¹⁶ Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying:

So Israel departed to their tents. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam reigned over ^(B)the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam ^(C)sent Adoram, who was in charge of the revenue; but all Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So ^(D)Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

²⁰ Now it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all ^(E)Israel. There was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah ^(F)only.

^16 (A)And ^[a]after the Levites left, those from all the tribes of Israel, such as set their heart to seek the Lord God of Israel, ^(B)came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers. ¹⁷ So they ^(C)strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong for three years, because they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.

The Reforms of Jehoshaphat

⁴ So Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the mountains of Ephraim, and brought them back to the Lord God of their ^(A)fathers.

Hezekiah Keeps the Passover

30 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord God of Israel.

¹⁰ So the runners passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, as far as Zebulun; but ^(A)they laughed at them and mocked them. ¹¹ Nevertheless ^(B)some from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

²⁵ The whole assembly of Judah rejoiced, also the priests and Levites, all the assembly that came from Israel, the sojourners ^(A)who came from the land of Israel, and those who dwelt in Judah. ²⁶ So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of ^(B)Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.

⁵ He also ^(A)burned the bones of the priests on their ^(B)altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with ^[a]axes. ⁷ When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had ^(C)beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

²² So Hilkiah and those the king had appointed went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of ^[a]Tokhath, the son of ^[b]Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. (She dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter.) And they spoke to her to that effect.

¹⁷ And the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of ^(A)Unleavened Bread for seven days. ^18 (B)There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet; and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests and the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.