Sennacherib the king of Assyria, In what are you trusting, that you remain in a siege in Jerusalem?


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Is not Hezekiah trying to persuade you to give yourselves up to die by famine and by thirst, saying, Jehovah our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria?


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Was it not the same Hezekiah who took away His high places and His altars and who commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Before one altar you shall worship, and upon it shall you burn incense?


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Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands at all able to deliver their land out of my hand?


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Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers destroyed who could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God would be able to deliver you out of my hand?


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Now therefore do not let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way, and do not believe him; for there is no god of any nation or kingdom who was able to deliver his people out of my hand and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your


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And he wrote letters to cast contempt on Jehovah the God of Israel and to speak against Him, saying, Like the gods of the nations of the lands that did not deliver their people out of my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not deliver His people out of my h


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And they cried out in a loud voice in the Jews' language against the people of Jerusalem who were upon the wall in order to frighten them and terrify them, so that they might take the city.


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And they spoke against the God of Jerusalem as they had against the gods of the peoples of the land, the work of men's hands.


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But Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed about this, and they cried out to heaven.


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And Jehovah sent an angel, who annihilated all the mighty men of valor and the leaders and the captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he entered the house of his god, some of those who had


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Thus Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and out of the hand of everyone, and He protected them on all sides.


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And many brought gifts to Jehovah at Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah the king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all the nations thereafter.


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In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill, and he prayed to Jehovah. And He spoke to him and gave him a sign.


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But Hezekiah did not respond according to the benefit he had received, for his heart was proud; therefore wrath came upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.


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But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Jehovah did not come again upon them in the days of Hezekiah.


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Now Hezekiah had very much wealth and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver and gold and precious stones and for spices and shields and all kinds of valuable goods,


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As well as storehouses for produce of grain and new wine and fresh oil, and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and flocks in sheepfolds.


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And he built cities and acquired many flocks and herds, for God had given him very many possessions.


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And it was this Hezekiah who stopped the upper spring of the water of Gihon and directed it down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.


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So also in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the wonders that had happened in the land, God forsook him only to test him and know all that was in his heart.


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And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his deeds of faithfulness are there written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.


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And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper part of the tombs of David's sons; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him when he died. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, like the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.


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And he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had torn down; and he raised up altars to the Baals and made Asherahs, and he worshipped all the host of heaven and served them.


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And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, concerning which Jehovah had said, In Jerusalem will My name be forever.


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And he caused his children to pass through fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and practiced soothsaying and enchantments and sorcery, and appointed mediums and spiritists; he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah beyond measure, provoking Him to


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And he put the engraved image of the idol that he had made in the house of God, concerning which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;


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And I will no longer remove the foot of Israel from the land that I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will be certain to do all that I have commanded them according to all the law and the statutes and the ordinances given through Moses.


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And Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray to do more evil than the nations which Jehovah had destroyed before the children of Israel.


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Therefore Jehovah brought upon them the captains of the army which belonged to the king of Assyria, and they took Manasseh captive with hooks and bound him in bronze fetters and took him to Babylon.


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And in his distress he entreated Jehovah his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.


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And he prayed to Him, and He was entreated by him and heard his supplication; and He brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah indeed was God.


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And afterward he built an outer wall for the city of David on the west side of the Gihon in the valley even to the entrance of the Fish Gate, and he surrounded the Ophel with it and raised it very high. And he put the valorous captains in all the fortifie


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And he removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of Jehovah and all the altars that he had built on the mount of the house of Jehovah and in Jerusalem, and he cast them out of the city.


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And he restored the altar of Jehovah, and he sacrificed on it sacrifices of peace offerings and thank offerings; and he commanded Judah to serve Jehovah the God of Israel.


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Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Jehovah the God of Israel are there written among the records of the kings of Israel.


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His prayer also and how God was entreated by him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the sites where he built high places and set up the Asherahs and the idols before he humbled himself are there written among the records of Hozai.


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And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house. And Amon his son reigned in his place.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, as Manasseh his father had done. And Amon sacrificed to all the idols that Manasseh his father had made and served them.


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And he did not humble himself before Jehovah as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon multiplied trespass.


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And he did what was right in the eyes of Jehovah and walked in the ways of David his father and did not turn to the right or to the left.


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And in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. And in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places and the Asherahs and the idols and the molten images.


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And they tore down the altars to the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars that were set upon them he hewed down; and the Asherahs and the idols and the molten images he shattered and ground them to dust and scattered it upon the graves of those w


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And in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around,


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He also tore down the altars and beat the Asherahs and idols into dust, and he hewed down all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.


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And in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphat the son of Azariah and Maaseiah the governor of the city and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder to repair the house of Jehovah his God.


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And they came to Hilkiah the high priest and delivered the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the doorkeepers, had collected from the hands of Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah an


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And they delivered it into the hand of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of Jehovah; and those who did the work, who worked in the house of Jehovah, used it to mend and repair the house.


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And they gave it to the carpenters and the builders for the purchase of hewn stones and timber for couplings and to make beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had destroyed.


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And the men did the work faithfully, and the overseers over them were Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to supervise; and the Levites who were all skilled in musical instrume


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Were over the burden bearers and supervised all who did the work from task to task; and some of the Levites were scribes and officials and gatekeepers.


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And when they brought out the money that had been brought into the house of Jehovah, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of Jehovah given through Moses.


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And Hilkiah responded and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Jehovah. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.


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And Shaphan brought the book to the king and in addition brought back word to the king, saying, All that was committed to the hand of your servants they are doing.


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They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of Jehovah and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and into the hand of those who do the work.


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Then Shaphan the scribe reported to the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read aloud in it before the king.


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And the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahikam the son of Shaphan and Abdon the son of Micah and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,


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Go; inquire of Jehovah for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that has been found; for great is the wrath of Jehovah that has been poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of Jehovah b


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And Hilkiah and those whom the king had commanded went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they spoke to her to that effect


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Thus says Jehovah, I am now bringing evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book that they have read aloud before the king of Judah.


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Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, so as to provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.


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Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants and humbled yourself before Me and tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, declares Jehovah.


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I will then gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place and upon its inhabitants. And they brought word back to the king.


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And the king went up to the house of Jehovah, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites and all the people, both great and small; and he read aloud, in their hearing, all the words of the book of the covena


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And the king stood up where he was and made a covenant before Jehovah to walk after Jehovah and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul by performing the words of the covenant which were writt


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And he made all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin enter into the covenant. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.


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And Josiah removed all the abominations out of all the lands that belonged to the children of Israel, and he made all who were found in Israel serve Jehovah their God; throughout his days they did not turn from following after Jehovah, the God of their fa


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And Josiah held the Passover to Jehovah in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the passover sacrifice on the fourteenth day of the first month.


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And he said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were sanctified to Jehovah, Put the holy Ark into the house that Solomon the son of David, the king of Israel, built; it shall no longer be the burden on your shoulders. Now serve Jehovah your God and


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And prepare yourselves according to your fathers' houses by your divisions according to what David the king of Israel wrote and according to the document of Solomon his son.


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And stand in the holy place for the groups of the fathers' houses of your brothers, the common people, and let each division of Levites stand for a portion of a father's house.


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And slaughter the passover sacrifice, and sanctify yourselves and prepare your brothers to act according to the word of Jehovah given through Moses.


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And Josiah contributed to the common people lambs and kids from the flock, all for the passover offerings, to all who were found there, thirty thousand animals \i0\strike0\caps0in number, and three thousand cattle; these were from the king's possessions.


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And his officers contributed a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites; Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the passover offerings two thousand six hundred from the flock an


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Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, contributed to the Levites for the passover offerings five thousand from the flock and five hundred cattle.


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So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the command of the king.


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And they slaughtered the passover sacrifices; and while the priests sprinkled the blood that they received from their hand, the Levites flayed them.


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And they removed the burnt offerings that they might give them to the groups of the fathers' houses of the common people to offer to Jehovah, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so they did with the cattle.


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And they roasted the passover in fire according to the ordinance, and they boiled the holy offerings in pots and in cauldrons and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the common people.


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And afterward they provided for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites provided for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.


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And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place according to the command of David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun the king's seer. And the gatekeepers were at each gate; they did not need to turn from their service, for their brothers the Levites


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Thus all the service of Jehovah was prepared that same day, in order to hold the Passover and offer up burnt offerings upon the altar of Jehovah according to the command of King Josiah.


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And the children of Israel who were found there held the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.


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And a Passover like that had never been held in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet, nor did any of the kings of Israel hold such a Passover as was held by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel who were found there and th


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After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco the king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.


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And Neco sent messengers to him, saying, What have I to do with you, O king of Judah? I have not come up against you today but against the house with which I am at war, and God has commanded me to hurry. Refrain for your own sake from interfering with Go


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But Josiah would not turn his face from him, but he disguised himself so that he might fight with him; and he did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God but came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.


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And the archers shot at King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I have been wounded severely.


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So his servants took him out of the chariot and put him in the chariot of his second-in-command, and they brought him to Jerusalem; and he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.


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And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah. And all the male singers and female singers speak of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, for they have made it a custom in Israel; and they are there written in the lamentations.


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Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his good deeds according to what is written in the law of Jehovah


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


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And the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem and imposed on the land a fine of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.


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And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Joahaz his brother and carried him away to Egypt.


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Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God.


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Against him Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came up and bound him in bronze fetters to carry him to Babylon.


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Nebuchadnezzar also carried away some of the vessels of the house of Jehovah to Babylon and put them in his temple in Babylon.


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Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations which he did and that which was found against him are there written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.


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Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem; and he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah.


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And at the turn of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent men and brought him to Babylon with the precious vessels of the house of Jehovah. And he made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.


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And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah his God; he did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet whose speaking was from the mouth of Jehovah.


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And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning to Jehovah the God of Israel.


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Moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people acted exceedingly unfaithfully according to all the abominations of the nations, and they polluted the house of Jehovah which He had sanctified in Jerusalem.


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And Jehovah, the God of their fathers, sent word to them day after day through His messengers because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.


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But they mocked the messengers of God and despised His words and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of Jehovah rose up against His people, until there was no remedy.


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Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on old man or feeble; He delivered them all into his hand.


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And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.


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And they burned down the house of God; and they broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned down all its palaces with fire, and all its precious vessels were given up to destruction.


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And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,


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So as to fulfill the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths: As long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath, until seventy years were fulfilled.


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And in the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia, so that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus the king of Persia; and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also


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Now in the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia, so that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus the king of Persia; and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also


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Thus says Cyrus the king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth has Jehovah the God of heaven given to me; and He has charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.


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Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him; and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and let him build the house of Jehovah the God of Israel - He is God - who is in Jerusalem.


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And everyone who is left, in whatever place he sojourns, let the men of his place support him with silver and with gold and with goods and with cattle, besides the freewill offering for the house of God, which is in Jerusalem.


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Then the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites rose up, even everyone whose spirit God had stirred up to go up to build the house of Jehovah, which is in Jerusalem.


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And all those around them strengthened their hands with vessels of silver, with gold, with goods, and with cattle and with precious things, besides all that was offered willingly.


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Also King Cyrus brought out the vessels of the house of Jehovah, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought out from Jerusalem and had put in the house of his gods;


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And Cyrus the king of Persia had them brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer and had them enumerated to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.


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Thirty gold bowls, four hundred ten silver bowls of a different kind, and one thousand other vessels.


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There were five thousand four hundred vessels of gold and silver in all. Sheshbazzar brought up all of them with those of the captivity who were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.


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Now these were the children of the province who went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each man to his city.


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These came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:


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The children of the gatekeepers:the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, in all one hundred thirty- nine.


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The children of Solomon's servants:the children of Sotai, the children of Hassophereth, the children of Peruda,


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The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth- hazzebaim, the children of Ami.


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And these were those who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but they could not give evidence of their fathers' houses nor their descendants, whether they were of Israel:


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And of the children of the priests:the children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who took a wife from among the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by their name.


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These sought their registry among those who were enrolled by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore they were considered defiled and were excluded from the priesthood.


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And the governor told them that they should not eat of the most holy things until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummim.


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Besides their male servants and their female servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty- seven; and they had two hundred male singers and female singers.


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And some of the heads of fathers' houses, when they came to the house of Jehovah, which is in Jerusalem, offered willingly for the house of God to restore it on its foundation.


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The priests gave to the treasury of the work, according to their ability, sixty- one thousand darics of gold and five thousand minas of silver and one hundred priestly garments.


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So they and the Levites and some of the people and the singers and the gatekeepers and the temple servants and all Israel dwelt in their cities.


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And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem.


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Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up, along with his brothers the priests and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brothers, and they built the altar of the God of Israel to offer burnt offerings upon it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man


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And they set up the altar upon its bases, for fear was upon them because of the peoples of the lands; and they offered burnt offerings on it to Jehovah, burnt offerings of the morning and evening.


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And they held the Feast of Tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number according to the ordinance as the duty of every day required;


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And afterward they offered the continual burnt offering and the offerings of the new moons and of all the appointed feasts of Jehovah that were sanctified and of everyone who offered willingly a freewill offering to Jehovah.


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From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer up burnt offerings to Jehovah; however the foundation of the temple of Jehovah had not yet been laid.


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They also gave money to the stone hewers and to the carpenters, and food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea at Joppa according to the authorization granted them by Cyrus the king of Persia.


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Now in the second year after they came to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers, the priests and the Levites, and all those who came out of captivit


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Then Jeshua stood with his sons and his brothers, as one man, with Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, and with the sons of Henadad and their sons and their brothers the Levites, to have oversight over the workmen in the house of God.


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And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of Jehovah, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise Jehovah according to the directions of David the king of Israel.


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And they sang to one another in praising and giving thanks to Jehovah, saying, For He is good, for His lovingkindness is forever upon Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised Jehovah, because the foundation of the house of J


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But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers' houses, the old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes; and many shouted aloud for joy,


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So that the people could not discern the sound of the shout of joy from the sound of the weeping of the people; for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the sound was heard far away.


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Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity were building a temple to Jehovah the God of Israel,


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They drew near to Zerubbabel and to the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, Let us build with you; for we seek your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esar- haddon the king of Assyria, who brought us up here.


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But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses of Israel said to them, You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves together will build to Jehovah the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Pers


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Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in building.


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And they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus the king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius the king of Persia.


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And in the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.


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And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his companions wrote to Artaxerxes the king of Persia; and the script of the letter was written in Aramaic and translated into Aramaic.


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Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows


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(Then Rehum the chancellor, and Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their companions, the judges, and the officials, the Tarpelites, the Persians, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is the Elamites,


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And the rest of the nations, whom the great and noble Osnappar carried into exile and settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the province beyond the River, wrote. And now


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This is the copy of the letter that they sent to him):To Artaxerxes the king, from your servants the men beyond the River. And now


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Let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from you have come to us to Jerusalem; they are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city and are finishing the walls and have repaired the foundations.


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Now let it be known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls are finished, they will not pay tribute, taxes, or tolls; and in the end it will cause damage to the kings.


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Now because we eat the salt of the palace, and it is not fitting for us to see the king's dishonor, we therefore have sent this letter to inform the king,


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So that a search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers, and you may find in the book of the records and know that this city is a rebellious city and one that causes damage to kings and provinces and that they have stirred up sedition with


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We inform the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are finished, then you will have no portion beyond the River.


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Then the king sent an answer to Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their companions who dwelt in Samaria and in the rest of the province beyond the River:Greetings. And now


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And a decree has been issued by me, and a search has been made; and it was found that this city in times past has risen against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made in it,


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And that there have been mighty kings over Jerusalem, who have ruled over all the lands beyond the River; and tribute, taxes and tolls were paid to them.


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Then when the copy of King Artaxerxes's letter was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their companions, they went in haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by force and power.


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So the work of the house of God, which is in Jerusalem, ceased; and it was stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius the king of Persia.


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Now the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.


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Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began to build the house of God, which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.


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At the same time Tattenai the governor beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their companions came to them and spoke to them in this way, Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this wall?


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But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them, until a report went to Darius; and then an answer was returned by letter concerning it.


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This is the copy of the letter that Tattenai the governor beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and his companions the officials, who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king;


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Let it be known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is being built with large stones, and timber is being laid in the walls; and this work is being conducted with diligence and prospers in their hands.


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Then we asked those elders, speaking to them in this way, Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this wall?


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We also asked them their names in order to inform you, so that we might write down the names of the men who were at their head.


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And they returned us an answer in this way, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.


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But because our fathers had provoked the God of heaven to anger, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried the people away to Babylon.


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But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon, King Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God.


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And also the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, these King Cyrus took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were given to one whose name w


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And he said to him, Take these vessels, go and put them in the temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt in its place.


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Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of the house of God, which is in Jerusalem; and since that time even until now it has been under construction and has not yet been finished.


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Now therefore if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king's treasure house, which is there in Babylon, to see whether it is the case that a decree was made by King Cyrus for the building of this house of God in Jerusalem; and let the ki


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Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the archives, where the treasures were stored in Babylon.


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And a scroll was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of Media, and on it this was written as a record:


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In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem:Let the house be built, the place where they offer sacrifices; and let its foundations be raised, its height being sixty cubits, and its width sixty cubits


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With three layers of large stones, and one layer of timber; and let the expenses be given out of the king's house.


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And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple which is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought again to the temple which is in Jerusalem, to its place; and you shall put them


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Now therefore, Tattenai the governor beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and your companions the officials, in the province beyond the River, keep far away from there.


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Leave the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God on its site.


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Moreover I make a decree concerning what you are to do for these elders of the Jews for the building of this house of God:From the property of the king, even the tribute of the province beyond the River, expenses are to be given in full to these men that


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And whatever is needed, young bulls and rams and lambs, for burnt offerings to the God of heaven; also wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the word of the priests who are in Jerusalem, let it be given to them day by day without fail,


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Also I have made a decree that whoever alters this word, timber shall be pulled out from his house, and he shall be lifted up and impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill on account of this.


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And may the God who has caused His name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who put forth their hand to alter this or to destroy this house of God, which is in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have made a decree; let it be carried out with all diligence.


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Then Tattenai the governor beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their companions, carried out everything with all diligence according to what Darius the king had sent order to do.


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And the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and according to the decree of Cyrus and Darius and


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And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.


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And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.


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And they offered for the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats according to the number of the tribes of Israel.


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And they set the priests in their courses and the Levites in their divisions for the service of God, which is in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.


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For the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were pure. Then they slaughtered the passover for all the children of the captivity and for their brothers the priests and for themselves.


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And the children of Israel who returned from the captivity and all who had separated themselves from the defilement of the nations of the land to join them, to seek Jehovah the God of Israel, ate the passover


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And held the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy; for Jehovah had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.


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Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,


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This Ezra went up from Babylon, and he was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given; and the king granted him all his request according to the hand of Jehovah his God upon him.


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Some of the children of Israel and some of the priests, and the Levites and the singers and the gatekeepers and the temple servants also went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.


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For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem according to the good hand of his God upon him.


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For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of Jehovah and to do it and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.


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Now this is the copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of the commandments of Jehovah and of His statutes for Israel:


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I make a decree that any of the people of Israel and their priests and the Levites in my kingdom who offer themselves willingly to go to Jerusalem may go with you.


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Inasmuch as you have been sent by the king and his seven counselors to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of your God, which is in your hand,


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And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counselors have offered willingly to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem,


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As well as all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people and the priests, who offered willingly for the house of their God, which is in Jerusalem;


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With this money therefore you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, lambs, with their meal offerings and their drink offerings; and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God, which is in Jerusalem.


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And whatever seems good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, you may do according to the will of your God.


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And the vessels that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver in full before the God of Jerusalem.


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And the rest of the needs for the house of your God, which you have occasion to provide, you may provide for it out of the king's treasure house.


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And I, even I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers who are in the province beyond the River, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, requires of you, it shall be done with all diligence,


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Up to one hundred talents of silver and up to one hundred cors of wheat and up to one hundred baths of wine and up to one hundred baths of oil and salt without prescribing how much.


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Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven. For why should wrath come upon the kingdom of the king and his sons?


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We also inform you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, taxes, or tolls upon any of the priests and Levites, the singers, gatekeepers, temple servants, or servants of this house of God.


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And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges, who may judge all the people who are in the province beyond the River, all those who know the laws of your God; and teach anyone who does not know the


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And everyone who will not observe the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be executed upon him with all diligence, whether to death or to banishment or to confiscation of goods or to imprisonment.


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Blessed be Jehovah, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this into the king's heart, to beautify the house of Jehovah, which is in Jerusalem,


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And has extended lovingkindness to me before the king and his counselors, and before all the mighty officers of the king. And I was strengthened according to the hand of Jehovah my God upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel leading men to go up wi


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Now these are the heads of their fathers' houses and the genealogical enrollment of those who went up with me from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes the king:


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Of the sons of Shecaniah, of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah; and with him one hundred fifty males were enrolled by genealogy.


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And of the sons of Adonikam, the last ones; and these are their names:Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them sixty males.


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And I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava, and we camped there three days. When I observed the people and the priests, I found none of the sons of Levi there.


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Then I sent for Eliezer, for Ariel, for Shemaiah, and for Elnathan, and for Jarib, and for Elnathan, and for Nathan, and for Zechariah, and for Meshullam, leading men; also for Joiarib, and for Elnathan, who were teachers.


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And I sent them to Iddo the leading man at the place Casiphia; and I told them what to say to Iddo and his brothers the temple servants at the place Casiphia, namely, to bring ministers to us for the house of our God.


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And according to the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of discretion, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; namely, Sherebiah, with his sons and his brothers, eighteen men;


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And of the temple servants, whom David and the leaders had given for the service of the Levites, two hundred twenty temple servants - all of them were mentioned by name.


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Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a straight way for ourselves and for our little ones and for all our possessions.


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For I was ashamed to ask for troops and horsemen from the king to help us against the enemy in the way because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is for good upon all those who seek Him, but His power and His wrath is against all those


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Then I set apart twelve of the leading men of the priests, even Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers with them,


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And weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the heave offering for the house of our God, which the king and his counselors and his princes, and all Israel there present had offered.


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I weighed out into their hand six hundred fifty talents of silver and one hundred silver vessels of one hundred talents, one hundred talents of gold


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And twenty bowls of gold of one thousand darics, and two vessels of fine polished bronze as precious as gold.


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And I said to them, You are holy to Jehovah, and the vessels are holy; and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to Jehovah, the God of your fathers.


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Watch and keep them until you weigh them before the leaders of the priests and the Levites and the leaders of the fathers' houses of Israel at Jerusalem in the chambers of the house of Jehovah.


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So the priests and the Levites received the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem to the house of our God.


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Then we set out from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and from people set in ambush on the way.


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And on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed out in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest, and with him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas; and with them were the Levites, Jozabad the son of


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The children of those who had been carried away, who came out of captivity, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, twelve male goats for a sin offering, all as a burnt offering to J


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And they delivered the king's decrees to the king's satraps and to the governors beyond the River, and these supported the people and the house of God.


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Now when these things had been completed, the officials approached me, saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even those of the Canaa


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For they have taken some of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this unfaithfulness.


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And when I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled out hair from my head and my beard, and sat down appalled.


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Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel on account of the unfaithfulness of those of the captivity was gathered to me, and I sat appalled until the evening meal offering.


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And at the time of the evening meal offering I rose up from my affliction, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to Jehovah my God.


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And I said, O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have multiplied over our head, and our guilt has increased up to the heavens.


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Since the days of our fathers up to this day we have been exceedingly guilty; and because of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests, have been delivered up into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder, and to s


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And now for a brief moment favor has been shown by Jehovah our God to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage.


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For we are slaves, yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to raise up the house of our God and to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah an


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Which You commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, The land which you are entering to possess is a land unclean with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations, with which they have filled it from one end to another, and


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Now therefore do not give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever; that you may be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to your children fore


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And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that You our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us those who have escaped as this,


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Shall we again break your commandments and intermarry with the peoples that do these abominations? Will You not be angry with us until You have consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor any who escape?


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O Jehovah the God of Israel, You are righteous; for we have been left a remnant of those who have escaped, as it is this day. Here we are before You in our guilt, although none can stand before You because of this.


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Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a very large gathering of men and women and children was gathered together to him out of Israel; for the people wept very bitterly.


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And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, We have acted unfaithfully against our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this.


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Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and those born of them according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the law.


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Then Ezra arose and made the leaders of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear that they would do according to this word; so they swore.


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Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God and went into the chamber of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib; and when he came there, he ate no bread and drank no water, for he was mourning because of the unfaithfulness of those of the captivity.


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And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem;


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And that whoever did not come within three days, according to the counsel of the leaders and the elders, all his possessions should be forfeited, and he himself should be separated from the congregation of the captivity.


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Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month, and all the people sat in the open square in front of the house of God, trembling because of


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And Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, You have acted unfaithfully and have married foreign women to increase the guilt of Israel.


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Now therefore make confession to Jehovah the God of your fathers, and do His will, and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign women.


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Then all the congregation answered and said with a loud voice, It is so; we must do as you have said.


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But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain, and we are not able to stand outside; neither is this a task for one day or two, for we have transgressed greatly in this matter.


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Let our leaders represent the whole congregation, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times and with them the elders of every city and their judges, until the fierce anger of our God is turned away from


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Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them.


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And the children of the captivity did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of fathers' houses were set apart according to their fathers' houses, all of them by name; and they sat down on the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.


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And they finished with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.


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And among the sons of the priests who had married foreign women there were found of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers:Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedaliah.


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And they pledged that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt.


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And of the Levites:Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah (that is, Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.


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And of Israel:of the sons of Parosh:Ramiah, and Izziah, and Malchijah, and Mijamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah.


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And of the sons of Pahath-moab:Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, and Binnui, and Manasseh.


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The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital,


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Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and some men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, who were left from the captivity, and about Jerusalem.


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And they said to me, The remnant who are left from the captivity there in the province are in an exceedingly bad state and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire.


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And when I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and I mourned for some days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,


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And said, I beseech You, O Jehovah the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with those who love Him and keep His commandments:


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Let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant, which I pray before You now day and night, concerning the children of Israel, Your servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel that we have sinned against Yo


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We have been most corrupt toward You and have not kept the commandments and the statutes and the ordinances that You commanded Moses Your servant.


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Remember now the word that You commanded Moses Your servant, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples;


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But if you return to Me and keep My commandments and perform them, though your outcasts are under the ends of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.


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Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.


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I beseech You, O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and to the prayer of Your servants, who take delight in fearing Your name; and cause Your servant to prosper today, and grant him to find compassion before this man. Now I was


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Then in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, while wine was being set before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence.


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And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, since you are not ill? This is nothing other than sadness of heart. Then I was greatly frightened.


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And I said to the king, May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in waste and its gates are consumed with fire?


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And I said to the king, If it please the king and if your servant has found favor before you, that you would send me to Judah to the city of my fathers' graves that I may rebuild it.


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And the king said to me (and the queen was sitting beside him), How long will your going be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a date.


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Then I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given to me for the governors beyond the River, so that they will let me pass through until I come to Judah;


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And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the Park, which belongs to the king, so that he would give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace that belongs to the house and for the wall of the city and for the house that I will be entering. And the k


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So I went to the governors beyond the River and gave them the king's letters. And the king had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen.


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And when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard of this, it displeased them greatly that a man had come seeking the good of the children of Israel.


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And I arose at night, I and some few men with me. And I told no man what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. And there was no animal with me except the animal I rode on.


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And I went out at night by the Valley Gate, toward the Jackals' Spring and the Dung Gate, and inspected the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down and whose gates had been consumed with fire.


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Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's Pool, but there was no place for the animal under me to pass through.


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And I went up at night by the brook and inspected the wall, and turned back and went in by the Valley Gate and so returned.


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And the rulers did not know where I had gone or what I had been doing; and I had not as yet told it to the Jews and the priests and the nobles and the rulers and the rest who were to do the work.


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Then I said to them, You see the bad state we are in, that Jerusalem lies in waste and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach.


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And I told them about the hand of my God, which was good upon me, and also about the king's words, which he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build; and they strengthened their hands for the good work.


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But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arabian heard of it, they mocked us and despised us; and they said, What is this thing that you will do? Will you rebel against the king?


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And I answered them and said to them, The God of heaven Himself will make us prosper; therefore we His servants will rise up and build. But you have no portion nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem.


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Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and erected its doors; even as far as the Tower of the Hundred they consecrated it and as far as the Tower of Hananel.


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And the sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate:They laid its beams and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.


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And next to them Meremoth the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz made repairs. And next to them Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel made repairs. And next to them Zadok the son of Baana made repairs.


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And next to them the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles would not put their necks to the service of their Lord.


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And Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the Old Gate:They laid its beams and set up its doors and its bolts and its bars.


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And next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite with the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah made repairs to the throne of the governor beyond the River.


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Next to him Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. And next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs, and they fortified Jerusalem even unto the broad wall.


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And next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs.


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And next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph, opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah made repairs.


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Malchijah the son of Harim and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab repaired another section, including the Tower of the Furnaces.


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And next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughters.


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Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate:They built it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, as well as one thousand cubits of the wall to the Dung Gate.


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And Malchijah the son of Rechab, the ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem repaired the Dung Gate:He built it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars.


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And Shallum the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate:He built it and covered it and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, as well as the wall of the Pool of Shelah by the King's Garden, even to the stairs


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After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of half the district of Beth- zur, made repairs, from a place opposite the Sepulchres of David and as far as the pool that was made and as far as the House of the Mighty Men.


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After him the Levites, under Rehum the son of Bani, made repairs. Next to him Hashabiah, the ruler of half the district of Keilah, made repairs for his district.


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After him their brothers, under Bavvai the son of Henadad, the ruler of half the district of Keilah, made repairs.


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And next to him Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, repaired another section, opposite the ascent to the armory at the turning of the wall.


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After him Baruch the son of Zabbai diligently repaired another section, from the turning of the wall to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.


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After him Meremoth the son of Uriah the son of Hakkoz repaired another section, from the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib.


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After them Benjamin and Hasshub made repairs opposite their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah the son of Ananiah made repairs beside his own house.


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After him Binnui the son of Henadad repaired another section, from the house of Azariah to the turning of the wall, then to the corner.


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Palal the son of Uzai made repairs from in front of the turning of the wall, and on the tower that projects out from the upper house of the king, which is by the court of the guard. After him was Pedaiah the son of Parosh.


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(Now the temple servants dwelt on the Ophel, as far as the point opposite the Water Gate on the east, and the tower that projects out.)


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After him the Tekoites repaired another section, opposite the great tower that projects out and to the wall of the Ophel.


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After them Zadok the son of Immer made repairs opposite his own house. And after him Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made repairs.


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After him Hananiah the son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph repaired a second section. After him Meshullam the son of Berechiah made repairs, opposite his quarters.


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After him Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs as far as the house of the temple servants and the merchants, opposite the Muster Gate and as far as the ascent of the corner.


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And between the ascent of the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs.


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And when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he became angry and was greatly enraged; and he mocked the Jews.


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And he spoke to his brothers and the army of Samaria and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the dust heaps, though they are burned


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And Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, Even their stone wall that they are building, if a fox were to go up on it, he would breach it.


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Hear, O our God, for we are despised; and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them as spoil in the land of captivity;


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And do not cover their iniquity and do not let their sin be blotted out before You, for they made provocations before the builders.


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So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a heart to work.


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And when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem was advancing, that the breaches were beginning to be closed up, they became very angry;


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And Judah said, The strength of the burden bearers fails, And the debris is great; And we are not able To build the wall.


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And our adversaries said, They will not know, nor even see, until we come into their midst and slay them and cause the work to stop.


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And when the Jews who dwelt near them came, they said to us ten times, They will come up against us from all the places that you turn to.


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So I set men in the lowest places behind the wall, on the exposed areas, and I set the people by families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.


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And when I saw the situation, I rose up and said to the nobles and the rulers and the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them; remember the great and awesome Lord, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses.


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And when our enemies heard that their counsel was known to us and that God frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each man to his work.


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And from that day half of my servants labored in the work, and half of them held the spears and the shields and the bows and the armor; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.


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Those who built the wall and those who carried burdens took the loads with one hand doing the work and with the other holding a weapon.


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And as for the builders, each had his sword strapped to his side, and so they built; and he who sounded the trumpet was beside me.


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And I said to the nobles, the rulers, and the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated on the wall, each far from the other.


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In whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, gather yourselves to us there. Our God will fight for us.


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So we labored in the work; and half of them held spears from the start of dawn until the stars came out.


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I also said to the people at that time, Let every man and his servant spend the nights inside Jerusalem so that they may be a guard for us by night and work by day.


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So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each had his weapon at his right hand.


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For there were some who said, With our sons and our daughters we are many; therefore we must get grain that we may eat and live.


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And there were some who said, We have pledged our fields and our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain in this famine.


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And there were some who said, We have borrowed money against our fields and our vineyards for the king's tribute.


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Yet now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children; and now we are bringing our sons and daughters into bondage as slaves. And some of our daughters have already been brought into bondage; and it is not in our power to d


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And when I had considered this matter in my heart, I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said to them, You men are charging interest, each man against his brother! And I set a great assembly against them.


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And I said to them, We have bought back our brothers the Jews who have been sold to the nations according to the best of our ability. So would you even sell your brothers that they would have to be sold back to us? And they held their peace and could find


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Then I said, The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations our enemies?


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And even I, my brothers, and my servants lend them money and grain. Let us now abandon such taking of interest.


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Restore now to them, as of today, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, as well as the hundredth part of the money and of the grain, new wine, and fresh oil that you charge them as interest.


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And they said, We will restore it, and we will require nothing from them; so will we do, even as you say. Then I called for the priests and took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise.


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I also shook out the lap of my garment and said, May God shake out in the same way every man from his house and from his possessions who does not perform this promise; even so may he be shaken out and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen; and they pra


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Moreover from the time that the king appointed me to be governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, I and my brothers did not eat the food appointed for the governor.


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But the former governors, who were before me, laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them food and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants tyrannized the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God.


