Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we finished our 25th and 26 books of the Bible. I'm giving you a

high-five in my head. Between those two books we read about the last five

kings of Judah. These five kings are often

lumped together because they are the final turning point for Judah. Josiah was the

last good king and he was a really good one. But then all we have after him are these four bad kings. There are a lot of

Jay names in today's reading, but as always, it's not as important that you remember their names

as it is that you see God in these stories.

But speaking of J's, some of them are apparently pronounced like a Y,

so I'm going to give that my best shot.

After Josiah dies, his son, Jehovah has, takes the throne.

We write about him briefly on day

2017. He's barely a blip on the radar because he only rains for three months

before the Egyptian Pharaoh Nico, who killed his dad Josiah, captures him and carts him off to Egypt where he dies in captivity.

Now we're down to three more kings.

At the time, Egypt is dominating Judah.

Pharaoh Nico appoints their new king and even changes his name from

Alayakim to Yoyakim.

Then Nico demands that Judah act as a vassal nation to Egypt.

We've talked about these vassal relationships before where a weaker nation pays

money or tribute to a stronger nation for protection, but they're often just being protected

from the nation they're paying, kind of like the mafia.

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