World English Bible · The divided kingdom
2 Chronicles 24
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in . His mother's name was Zibiah, of . did that which was right in eyes all the days of the priest. took for him two wives, and he became of sons and daughters. 4After this, intended to restore house. He gathered together the priests and the , and said to them, "Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money to repair the house of your from all Israel from year to year. See that you expedite this matter." However the didn't do it right away. The king called for the chief, and said to him, "Why haven't you required of the to bring in the tax of the , and of of Israel, out of Judah and out of , for the Tent of the ?" For the sons of , that woman, had broken up house; and they also gave all the dedicated things of house to . So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the of house. They made a proclamation through Judah and , to bring in for the tax that the laid on Israel in . All the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had filled it. Whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the hand of the , and when they saw that there was much money, the king's and the officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. The king and gave it to those who did the work of the of house. They hired masons and carpenters to restore house, and also those who worked iron and bronze to repair house. So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands. They set up house as it was designed, and strengthened it. When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and , from which were made vessels for house, even vessels with which to minister and to offer, including spoons and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in house continually all the days of . But grew old and was full of days, and he . He was one hundred thirty years old when he . They in city among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward and his house. Now after the of , the princes of Judah came and to the king. Then the king listened to them. They abandoned the , the of their fathers, and the and the idols, so came on Judah and for this their guiltiness. Yet he sent to them to bring them again to , and they testified against them; but they would not listen. of came on the son of the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, " says, 'Why do you disobey , so that you can't prosper? Because you have forsaken , he has also forsaken you.'" They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the of the king in the court of house. Thus the king didn't remember the kindness which his had done to him, but killed his son. When he , he said, "May look at it, and repay it." At the end of the year, the army of came up against him. They came to Judah and , and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of . For the army of came with a small company of men; and a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken , the of their fathers. So they executed on . When they had departed from him (for they left him seriously wounded), his own servants conspired against him for of the sons of the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he . They in city, but they didn't bury him in the of the kings. These are those who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess and the son of Shimrith the Moabitess. Now concerning his sons, the greatness of the burdens laid on him, and the rebuilding of house, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. his son reigned in his place.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The divided kingdom, 931 BC to 745 BC ›
Israel in the north and Judah in the south, often at odds, with Aram of Damascus as the immediate threat and Assyria growing in the distance.
- Aram of Damascus
- The immediate enemy for most of two centuries, close enough to raid every campaigning season and strong enough to take territory. Most of the wars in Kings that read like national emergencies are border wars with Damascus.
- Assyria
- Growing steadily in the distance. Shalmaneser III fights a coalition at Qarqar in 853 BC and his own inscription lists King Ahab of Israel among his opponents with two thousand chariots, the earliest Assyrian mention of an Israelite king. A later monument shows Jehu bowing and paying tribute. Assyria is not yet the destroyer, but it is already taking notes.
- Egypt
- Divided and unreliable, capable of the occasional raid, such as Shishak stripping the temple in Rehoboam's fifth year, but no longer an empire that governs the Levant.
- Further afield
- The Greeks adopt the alphabet, hold the first Olympiad by tradition in 776 BC, and begin to compose the Homeric poems. Rome is founded by tradition in 753 BC, a village of huts at this point. This is the century in which the classical world begins.