thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.

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23.1. And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into 70 the house of Jehovah, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of Jehovah. And the king stood on the 75 platform, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. And the king commanded 80 Hilkiah the high priest, and the second priest, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels that were made for the Baal, and for the Ashérah, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto 85 Beth-el. And he put down the 1 unlawful priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And 90 he brought out the Ashérah from the house of Jehovah, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the common people. And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were in the house of 95 Jehovah, where the women wove hangings for the Ashérah. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the 100 governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. Nevertheless the priests of the high places

1 The Hebrew word is Chemárin, which denotes unlawful priests of all kinds, whether of Jehovah or of heathen gods. See Hosea 10.5; Zeph. 1.4.

came not up to the altar of Jehovah in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. And he de105 filed Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of Jehovah, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, 10 which was in the precincts, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. And the altars that were on the top of 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, did the king beat down, and brake them down from 115 thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. And the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the 120 Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. And he brake in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Ashérahs, and filled their places with the bones of men.

2 Chronicles 35.20. After all this, when Josiah had 125 prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah ? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have 130 war for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but 2 strengthened himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of 135 God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, 140 and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah 2 This is the reading of the LXX. The Hebrew text gives "disguised."

lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they were made an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations. Now the rest of the acts of 145 Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which was written in the law of Jehovah, and his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

LESSON LXXXII

JEHOIAKIM

2 KINGS 23, 24; JEREMIAH 26, 36

23.31. Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his fathers had done. And 5 Pharaoh-nechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to 10 Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there. And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his 15 taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh-nechoh. Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all 20 that his fathers had done.

24.1. In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him. And Jehovah sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the 25 Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them

against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spake by his servants the prophets. So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his 30 stead. And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

JEREMIAH'S PREACHING

Jeremiah 26.1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim 35 the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from Jehovah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah; Stand in the court of Jehovah's house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in Jehovah's house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word: if so be they will 40 hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words 45 of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened; then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these 50 words in the house of Jehovah. Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Jehovah had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. Why hast thou prophesied in the name 55 of Jehovah, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah. Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him 60 into the hand of the people to put him to death.

THE ROLL OF THE BOOK

36.1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and

write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the 65 day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: 70 and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Jehovah, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, Go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of Jehovah in the ears of the people in Jehovah's house upon 75 the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. It may be they will present their supplication before Jehovah, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that Jehovah hath pronounced against this people. And Baruch the 80 son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of Jehovah in Jehovah's house.

36.9. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they 85 proclaimed a fast before Jehovah to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem. Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of 90 the new gate of Jehovah's house, in the ears of all the people. When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of Jehovah, then he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah 95 the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. Then Micaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people. Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the 100 son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of