Let me ¹  return so that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But look, here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever seems appropriate to you.”

After the king had consulted with his advisers, ¹  he made two golden calves. Then he said to the people, ²  “It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

As certainly as the Lord your God lives, my master has sent to every nation and kingdom in an effort to find you. When they say, ‘He’s not here,’ he makes them ¹  swear an oath that they could not find you.

Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why are you here? ¹  Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” The king of Israel replied to him, “No, for the Lord is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.”

If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ¹  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ²  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ³  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ⁴ 

‘“Know for sure that I saw the shed blood of Naboth and his sons yesterday,” says the Lord, “and that I will give you what you deserve right here in this plot of land,” ¹  says the Lord.’ So now pick him up and throw him into this plot of land, just as the Lord said.” ² 

So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city, nor will he shoot an arrow here. ¹  He will not attack it with his shield-carrying warriors, ²  nor will he build siege works against it.

On the border of Manasseh’s territory were Beth-Shean ¹  and its surrounding towns, Taanach and its surrounding towns, Megiddo ²  and its surrounding towns, and Dor and its surrounding towns. The descendants of Joseph, Israel’s son, lived here.

Here are the divisions of the priests and Levites who will perform all the service of God’s temple. All the willing and skilled men are ready to assist you in all the work and perform their service. ¹  The officials and all the people are ready to follow your instructions.” ² 

“Now send me a man who is skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, and iron, as well as purple, crimson, and violet colored fabrics, and who knows how to engrave. He will work with my skilled craftsmen here in Jerusalem ¹  and Judah, whom my father David provided.

they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ¹  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ²  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ³  from the time ⁴  of King Esarhaddon ⁵  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ⁶ 

My God placed it on my heart to gather the leaders, ¹  the officials, and the ordinary people so they could be enrolled on the basis of genealogy. I found the genealogical records ²  of those who had formerly returned. Here is what I found written in that record: ³ 

So ¹  here is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, even though they beat you with a club and lift their cudgel against you as Egypt did. ² 

So the Lord’s word to them will sound like meaningless gibberish, senseless babbling, a syllable here, a syllable there. ¹  As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk, ²  and be injured, ensnared, and captured. ³ 

So this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city, nor will he shoot an arrow here. ¹  He will not attack it with his shielded warriors, ²  nor will he build siege works against it.

“How can you say, ‘I have not made myself unclean. I have not paid allegiance to ¹  the gods called Baal.’ Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom! ²  Think about the things you have done there! You are like a flighty, young female camel that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path. ³ 

The people say, ¹  “Why are we just sitting here? Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. ²  Let us at least die there fighting, ³  since the Lord our God has condemned us to die. He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment ⁴  because we have sinned against him. ⁵ 

Then people will come here from the towns in Judah, from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin, from the western foothills, from the southern hill country, and from the southern part of Judah. They will come bringing offerings to the temple of the Lord: burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and incense along with their thank offerings. ¹ 

They have built places here ¹  for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices ²  are something I never commanded them to make! They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind!

Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, ¹  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. ²  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. ³  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ ⁴