He got up on the bed and spread his body out over ¹  the boy; he put his mouth on the boy’s ²  mouth, his eyes over the boy’s eyes, and the palms of his hands against the boy’s palms. He bent down over him, and the boy’s skin ³  grew warm.

He picked up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen off him, and went back and stood on the shore of the Jordan.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his generals were besieging it.

Now look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If a man leans for support on it, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him.

pick the best and most capable ¹  of your master’s sons, place him on his father’s throne, and defend ²  your master’s dynasty.”

At that time King Hazael of Syria attacked ¹  Gath and captured it. Hazael then decided to attack Jerusalem. ² 

Then Elisha ¹  told the king of Israel, “Aim the bow.” ²  He did so, ³  and Elisha placed his hands on the king’s hands.

When the king arrived back from Damascus and ¹  saw the altar, he approached it ²  and offered a sacrifice on it. ³ 

Furthermore it was by the command of the Lord that I marched up against this place to destroy it. The Lord told me, ‘March ¹  up against this land and destroy it.’”’” ² 

Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at? At whom have you shouted, ¹  and looked so arrogantly? ²  At the Holy One of Israel! ³ 

He sacrificed all the priests of the high places on the altars located there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

Just as the Lord had announced, he rejected Judah because of all the sins which Manasseh had committed. ¹ 

What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger; he finally threw them out of his presence. ¹  Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Amon’s servants conspired against him and killed the king in his palace.

“Go, seek an oracle from ¹  the Lord for me and the people – for all Judah. Find out about ²  the words of this scroll that has been discovered. For the Lord’s fury has been ignited against us, ³  because our ancestors have not obeyed the words of this scroll by doing all that it instructs us to do.” ⁴ 

So he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him up as a burnt sacrifice on the wall. There was an outburst of divine anger against Israel, ¹  so they broke off the attack ²  and returned to their homeland.

King Ahaz took off the frames of the movable stands, and removed the basins from them. He took “The Sea” ¹  down from the bronze bulls that supported it ²  and put it on the pavement.

But the chief adviser said to them, “My master did not send me to speak these words only to your master and to you. ¹  His message is also for the men who sit on the wall, for they will eat their own excrement and drink their own urine along with you.” ² 

So King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside ¹  it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign. ² 

Each of the pillars was about twenty-seven feet ¹  high. The bronze top of one pillar was about four and a half feet ²  high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its latticework was like it.