NKJV Bible in 365 Days
From Josiah's Zeal to Jerusalem's Ruin — April 12
2 Kings 23-25
2 Kings 23
1 Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. 365N 102.1
2 The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord . 365N 102.2
3 Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord , to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant. 365N 102.3
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for [a] Asherah, and for all [b] the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 365N 102.4
5 Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the [c] constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 365N 102.5
6 And he brought out the wooden [d] image from the house of the Lord , to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. 365N 102.6
7 Then he tore down the ritual [e] booths of the [f] perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord , where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. 365N 102.7
8 And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. 365N 102.8
9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren. 365N 102.9
10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the [g] Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. 365N 102.10
11 Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had [h] dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord , by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 365N 102.11
12 The altars that were on the roof, 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 the Lord , the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron. 365N 102.12
13 Then the king defiled the [i] high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the [j] south of [k] the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon. 365N 102.13
14 And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men. 365N 102.14
15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the [l] high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image. 365N 102.15
16 As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 365N 102.16
17 Then he said, “What gravestone is this that I see?” So the men of the city told him, “ It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.” 365N 102.17
18 And he said, “Let him alone; let no one move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. 365N 102.18
19 Now Josiah also took away all the [m] shrines of the [n] high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [o] the Lord to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. 365N 102.19
20 He executed all the priests of the [p] high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men’s bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem. 365N 102.20
21 Then the king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” 365N 102.21
22 Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 365N 102.22
23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was held before the Lord in Jerusalem. 365N 102.23
24 Moreover Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord . 365N 102.24
25 Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him. 365N 102.25
26 Nevertheless the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. 365N 102.26
27 And the Lord said, “I will also remove Judah from My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’ ” 365N 102.27
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 365N 102.28
29 In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went [q] to the aid of the king of Assyria, to the River Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him. 365N 102.29
30 Then his servants moved his body in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place. 365N 102.30
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 365N 102.31
32 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord , according to all that his fathers had done. 365N 102.32
33 Now Pharaoh Necho put him in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 365N 102.33
34 Then Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Pharaoh took Jehoahaz and went to Egypt, and [r] he died there. 365N 102.34
35 So Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give money according to the command of Pharaoh; he exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land, from every one according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necho. 365N 102.35
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zebudah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 365N 102.36
37 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord , according to all that his fathers had done. 365N 102.37
2 Kings 24
1 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. 365N 102.38
2 And the Lord sent against him raiding [a] bands of Chaldeans, bands of Syrians, bands of Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon; He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken by His servants the prophets. 365N 102.39
3 Surely at the commandment of the Lord this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 365N 102.40
4 and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon. 365N 102.41
5 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 365N 102.42
6 So Jehoiakim rested with his fathers. Then Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place. 365N 102.43
7 And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land anymore, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt from the Brook of Egypt to the River Euphrates. 365N 102.44
8 Jehoiachin [b] was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. 365N 102.45
9 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord , according to all that his father had done. 365N 102.46
10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city [c] was besieged. 365N 102.47
11 And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, as his servants were besieging it. 365N 102.48
12 Then Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his princes, and his officers went out to the king of Babylon; and the king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, took him prisoner. 365N 102.49
13 And he carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord , as the Lord had said. 365N 102.50
14 Also he carried into captivity all Jerusalem: all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land. 365N 102.51
15 And he carried Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. The king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers, and the mighty of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon. 365N 102.52
16 All the valiant men, seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths, one thousand, all who were strong and fit for war, these the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon. 365N 102.53
17 Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s [d] uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah. 365N 102.54
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 365N 102.55
19 He also did evil in the sight of the Lord , according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 365N 102.56
20 For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, that He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 365N 102.57
2 Kings 25
1 Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. 365N 102.58
2 So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 365N 102.59
3 By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 365N 102.60
4 Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled at night by way of the gate between two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were still encamped all around against the city. And the king [a] went by way of the [b] plain. 365N 102.61
5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. 365N 102.62
6 So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they pronounced judgment on him. 365N 102.63
7 Then they killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, put [c] out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon. 365N 102.64
8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 365N 102.65
9 He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. 365N 102.66
10 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls of Jerusalem all around. 365N 102.67
11 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive the rest of the people who remained in the city and the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, with the rest of the multitude. 365N 102.68
12 But the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers. 365N 102.69
13 The bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord , and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord , the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried their bronze to Babylon. 365N 102.70
14 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. 365N 102.71
15 The firepans and the basins, the things of solid gold and solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. 365N 102.72
16 The two pillars, one Sea, and the carts, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord , the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 365N 102.73
17 The height of one pillar was [d] eighteen cubits, and the capital on it was of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits, and the network and pomegranates all around the capital were all of bronze. The second pillar was the same, with a network. 365N 102.74
18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 365N 102.75
19 He also took out of the city an officer who had charge of the men of war, five men of [e] the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the chief recruiting officer of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city. 365N 102.76
20 So Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 365N 102.77
21 Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land. 365N 102.78
22 Then he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left. 365N 102.79
23 Now when all the captains of the armies, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan the son of Careah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and [f] Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. 365N 102.80
24 And Gedaliah took an oath before them and their men, and said to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.” 365N 102.81
25 But it happened in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck and killed Gedaliah, the Jews, as well as the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 365N 102.82
26 And all the people, small and great, and the captains of the armies, arose and went to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans. 365N 102.83
27 Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that [g] Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. 365N 102.84
28 He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 365N 102.85
29 So Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ate [h] bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. 365N 102.86
30 And as for his [i] provisions, there was a [j] regular ration given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life. 365N 102.87