The Revolt against Rehoboam

10 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.^{(A) 2} When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt.^{(B) 3} They sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all Israel came and said to Rehoboam, ⁴ “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now, therefore, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵ He said to them, “Come to me again in three days.” So the people went away.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the older men who had attended his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”^{(C) 7} They answered him, “If you will be kind to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” ⁸ But he rejected the advice that the older men gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and now attended him. ⁹ He said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?”^{(D) 10} The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus should you speak to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must lighten it for us’; tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. ¹¹ Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ ”

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had said, “Come to me again the third day.”^{(E) 13} The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men; ¹⁴ he spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the young men, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” ¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people because it was a turn of affairs brought about by God so that the Lord might fulfill his word that he had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.^(F)

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king,

So all Israel departed to their tents.^{(G) 17} But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who were living in the cities of Judah. ¹⁸ When King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, the people of Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam hurriedly mounted his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.^(H)

Joash Repairs the Temple

24 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.^{(A) 2} Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of the priest Jehoiada.^{(B) 3} Jehoiada got two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

⁴ Some time afterward Joash decided to restore the house of the Lord.^{(C) 5} He assembled the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and gather silver from all Israel to repair the house of your God, year by year, and see that you act quickly.” But the Levites did not act quickly. ⁶ So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief and said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the Lord, on^[a] the congregation of Israel for the tent of the covenant?”^{(D) 7} For the children of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God and had even used all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord for the Baals.^(E)

⁸ So the king gave command, and they made a chest and set it outside the gate of the house of the Lord. ⁹ A proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.^{(F) 10} All the leaders and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until it was full. ¹¹ Whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the Levites, when they saw that there was a large amount of silver in it, the king’s secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and take it and return it to its place. So they did day after day and collected silver in abundance.^{(G) 12} The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who had charge of the work of the house of the Lord, and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the Lord and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the Lord. ¹³ So those who were engaged in the work labored, and the repairing went forward at their hands, and they restored the house of God to its proper condition and strengthened it.^{(H) 14} When they had finished, they brought the rest of the silver to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made utensils for the house of the Lord, utensils for the service and for the burnt offerings, and ladles, and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in the house of the Lord regularly all the days of Jehoiada.

Apostasy of Joash

¹⁵ But Jehoiada grew old and full of days and died; he was one hundred thirty years old at his death. ¹⁶ And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel and for God and his house.^(I)

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and did obeisance to the king; then the king listened to them. ¹⁸ They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and served the sacred poles^[b] and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.^{(J) 19} Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord; they testified against them, but they would not listen.^(K)

²⁰ Then the spirit of God took possession of^[c] Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada; he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus says God: Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you.”^{(L) 21} But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord.^{(M) 22} King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him but killed his son. As he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!”^(N)

Death of Joash

²³ At the end of the year, the army of Aram came up against Joash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the officials of the people from among them and sent all the spoil they took to the king of Damascus.^{(O) 24} Although the army of Aram had come with few men, the Lord delivered into their hand a very great army because they had abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors. Thus they executed judgment on Joash.^(P)

²⁵ When they had withdrawn, leaving him severely wounded, his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the son^[d] of the priest Jehoiada, and they killed him on his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.^{(Q) 26} Those who conspired against him were Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite. ²⁷ Accounts of his sons, and of the many oracles against him, and of the rebuilding^[e] of the house of God are written in the Commentary on the Book of the Kings. And his son Amaziah succeeded him.^(R)

Reign of Hezekiah

29 Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old; he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.^{(A) 2} He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his ancestor David had done.^(B)

The Temple Cleansed

³ In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.^{(C) 4} He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east. ⁵ He said to them, “Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and carry out the filth from the holy place.^{(D) 6} For our ancestors have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God; they have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the dwelling of the Lord and turned their backs.^{(E) 7} They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not offered incense or made burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore the wrath of the Lord came upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.^{(F) 9} Our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.^{(G) 10} Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger may turn away from us.^{(H) 11} My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence to minister to him and to be his ministers and offer incense.”^(I)

¹² Then the Levites arose, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah;^{(J) 13} and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ¹⁴ and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ¹⁵ They gathered their brothers, sanctified themselves, and went in as the king had commanded, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.^{(K) 16} The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought out all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord, and the Levites took them and carried them out to the Wadi Kidron. ¹⁷ They began to sanctify on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the Lord; then for eight days they sanctified the house of the Lord, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.^{(L) 18} Then they went inside to King Hezekiah and said, “We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the rows of bread and all its utensils. ¹⁹ All the utensils that King Ahaz discarded during his reign when he was faithless, we have restored and sanctified; see, they are in front of the altar of the Lord.”^(M)

Temple Worship Restored

²⁰ Then King Hezekiah rose early, assembled the officials of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord. ²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. He commanded the priests the descendants of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the Lord.^{(N) 22} So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and dashed it against the altar; they slaughtered the rams, and their blood was dashed against the altar; they also slaughtered the lambs, and their blood was dashed against the altar.^{(O) 23} Then the male goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the assembly; they laid their hands on them,^{(P) 24} and the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood at the altar, to make atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.^(Q)

²⁵ He stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king’s seer and of the prophet Nathan, for the commandment was from the Lord through his prophets.^{(R) 26} The Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priests with the trumpets.^{(S) 27} Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of King David of Israel.^{(T) 28} The whole assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. ²⁹ When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped.^{(U) 30} King Hezekiah and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and of the seer Asaph. They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.

³¹ Then Hezekiah said, “You have now consecrated yourselves to the Lord; come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.” The assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings.^{(V) 32} The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. ³³ The consecrated offerings were six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. ³⁴ But the priests were too few and could not skin all the burnt offerings, so, until other priests had sanctified themselves, their kindred, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished, for the Levites were more conscientious^[a] than the priests in sanctifying themselves.^{(W) 35} Besides the great number of burnt offerings there was the fat of the offerings of well-being, and there were the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the Lord was restored.^{(X) 36} And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people, for the thing had come about suddenly.