Page:JPS-1917-Universal.djvu/488

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17.34
SECOND KINGS

former manners: they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law or after the commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel; 35with whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying: 'Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them; 36but the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him shall ye fear, and Him shall ye worship, and to Him shall ye sacrifice; 37and the statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment, which He wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods; 38and the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods; 39but the Lord your God shall ye fear; and He will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.' 40Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. 41So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images; their children likewise, and their children's children, as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.

18Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 4He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah; and he broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did offer to it; and it was called [1]Nehushtan. 5He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him. 6For he cleaved to the Lord, he departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. 7And the Lord was with him: whithersoever he went forth he prospered; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. 8He smote the Philistines unto Gaza and the borders thereof, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city. 9And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. 10And at the end of three years they took it; even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11And the king of Assyria carried Israel away unto Assyria, and put them in Halah, and in Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes; 12because they hearkened not to the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed His covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it.

13Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them. 14And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying: 'I have offended; return from me; that which thou puttest on me will I bear.' And the king of Assyria

  1. That is, A thing of brass.

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