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King Josiah also desecrated Topheth, the pagan place of worship in Hinnom Valley, so that no one could sacrifice his son or daughter as a burnt offering to the god Molech.

"Leave it as it is," Josiah ordered. "His bones are not to be moved." So his bones were not moved, neither were those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

The Lord became so angry with the people of Jerusalem and Judah that he banished them from his sight.

Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, and so Nebuchadnezzar came with all his army and attacked Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign. They set up camp outside the city, built siege walls around it,

On the ninth day of the fourth month of that same year, when the famine was so bad that the people had nothing left to eat,

in the territory of Hamath. There the king had them beaten and put to death. So the people of Judah were carried away from their land into exile.

So Jehoiachin was permitted to change from his prison clothes and to dine at the king's table for the rest of his life.

Judah had five sons in all. By his wife Bathshua, a Canaanite, he had three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. His oldest son, Er, was so evil that the Lord killed him.

They had large herds in the land of Gilead, and so they occupied the land as far east as the desert that stretches all the way to the Euphrates River.

So God caused Emperor Pul of Assyria (also known as Tiglath Pileser) to invade their country. He deported the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh and settled them permanently in Halah, Habor, and Hara, and by the Gozan River.

They had so many wives and children that their descendants were able to provide 36,000 men for military duty.

He said to the young man carrying his weapons, "Draw your sword and kill me, to keep these godless Philistines from gloating over me." But the young man was too terrified to do it. So Saul took his own sword and threw himself on it.

The young man saw that Saul was dead, so he too threw himself on his sword and died.

So Saul and his three sons all died together, and none of his descendants ever ruled.

instead of consulting the Lord . So the Lord killed him and gave control of the kingdom to David son of Jesse.

So all the leaders of Israel came to King David at Hebron. He made a sacred alliance with them, they anointed him, and he became king of Israel, just as the Lord had promised through Samuel.

so he and his men took a stand in the middle of the field and fought the Philistines. The Lord gave him a great victory.

and said, "I could never drink this! It would be like drinking the blood of these men who risked their lives!" So he refused to drink it. These were the brave deeds of the three famous soldiers.

Some soldiers from the tribe of Manasseh went over to David's side when he was marching out with the Philistines to fight King Saul. Actually he did not help the Philistines, for their kings were afraid that he would betray them to his former master Saul, so they sent him back to Ziklag.

Almost every day new men joined David's forces, so that his army was soon enormous.