And Sennacherib king of the Assyrians departing went away, and he returned and abode in Ninive. And as he was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch his god, Adramelech and Sarasar his sons slew him with the sword, and they fled into the land of the Armenians, and Asarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.

SECT. XCV. EZECHIAS' ILLNESS AND RECOVERY.

4 Kings Sickness of Ezechias.-In those days Ezechias was sick unto x. 1-21. death: and Isaias the son of Amos the prophet came and said to him: Thus saith the Lord God: Give charge concerning thy house, for thou shalt die and not live. And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying: I beseech Thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is pleasing before Thee. And Ezechias wept with much weeping.

And before Isaias was gone out of the middle of the court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying: Go back, and tell Ezechias the captain of My people: Thus saith the Lord the God of David thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears, and behold I have healed thee: on the third day thou shalt go up to the temple of the Lord, and I will add to thy days fifteen years and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect this city for My own sake, and for David My servant's sake.* And Isaias said: Bring me a lump of figs. And when they had brought it, and laid it upon his boil, he was healed.

And Ezechias had said to Isaias: What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the temple of the Lord the third day? And Isaias said to him: This shall be the sign from the Lord, that the Lord will do the word which He hath spoken: Wilt thou that the shadow go forward ten lines, or that it go back so many degrees? And Ezechias said: It is an easy matter for the shadow to go forward ten lines; and I do not desire that this be done, but let it return back ten degrees. And Isaias the prophet called upon the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backwards by the lines, by which it had already gone down in the dial of Achaz.+

Ezechias and Berodach Baladan.-At that time Berodach Baladan, the son of Baladan king of the Babylonians, sent letters

This illness probably took place while the Assyrians were still besieging Jerusalem.

According to some interpreters this miracle consisted in the shadow going back on the dial, without any change in the movement of the world or the sun. KENRICK.

and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that Ezechias had been sick. And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he showed them the house of his aromatical spices, and the gold and the silver, and divers precious odours and ointments, and the house of his vessels, and all that he had in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominions, that Ezechias showed them not.

And Isaias the prophet came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men? or from whence came they to thee? And Ezechias said to him: From a far country they came to me, out of Babylon. And he said: What did they see in thy house? Ezechias said: They saw all the things that are in my house: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. And Isaias said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the Lord: Behold the days shall come, that all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. And of thy sons also that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord, which thou hast spoken, is good: let peace and truth be in my days.

And the rest of the acts of Ezechias, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought waters into the city, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? And Ezechias slept with his fathers, and Manasses his son reigned in his stead.

SECT. XCVI. THE REIGNS OF MANASSES AND AMON.

Manasses.-Manasses was twelve years old when he began 2 Par.

XXXIII.

B.C. 698. 1-9.

to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
And he did evil before the Lord, according to all the
abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the
children of Israel. And he turned and built again the high places
which Ezechias his father had destroyed: and he built altars to
Baalim, and made groves, and he adored all the host of heaven,
and worshipped them. He built also altars in the house of the
Lord, whereof the Lord had said: In Jerusalem shall My name
be for ever.
And he built them for all the host of heaven in
the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he made his sons
to pass through the fire in the valley of Benennom : he observed
dreams, followed divinations, gave himself up to magic arts, had
with him magicians and enchanters and he wrought many evils

before the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.

He set also a graven and a molten statue in the house of God, of which God had said to David, and to Solomon his son: In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put My name for ever. And I will not make the foot of Israel to be removed out of the land which I have delivered to their fathers: yet so if they will take heed to do what I have commanded them, and all the law, and the ceremonies, and judgments by the hand of Moses. So Manasses seduced Juda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do evil beyond all the nations, which the Lord had destroyed before the face of the children of Israel.

4 Kings And the Lord spoke by the hand of His servants the proXXI. 10.16. phets, saying: Because Manasses king of Juda hath done these most wicked abominations, beyond all that the Amorrhites did before him, and hath made Juda also to sin with his filthy doings therefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Behold I will bring evils upon Jerusalem and Juda: that whosoever shall hear of them, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the weight of the house of Achab; and I will efface Jerusalem, as tables are wont to be effaced, and I will erase and turn it, and draw the pencil often over the face thereof. And I will leave the remnants of My inheritance, and will deliver them into the hands of their enemies and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, because they have done evil before Me, and have continued to provoke Me, from the day that their fathers came out of Egypt, even unto this day.

2 Par. XXXIII.

10-25.

Moreover Manasses shed also very much innocent blood, till he filled Jerusalem up to the mouth: besides his sins, wherewith he made Juda to sin, to do evil before the Lord.

And the Lord spoke to him, and to his people, and they would not hearken. Therefore He brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of the Assyrians and they took Manasses, and carried him bound with chains and fetters to Babylon.* And after that he was in distress, he prayed to the Lord his God and did penance exceedingly before the God of his fathers. And he entreated Him and besought Him earnestly: and He heard his prayer, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom, and Manasses knew that the Lord was God.

After this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon in the valley, from the entering in of the fish

It is thought that the events narrated in the book of Judith took place while Manasses was at Babylon.

gate round about to Ophel, and raised it up to a great height: and he appointed captains of the army in all the fenced cities of Juda: and he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord: the altars also which he had made in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and he cast them all out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed upon it victims, and peace-offerings, and praise and he commanded Juda to serve the Lord the God of Israel. Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places to the Lord their God.

But the rest of the acts of Manasses, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers that spoke to him in the name of the Lord the God of Israel, are contained in the words of the kings of Israel. His prayer also, and his being heard, and all his sins, and contempt, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and statues before he did penance, are written in the words of Hozai. And Manasses slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house: and his son Amon reigned in his stead.

Amon.-Amon was two and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasses

B.C. 642.

his father had done: and he sacrificed to all the idols which
Manasses his father had made, and served them. And he did
not humble himself before the Lord, as Manasses his father had
humbled himself, but committed far greater sins.
And his ser-
vants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house.
But the rest of the multitude of the people slew them that had
killed Amon, and made Josias his son king in his stead.

SECT. XCVII. THE REIGN OF JOSIAS. HE RESTORES THE WORSHIP OF

GOD.

Josias.-Josias was eight years old when he began to reign, 2 Par.

XXXIV.

B.C. 639. 1-33.

and he reigned one and thirty years in Jerusalem.
And he did that which was right in the sight of the
Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father: he declined
not, neither to the right hand nor to the left.

And in the eighth year of his reign, when he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of his father David: and in the twelfth year after he began to reign he cleansed Juda and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the idols, and the graven things. And they broke down before him the altars of Baalim, and demolished the idols that had been set upon them: and he cut down the groves and the graven things, and broke

them in pieces and strewed the fragments upon the graves of them that had sacrificed to them. And he burnt the bones of the priests on the altars of the idols, and he cleansed Juda and Jerusalem. And in the cities of Manasses, and of Ephraim, and of Simeon, even to Nephthali, he demolished all.* And when he had destroyed the altars and the groves, and had broken the idols in pieces, and had demolished all profane temples throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the temple of the Lord, he sent Saphan the son of Eselias, and Maasias the governor of the city, Joha the son of Joachaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. And they came to Helcias the high priest; and received of him the money which had been brought into the house of the Lord, and which the Levites and porters had gathered together from Manasses, and Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel, and from all Juda, and Benjamin, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, which they delivered into the hands of them that were over the workmen in the house of the Lord, to repair the temple, and mend all that was weak. But they gave it to the artificers and to the masons to buy stones out of the quarries, and timber for the couplings of the building, and to rafter the houses, which the kings of Juda had destroyed. And they did all faithfully. Now the overseers of the workmen were Jahath and Abdias of the sons of Merari, Zacharias and Mosollam of the sons of Caath, who hastened the work: all Levites skilful to play on instruments. But over them that carried burdens for divers uses were scribes, and masters of the number of the Levites, and porters.

The Book of the Law.-Now when they carried out the money that had been brought into the temple of the Lord, Helcias the priest found the book of the law of the Lord, by the hand of Moses. And he said to Saphan the scribe: I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord: and he delivered it to him. But he carried the book to the king, and told him, saying: Lo, all that thou hast committed to thy servants is accomplished. They have gathered together the silver that was found in the house of the Lord: and it is given to the overseers of the artificers and of the workmen, for divers works. Moreover Helcias the priest gave me this book. And he read it before the king. And when he had heard the words of the

*After the Assyrian captivity the authority of the kings of Juda seems to have been recognised in the kingdom of Israel.

Probably the autograph of Moses. KENRICK.