The Book of Joshua marks a new beginning, to the story of Israel in Canaan. Yet the story continues straight on without a break. Deuteronomy had looked forward to the Israelites occupying Canaan

14:11 The King Who Didn’t Listen

11 Amatsyahu didn’t listen. So Yeho’ash king of Israel went up and they faced each other, he and Amatsyahu king of Judah at Bet-shemesh, which belongs to Judah. 12 Judah took a beating before Israel and they fled each man to his his tents. 13 Amatsyahu king of Judah, son of Yeho’ash ben Ahazyahu—Yeho’ash king of Israel captured him at Bet-shemesh, came to Jerusalem, and broke down the Jerusalem wall at the Ephrayim Gate as far as the Corner Gate, 200 metres. 14 He took all the gold and the silver and all the articles that were to be found in Yahweh’s house and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and pledges, and went back to Shomron.

15 The rest of the things about Yeho’ash , what he did, and his strength and how he battled with Amatsyahu king of Judah, are written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Israel, aren’t they. 16 Yeho’ash lay down with his ancestors and was buried in Shomron with the kings of Israel, and Yarob’am his son began to reign in place of him.

17 Amatsyahu ben Yo’ash king of Judah lived after the death of Yeho’ash ben Yeho’ahaz king of Israel fifteen years. 18 The rest of the things about Amatsyahu are written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Judah, aren’t they. 19 People formed a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem and he fled to Lakish, but they sent after him to Lakish and put him to death there. 20 But they carried him on horses and he was buried in Jerusalem with his ancestors in David’s Town. 21 All the people of Judah got Azaryah (he was sixteen years of age) and made him king in place of his father Amatsyahu. 22 It was he who built up Elat. He had got it back for Judah after the king lay down with his ancestors.

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  14:23 The King Who Became Taboo
  

23 In the fifteenth year of Amatsyahu ben Yo’ash king of Judah, Yarob’am ben Yo’ash king of Israel began to reign in Shomron, for forty-one years. 24 He did what was bad in Yahweh’s eyes; he didn’t depart from all the wrongdoings of Yarob’am ben Nebat that he caused Israel to commit. 25 It was he who got Israel’s territory back from Lebo Hamat as far as the Steppe Sea, in accordance with the word of Yahweh the God of Israel which he spoke by means of his servant Yonah ben Amittay the prophet, who was from Gat-hepher . 26 Because Yahweh saw Israel’s very bitter humbling (neither bound nor freed) and there was no helper for Israel. 27 Yahweh had not spoken of wiping out Israel’s name from under the heavens, and he delivered them by the hand of Yarob’am ben Joash.

28 The rest of the things about Yarob’am, all that he did, and his strength, how he battled and how he got back Damascus [Dammeseq] and Hamat belonging to Judah in Israel, are written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Israel, aren’t they. 29 Yarob’am lay down with his ancestors, with the kings of Israel, and Zekaryah his son began to reign in place of him.

15 It was in the twenty-seventh year of Yarob’am king of Israel that Azaryah ben Amatsyah king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was sixteen years of age when he began to reign and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Yekolyahu from Jerusalem. 3 He did what was upright in Yahweh’s eyes in accordance with all that Amatsyahu his father did. 4 Only, the shrines did not disappear; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense at the shrines. 5 Yahweh touched the king and he was made scaly until the day of his death. He lived in a house apart, while Yotam the king’s son was in charge of the household, exercising authority over the people in the country.

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  15:6 A War Crime
  

6 The rest of the things about Azaryahu and all that he did are written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Judah, aren’t they. 7 Azaryah lay down with his ancestors and they buried him with his ancestors in David’s Town, and Yotam his son began to reign in place of him.

8 It was in the thirty-eighth year of Azaryahu king of Judah that Zekaryahu ben Yarob’am began to reign over Israel in Shomron, for six months. 9 He did what was bad in Yahweh’s eyes as his ancestors had done. He didn’t depart from the wrongdoings of Yarob’am ben Nebat that he caused Israel to commit. 10 Shallum ben Yabesh conspired against him; he struck him down before the people, put him to death, and began to reign in place of him. 11The rest of the things about Zekaryah, there they are, written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Israel. 12 That was Yahweh’s word which he spoke to Yehu: ‘Sons to the fourth [generation] will sit on Israel’s throne for you’. So it came about.

13 Shallum ben Yabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziyyah king of Judah, and reigned for a full month in Shomron. 14 Menahem ben Gadi went up from Tirtsah, came to Shomron, and struck down Shallum ben Yabesh in Shomron and put him to death. He began to reign in place of him. 15 The rest of the things about Shallum and his conspiracy that he formed, there they are, written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Israel.

16 Then Menahem struck down Tiphsah and everyone who was in it and its territories, from Tirtsah, because it didn’t open up, so he struck it down. He split open all its pregnant women.

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  15:17 The Assyrians Start to Cause Trouble
  

17 It was in the thirty-ninth year of Azaryah king of Judah that Menahem ben Gadi began to reign over Israel, for ten years. 18 He did what was bad in Yahweh’s eyes; he didn’t depart from the wrongdoings of Yarob’am ben Nebat that he caused Israel to commit, all his days. 19 Pul king of Ashshur [Assyria]came against the country, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that his hands would be with him to strengthen the kingship in his hand. 20 Menahem put the silver out on Israel, on all the forceful strong men, to give to the king of Ashshur, fifty sheqels of silver for each man, and the king of Ashshur went back and did not stop there in the country.

21 The rest of the things about Menahem and all that he did are written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Israel, aren’t they. 22 Menahem lay down with his ancestors, and Peqahyah his son began to reign in place of him.

23 It was in the fiftieth year of Azaryah king of Judah that Peqahyah ben Menahem began to reign over Israel in Shomron, for two years. 24 He did what was bad in Yahweh’s eyes; he didn’t depart from the the wrongdoings that Yarob’am ben Nebat caused Israel to commit. 25 Peqah ben Remalyahu, his adjutant, conspired against him and struck him down in Shomron in the citadel of the king’s house (with Argob and with Aryeh, so along with him were fifty men from the Gil’adites). He put him to death and began to reign in place of him.

26 The rest of the things about Peqahyah, all that he did, there they are, written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Israel.

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  15:27 Land Begins to Be Lost
  

27 It was in the fifty-second year of Azaryah king of Judah that that Peqah ben Remalyahu began to reign over Israel in Shomron, for twenty years. 28 He did what was bad in Yahweh’s eyes; he didn’t depart from the wrongdoings that Yarob’am ben Nebat caused Israel to commit. 29 In the days of Peqah king of Israel, Tiglat-pil’eser king of Ashshur came and took Iyyon, Bet-ma’akah Meadow, Yanoah, Qedesh, Hatsor, Gil’ad, the Galilee, the entire region of Naphtali, and exiled them to Ashshur.

30 Hoshea ben Elah formed a conspiracy against Peqah ben Remalyahu, and struck him down. He put him to death and began to reign in place of him, in the twentieth year of Yotam ben Uzziyyah. 31 The rest of the things about Peqah and all that he did, there they are, written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Israel.

32 It was in the second year of Peqah ben Remalyahu king of Israel that Yotam ben Uzziyyahu king of Judah began to reign. He was a man of twenty-five years when he began to reign and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Yerusha bat Tsadoq. 34 He did what was upright in Yahweh’s eyes; in accordance with all that Uzziyyahu his father had done, he did. 35 Only, the shrines did not disappear; the people were still sacrificing and burning incense at the shrines. It was he who built up the Upper Gate of Yahweh’s house.

36 The rest of the things about Yotam that he did are written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Judah, aren’t they. 37 During that time Yahweh began to send Retsin king of Aram and Peqah ben Remalyahu against Judah. 38 Yotam lay down with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in David his ancestor’s town, and Ahaz his son began to reign in place of him.

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  16:1 How Not to Render to Caesar
  

16 It was in the seventeenth year of Peqah ben Remalyahu that Ahaz ben Yotam king of Judah began to reign. 2 Ahaz was a man of twenty years when he began to reign and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was upright in the eyes of Yahweh his God like David his ancestor 3 but walked in the way of the kings of Israel. Further, his own son he passed through the fire in accordance with the offensive practices of the nations that Yahweh dispossessed from before the Israelites. 4 He sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines, on the hills, and under every verdant tree.

5 Then Retsin king of Aram and Peqah ben Remalyahu king of Israel went up to Jerusalem for battle. They besieged Ahaz but couldn’t win the battle. 6 At that time Retsin king of Aram took back Elat for Aram. He cleared out the Judahites from Elot, and Edomites came to Elat and have lived there until this day.

7 Ahaz sent envoys to Tiglat-pileser king of Ashshur saying, ‘I am your servant and your son. Go up and deliver me from the fist of the king of Aram and from the fist of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me’. 8 Ahaz got the silver and the gold that could be found in Yahweh’s house and in the treasuries of the king’s house and sent them to the king of Ashshur as a bribe, 9 and the king of Ashshur listened to him. The king of Ashshur went up to Damascus, captured it, exiled it to Qir, and put Retsin to death.

10 King Ahaz went to meet Tiglat-pileser king of Ashshur at Damascus, and saw the altar at Damascus. King Ahaz sent Uriyyah the priest a picture of the altar and a plan of it, for every aspect of making it, 11 and Uriyyah the priest built the altar. In accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriyyah the priest did, before King Ahaz came from Damascus.

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  16:12 A New Altar
  

12 The king came from Damascus and the king saw the altar. The king drew near the altar, went up on it, 13 and turned into smoke his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured his libation, and tossed the blood of the well-being offerings that he had, on the altar.

14 The copper altar that was before Yahweh, he brought near from the front of the house (between his altar and Yahweh’s house) and put it by the side of his altar, to the north. 15 King Ahaz ordered Uriyyah the priest, ‘On the big altar, turn into smoke the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering, the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, the burnt offering of the entire people of the country, their grain offering, and their libations. All the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice you’re to toss on it. The copper altar will be for me to consult at’. 16 Uriyyah the priest acted in accordance with all that King Ahaz ordered.

17 King Ahaz cut off the stands’ rims and removed the basin from on them, took down the sea from on the copper cattle that were beneath it and put it on a pavement of stones, 18 and the sabbath covered-way that they had built in the house and the king’s outside entrance he moved round to Yahweh’s house, on account of the king of Ashshur.

19 The rest of the things about Ahaz that he did are written on the document about things of the time regarding the kings of Judah, aren’t they. 20 Ahaz lay down with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in David’s Town, and Hizqiyyahu [Hezekiah] his son began to reign in place of him.

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  17:1 The Fall of the Northern Kingdom
  

17 It was in the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah that Hoshea ben Elah began to reign over Israel in Shomron, for nine years. 2 He did what was bad in Yahweh’s eyes, only not like the kings of Israel who were before him.

3 Shalman’eser king of Ashshur went up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and gave back an offering to him. 4 But the king of Ashshur found a conspiracy in Hoshea, when he sent envoys to So king of Egypt and did not take up an offering to the king of Ashshur, as he did year by year. So the king of Ashshur detained him, and confined him in the jailhouse.

5 Then the king of Ashshur went up against the entire country. He went up to Shomron and besieged it for three years. 6 In the third year of Hoshea, the king of Ashshur took Shomron. He exiled Israel to Ashshur and made them live at Halah and at Habor, the river Gozan and the towns of Media.

7 It happened because the Israelites did wrong in relation to Yahweh their God who had got them up from the country of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had lived in awe of other gods 8 and had walked by the decrees of the nations that Yahweh had dispossessed from before the Israelites, and the kings of Israel that they made.

9 The Israelites had imputed things that were not so to Yahweh their God and built for themselves shrines in all their towns, from a keepers’ tower to a fortified town. 10 They put up columns and totem poles for themselves on every lofty hill and under every verdant tree. 11 They burned incense there in all the shrines, like the nations that Yahweh exiled from before them. They undertook bad things so as to provoke Yahweh. 12 They served idols, of which Yahweh had said to them, ‘You will not do this thing’.

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  17:13 By Means of Every Prophet
  

13 Yahweh had testified against Israel (and against Judah) by means of every prophet of his, every seer, saying, ‘Turn back from your bad ways, keep my orders and my decrees in accordance with the entire instruction that I ordered your ancestors and that I sent to you by means of my servants the prophets’. 14 They didn’t listen. They toughened their neck, like the neck of their ancestors who didn’t trust in Yahweh their God. 15 They rejected his decrees, his pact which he solemnized with their ancestors, and his affirmations which he testified against them. They followed hollowness and became hollow, followed the nations that were round them, ones that Yahweh had ordered them not to act like them.

16 They abandoned all the orders of Yahweh their God, and made a cast image (two bullocks) for themselves, made a totem pole, bowed low to the entire heavenly army, and served the Master. 17 They made their sons and their daughters pass through fire, engaged in divination and practised augury, and sold themselves to do what was bad in Yahweh’s eyes so as to provoke him.

18 Yahweh showed himself very angry with Israel and he removed them from before his face; only the clan of Judah remained, alone, 19 though Judah, too, did not keep the orders of Yahweh their God but walked by the decrees of Israel that they made.

20 So Yahweh rejected all Israel’s offspring and humbled them. He gave them into the hand of pillagers until he threw them out from his presence. 21 When he tore Israel from David’s household, they made Yarob’am ben Nabat king, and Yarob’am drove Israel away from following Yahweh and caused them to commit great wrong. 22 The Israelites walked in all the wrongdoings of Yarob’am that he committed; they did not depart from them, 23 until Yahweh turned Israel aside from from his presence, as he spoke by means of all his servants the prophets. So Israel went into exile from upon its soil to Ashshur, until this day.

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  17:28 The Forced Immigrants
  

24 The king of Ashshur brought people from Babel, from Kutah, from Avva, and from Hamat and Sepharvayim, and made them live in the towns of Shomron in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Shomron and lived in its towns. 25 When they first lived there, they didn’t live in awe of Yahweh, and Yahweh sent lions against them; they became killers among them. 26 They said to the king of Ashshur, ‘The nations that you exiled and made to live in the towns of Shomron don’t know the ruling of the country’s god, and he’s sent lions against them, and there, they are putting them to death, because they don’t know the ruling of the country’s god’.

27 So the king of Ashshur ordered, ‘Make one of the priests go there that you exiled from there. They’re to go and live there and instruct them in the ruling of the god of the land’. 28 So one of the priests that they exiled from Shomron came and lived in Bet-el and and was instructing them in how they were to live in awe of Yahweh. 29 But they were making nation by nation its own god, and they set them down in the house at the shrines that the Shomronites had made, nation by nation in their towns where they were living. 30 The people from Babel made Sukkot-benot, the people from Kut made Nergal, the people of Hamat made Ashima, 31 the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartaq, the Sepharvites were burning their children in fire for Adrammelek and Anammelek, the gods of Sepharvayim. 32 They were living in awe of Yahweh, but they made themselves shrine priests from their sections. They were acting for them in the houses at the shrines.

33 So they were living in awe of Yahweh and they were serving their gods in accordance with the ruling of the nations from which they had exiled them. 34 Until this day they are acting in accordance with the previous rulings. They are not living in awe of Yahweh and they are not acting in accordance with their decrees, with their rulings, with the instruction, and with the order that Yahweh gave the sons of Jacob, whose name he made into Israel.

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  17.35 The Copper Snake
  

35 Yahweh had solemnized a pact with them and ordered them, ‘You will not live in awe of other gods; you will not bow low to them, you will not serve them, and you will not sacrifice to them. 36 Rather, Yahweh who got you up from the country of Egypt by great energy and by an outstretched arm: you are to live in awe of him, bow low to him, and sacrifice to him. 37 The decrees, the rulings, the instruction, and the order that he wrote for you, you’re to keep by acting on it, always. You will not live in awe of other gods. 38 The pact that I’ve solemnized with you, you will not put out of mind. You will not live in awe of other gods. 39 Rather you will live in awe of Yahweh your God, and it’s he who will rescue you from the hand of all your enemies’. 40 But they hadn’t listened. Rather they ‘d been acting in accordance with their previous ruling.

41 And these nations became people who were in awe of Yahweh but were also serving their sculptures. Their children and grandchildren are also acting as their ancestors acted, until this day.

18 It was in the third year of Hoshea ben Elah king of Israel that Hizqiyyah ben Ahaz began to reign as king of Judah. 2 He was a man of twenty-five years when he began to reign and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi bat Zekaryah. 3 He did what was upright in Yahweh’s eyes in accordance with all that David his ancestor did. 4 It was he who removed the shrines, broke up the columns, cut down the totem pole, and crushed the copper snake that Moses had made, because until that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it (it was called ‘The Copper’).

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  18:5 The Faithfulness and the Rebellion of Hezekiah
  

5 It was on Yahweh the God of Israel that he relied. After him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, or that were before him. 6 He stuck to Yahweh. He did not depart from following him but kept his orders, which Yahweh had given Moses, 7 and Yahweh was with him. Wherever he went out, he thrived.

But he rebelled against the king of Ashshur and didn’t serve him, 8 and he himself struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from the keepers’ tower to the fortified town.

9 In the fourth year of King Hizqiyyahu (i.e., the seventh year of Hoshea ben Elah king of Israel) Shalman’eser king of Ashshur went up against Shomron and besieged it. 10 They captured it at the end of three years; in the sixth year of Hizqiyyah (i.e., the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel) Shomron was captured 11 and the king of Ashshur exiled the Israelites to Ashshur and settled them in Halah and in Habor, the River Gozan and the towns of Media, 12 because of the fact that they didn’t listen to the voice of Yahweh their God but transgressed his pact, all that Moses Yahweh’s servant had ordered. They didn’t listen and they didn’t act.

13 In the fourteenth year of King Hizqiyyahu, Sanherib [Sennacherib] king of Ashshur went up against all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them. 14 Hizqiyyah king of Judah sent to the king of Ashshur at Lakish saying, ‘I have done wrong. Turn back from me. What you put upon me, I will carry’. The king of Ashshur placed on Hizqiyyah king of Judah 300 talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 Hizqiyyah gave him all the silver that could be found in Yahweh’s house and in the treasuries of the king’s house. 16 At that time Hizqiyyah cut down the doors of Yahweh’s palace and the posts that Hizqiyyah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave them to the king of Ashshur.

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  18:17 Shut Up Like A Bird in a Cage (as Sennacherib Put It)
  

17 The king of Ashshur sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rab-shaqeh from Lakish to King Hizqiyyahu in Jerusalem with a heavy force. They went up, and came to Jerusalem and stood at the Upper Pool channel, which is by the Washer’s Field causeway. 18 They called to the king, and Elyaqim ben Hilqiyyahu who was in charge of the household, Shebna the secretary, and Yo’ah ben Asaph the recorder went out to them.

19 The Rab-shaqeh said to them, ‘Say to Hizqiyyahu, please, “The Great King, the king of Ashshur, has said this: ‘What is this reliance that you have? 20 You’ve said, “Just the word on some lips are counsel and strength for the battle”. Now, on whom have you relied, that you’ve rebelled against me? 21 Now, there, you’ve relied for yourself on the support of this broken reed, on Egypt, which when someone leans on it, comes into his palm and pierces it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all the people who rely on him. 22 But when you say to me, “On Yahweh our God—we’ve relied on him”, he’s the one whose shrines and whose altars Hizqiyyahu has removed, isn’t he, and who’s said to Judah and to Jerusalem, “Before this altar you’re to bow low in Jerusalem”.

23 But now, please make a wager with my lord the king of Ashshur. I’ll give you 2000 horses if you can put riders on them for yourself. 24 So how could you turn back the face of the governor of one of my lord’s lesser servants and rely on Egypt for chariotry and for cavalry for yourself? 25 Is it now without Yahweh that I’ve gone up to this place to devastate it? It was Yahweh who said to me, “Go up to this country and devastate it.”’”’

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  18:26 Don’t Speak in Their Language
  

26 Elyaqim ben Hilqiyyahu, Shebna, and Yo’ah said to the Rab-shaqeh, ‘Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, because we’re listening. Don’t speak to us in Judahite in the ears of the people, which is on the wall’. 27 The Rab-shaqeh said to them, ‘Was it to your lord and to you that my lord sent me to speak these words? Wasn’t it to the individuals who are sitting on the wall, to eat their faeces and to drink the water between their legs with you?’

28 The Rab-shaqeh stood and called in a loud voice in Judahite, and spoke: ‘Listen to the word of the Great King, the king of Ashshur. 29 The king has said this: “Hizqiyyahu must not deceive you”, because he won’t be able to rescue you from his hand. 30 And Hizqiyyahu must not get you to rely on Yahweh, saying “Yahweh will definitely recue us, this town won’t be given into the hand of the king of Ashshur”. 31 Don’t listen to Hizqiyyahu.

Because the king of Ashshur has said this: “Make a blessing [agreement]with me. Go out to me, and eat each one his vine and each one his fig tree, and drink each one the water from his cistern, 32 until I come and take you to a country like your country, a country of grain and new wine, a country of bread and vineyards, a country of fresh olive oil and syrup, and you will live and not die. Don’t listen to Hizqiyyahu when he incites you, saying, ‘Yahweh will rescue us’. 33 Have the gods of the nations actually rescued, one of them, his country from the hand of the king of Ashshur? 34 Where were the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sepharvayim, Hena, and Ivvah? Indeed did they rescue Shomron from my hand? 35 Who was it among all the gods of the countries that rescued their country from my hand, that Yahweh should rescue Jerusalem from my hand?”’

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