Josiah Reigns in Judah
1 mJosiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 And he ndid what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not oturn aside to the right hand or to the left. 3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to ppurge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images. 4 And they chopped down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and he cut down the incense altars that stood above them. And he broke in pieces the Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
The Book of the Law Found
8 rNow in the seighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. 9 They came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the tmoney that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 And they ugave it to the vworkmen who were working in the house of the Lord. And the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord gave it for repairing and restoring the house. 11 They gave it to the carpenters and the builders to buy quarried stone, and timber for binders and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had let go to ruin.
14 wWhile they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given through1 Moses. 15 Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. 16 Shaphan brought the book to the king, and further reported to the king, “All that was committed to your servants they are doing. 17 They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have given it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.” 18 Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it before the king.
19 And when the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes. 20 And the king commanded Hilkiah, xAhikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, 21 “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to ydo according to all that is written in this book.”
Huldah Prophesies Disaster
22 zSo Hilkiah and those whom the king had sent2 went to Huldah the aprophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the bSecond Quarter) and spoke to her to that effect. 23 And she said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, 24 Thus says the Lord, cBehold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, dall the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah. 25 Because they have eforsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. 26 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, 27 because your heart was tender and you fhumbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. 28 Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and gyou shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.’” And they brought back word to the king.
29 hThen the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small. And he iread in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. 31 And the king jstood in his place and kmade a covenant before the Lord, to lwalk after 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 the covenant that were written in this book. 32 Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33 And Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.
1 An aoracle concerning bNineveh. The book of the cvision of Nahum of Elkosh.
God’s Wrath Against Nineveh
2 The Lord is a djealous and eavenging God;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
3 The Lord is fslow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
gBashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
hthe hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
iHis wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The Lord is good,
a jstronghold in the day of trouble;
khe knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,1
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What do you plot against the Lord?
He will make a complete end;
trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are like entangled thorns,
like drunkards as they drink;
they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one
who plotted evil against the Lord,
a worthless counselor.
12 Thus says the Lord,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
they will be cut down and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
13 And now lI will break his yoke from off you
and will mburst your bonds apart.”
14 The Lord has given commandment about you:
“No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
the carved image and the metal image.
I will make your ngrave, for you are vile.”
15 2 Behold, oupon the mountains, pthe feet of him
who brings good news,
who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
fulfill your vows,
for qnever again shall the worthless pass through you;
he is utterly cut off.
The Destruction of Nineveh
1 The scatterer has come up against you.
Man the ramparts;
watch the road;
dress for battle;3
collect all your strength.
2 For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and ruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
rhis soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers;
they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
the siege tower4 is set up.
6 The river sgates are opened;
the palace melts away;
7 its mistress5 is stripped;6 she is carried off,
her slave girls lamenting,
moaning tlike doves
and beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away.7
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
but none turns back.
9 Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
uHearts melt and knees tremble;
anguish is in all loins;
vall faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions’ den,
the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13 wBehold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your8 chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.
Woe to Nineveh
1 Woe to the xbloody city,
all full of lies and plunder—
no end to the prey!
2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3 Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and yglittering spear,
hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4 And all for the countless whorings of the zprostitute,
graceful and of deadly acharms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
and peoples with her charms.
5 bBehold, I am against you,
declares the Lord of hosts,
and will clift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at your nakedness
and kingdoms at your shame.
6 I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.
7 And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,
“Wasted is Nineveh; dwho will grieve for her?”
Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 eAre you better than fThebes9
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
9 Cush was her strength;
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her10 helpers.
10 Yet gshe became an exile;
she went into captivity;
hher infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
for her honored men ilots were cast,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You also will be drunken;
you will go into hiding;
you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with jfirst-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops
are kwomen in your midst.
The lgates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege;
strengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick mold!
15 There will the fire devour you;
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust;
multiply like the grasshopper!
16 You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17 Your princes11 are like grasshoppers,
your scribes12 like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
mYour people are scattered on the mountains
with none to gather them.
19 There is no easing your hurt;
nyour wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you
oclap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?
8 See to it that no one ztakes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human atradition, according to the belemental spirits1 of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole cfullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and dyou have been filled in him, who is the ehead of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were fcircumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by gputting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been hburied with him in ibaptism, in which you were also jraised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, kwho raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were ldead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 mby ncanceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the orulers and authorities2 and put them to open shame, by ptriumphing over them in him.3
Let No One Disqualify You
16 Therefore qlet no one pass judgment on you in questions of rfood and drink, or swith regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a tshadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one udisqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions,4 vpuffed up wwithout reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the xHead, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, ywhy, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 z“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 a(referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to bhuman precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in cstopping the indulgence of the flesh.
