So the Lord delivered Israel that day, and the battle shifted over to Beth Aven. ¹ 

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

The following belonged to the rest of Merari’s descendants: ¹  Within the territory of the tribe of Zebulun: Rimmono ²  and its pasturelands, and Tabor and its pasturelands.

He placed garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David’s subjects. The Lord protected ¹  David wherever he campaigned. ² 

In each city there were shields and spears; he strongly fortified them. ¹  Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.

These were the ones who served the king, besides those whom the king placed in the fortified cities throughout Judah.

In every city throughout Judah he set up high places to offer sacrifices to other gods. He angered the Lord God of his ancestors.

Adjacent to them worked Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, who were men of Gibeon and Mizpah. These towns were under the jurisdiction ¹  of the governor of Trans-Euphrates.

and from Beth Gilgal and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth, for the singers had built settlements for themselves around Jerusalem.

The enemy’s cities have been reduced to permanent ruins; ¹  you destroyed their cities; ²  all memory of the enemies has perished. ³ 

He waits in ambush near the villages; ¹  in hidden places he kills the innocent. His eyes look for some unfortunate victim. ² 

Is this the one who made the world like a desert, who ruined its ¹  cities, and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?”’ ² 

At the fords of the Arnon ¹  the Moabite women are like a bird that flies about when forced from its nest. ² 

Highways are empty, ¹  there are no travelers. ²  Treaties are broken, ³  witnesses are despised, ⁴  human life is treated with disrespect. ⁵ 

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, ¹  King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; ¹  they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

The young men of On and of Pi-beseth ¹  will die by the sword; and the cities will go ²  into captivity.

A sword will flash in their cities, it will destroy the bars of their city gates, and will devour them in their fortresses.

Draw yourselves water for a siege! ¹  Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud ²  and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls! ³ 

These are the things you must do: Speak the truth, each of you, to one another. Practice true and righteous judgment in your courts. ¹