If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, ¹  their loyalty could shift to their former master, ²  King Rehoboam of Judah. They might kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.”

Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.

Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother was Athaliah, the granddaughter ²  of King Omri of Israel.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. ¹  He did not do what pleased the Lord his God, in contrast to his ancestor David. ² 

He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother ²  was Abi, ³  the daughter of Zechariah.

“Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over ¹  to the king of Assyria.”

So this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I am about to bring disaster on Jerusalem and Judah. The news will reverberate in the ears of those who hear about it. ¹ 

Furthermore Manasseh killed so many innocent people, he stained Jerusalem with their blood from end to end, ¹  in addition to encouraging Judah to sin by doing evil in the sight of the Lord. ² 

Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother ²  was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz, from Jotbah.

He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. ¹  He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. ² 

(Now the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened cakes among their fellow priests.) ¹ 

The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, ¹  that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom.

The Lord announced, “I will also spurn Judah, ¹  just as I spurned Israel. I will reject this city that I chose – both Jerusalem and the temple, about which I said, “I will live there.” ² 

Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. ¹  He imposed on the land a special tax ²  of one hundred talents ³  of silver and a talent of gold.

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah, from Rumah.

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother ²  was Hamutal, ³  the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger; he finally threw them out of his presence. ¹  Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

On the seventh ¹  day of the fifth month, ²  in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard ³  who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem. ⁴ 

He removed the city’s residents and made them do hard labor with saws, iron picks, and axes. ¹  This was his policy ²  with all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem.

(Now David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. ¹