On that same day the number of those killed in Susa the citadel was brought to the king’s attention.

He chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loves.

All the people were aware ¹  of it, the people of Ephraim and those living in Samaria. ²  Yet with pride and an arrogant attitude, they said, ³ 

Here is a message about Damascus: “Look, Damascus is no longer a city, it is a heap of ruins!

Even if the forest is destroyed ¹  and the city is annihilated, ² 

So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and went on his way. He went home and stayed in Nineveh. ¹ 

I will establish my sovereignty over Elam. ¹  I will destroy their king and their leaders,” ²  says the Lord. ³ 

You have followed the ways of your sister, so I will place her cup of judgment ¹  in your hand.

When those days ¹  were completed, the king then provided a seven-day ²  banquet for all the people who were present ³  in Susa the citadel, for those of highest standing to the most lowly. ⁴  It was held in the court located in the garden of the royal palace.

The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood, it is covered ¹  with fat; it drips ²  with the blood of young rams and goats and is covered ³  with the fat of rams’ kidneys. For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ⁴  in Bozrah, ⁵  a bloody ⁶  slaughter in the land of Edom.

They tore down the cities and each man threw a stone into every cultivated field until they were covered. ¹  They stopped up every spring and chopped down every productive tree. Only Kir Hareseth was left intact, ²  but the slingers surrounded it and attacked it.

And let the king appoint officers throughout all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the attractive young women to Susa the citadel, to the harem ¹  under the authority of Hegai, the king’s eunuch who oversees the women, and let him provide whatever cosmetics they desire. ² 

“‘If anyone ²  curses his father and mother ³  he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. ⁴ 

If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed perversion; ¹  their blood guilt is on themselves.

If a man has sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman, ¹  the two of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves.

If a woman approaches any animal to have sexual intercourse with it, ¹  you must kill the woman, and the animal must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves.

You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister and your father’s sister, for such a person has laid bare his own close relative. ¹  They must bear their punishment for iniquity. ² 

If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, he has exposed his uncle’s nakedness; they must bear responsibility for their sin, they will die childless.

“‘A man or woman who ¹  has in them a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit ²  must be put to death. They must pelt them with stones; ³  their blood guilt is on themselves.’”

At that time Joshua turned, captured Hazor, ¹  and struck down its king with the sword, for Hazor was at that time ²  the leader of all these kingdoms.