Beginning

28 Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. But he did not follow the Eternal as his ancestor David had done. ^2-4 Instead, he acted like the kings of the Northern Kingdom and worshiped their gods. He polluted all the land with his idolatry, cast idols of the Baals, burned incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom (Jerusalem’s refuse pit), and sacrificed his own children. Such evil things had not happened throughout the land, on high places, hills, and under trees, since the Eternal conquered the previous inhabitants and gave the land to the Israelites. ⁵ The Eternal One, his True God, was furious with Ahaz for his apostasy, so He empowered the king of Aram to defeat the Southern Kingdom and take Judean prisoners of war to Damascus, the capital of Aram. But this wasn’t enough to satisfy God’s anger. He also empowered the Northern Kingdom to kill many of the Judeans: ⁶ Pekah (son of Remaliah) in one day killed 120,000 valiant warriors who had abandoned the Eternal One, the True God of their ancestors; ⁷ and Zichri (a Ephraimite warrior) killed Maaseiah (Ahaz’s son), Azrikam (leader of the palace), and Elkanah (vice-regent). ⁸ Then the Northern soldiers took 200,000 Judean women and children and their possessions to Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom.

⁹ As the Northern army approached Samaria, Oded, a prophet of the Eternal ran out to meet them.

¹² Then some Ephraimite chiefs—Azariah (son of Johanan), Berechiah (son of Meshillemoth), Jehizkiah (son of Shallum), and Amasa (son of Hadlai)—stopped the soldiers.

¹⁴ The soldiers obeyed. They left the prisoners and the spoils for the chiefs and the assembly to decide what to do. ¹⁵ The chiefs dressed the naked prisoners with clothes and shoes from the spoils, fed them, anointed their heads with oil to refresh them after the journey, and returned them to the southern city of Jericho (the city of palm trees) with an envoy of Northerners and the feeble riding on donkeys. Then the Northerners returned to Samaria.

^16-19 The Eternal humbled Judah with continued attacks against them because of Ahaz’s wicked rebellion against Him, which had infected the entire nation. The Edomites attacked Judah and took prisoners; the Philistines invaded the lowland and the Negev, capturing and settling in the cities and surrounding villages of Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo.

King Ahaz asked the Assyrians for help, ²⁰ but Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, recognized an opportunity to expand his empire and attacked Judah instead of helping Ahaz. ²¹ To save his kingdom from complete destruction by the Assyrian army, Ahaz gave a tribute from his own palace and from the Eternal’s temple to Tilgath-pilneser. But the tribute did not work.

²² During these disasters, King Ahaz did not return to the Eternal. Instead he persisted in his unfaithfulness ²³ by sacrificing to the Aramean gods of Damascus, the gods of the first people who had defeated him.

But these gods were the downfall of him and all Israel. ²⁴ He destroyed the vessels from the True God’s temple and stopped all worship in the Eternal’s temple. Then he built his own altars throughout Jerusalem ²⁵ and high places throughout Judah to burn incense to false gods. These actions infuriated the Eternal One, the True God of his ancestors.

²⁶ Ahaz’s remaining actions, from his birth until his death, are contained in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷ Ahaz slept with his fathers in Jerusalem, but not in the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son, Hezekiah, succeeded him as king.

29 Hezekiah, son of Abijah (Zechariah’s daughter), became king when he was 25 years old and reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. ² He followed the Eternal, just as his ancestor David had.

³ Hezekiah’s first action when he began to reign was reopening and repairing the Eternal’s temple. ⁴ He called all the priests and the Levites into the square east of the temple.

¹² Then seven Levite families sent forward representatives. From the main Levite lines: Mahath (son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah) from the Kohathites, Kish (son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel) from the sons of Merari, Joah (son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah) from the Gershonites, ¹³ and Shimri and Jeiel from the sons of Elizaphan. From the Levitical singers: Zechariah and Mattaniah from the sons of Asaph, ¹⁴ Jehiel and Shimei from the sons of Heman, and Shemaiah and Uzziel from the sons of Jeduthun.

¹⁵ The representatives gathered all of their kinsmen, sanctified themselves, then sanctified the Eternal’s temple as the king commanded and as the Eternal desired. ¹⁶ The priests cleansed the most holy place in the Eternal’s temple, taking every unclean thing outside into the temple courts, from where the Levites then took them to the Kidron Valley to be discarded. ¹⁷ This cleansing began on the first day of the first month and ended on the eighth day of the month, when they were finally able to enter the Eternal’s temple porch. Then they blessed the Eternal’s temple, which took eight more days and ended on the sixteenth day of the first month. ¹⁸ Then they told King Hezekiah all they had done.

²⁰ King Hezekiah woke up early and assembled the city leaders at the Eternal’s house. ²¹ The men brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as sin offerings representing the atonement of the entire kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah. Hezekiah then ordered the priests, the sons of Aaron, to sacrifice for the Southern Kingdom’s sins on the Eternal’s altar, ^22-24 slaughtering the bulls, rams, and lambs and sprinkling their blood on the altar. Then they sacrificed for the atonement of all of Israel, the North and the South, as Hezekiah requested by offering the male goats. The priests brought the goats before the king and the leaders, laid their hands on the animals, slaughtered them, and covered the altar with their blood.

^25-26 He assigned the priests to play their trumpets and the Levites to play King David’s cymbals, harps, and lyres in the Eternal’s temple as the Eternal had commanded them to do through the words of David, Gad (David’s seer), and Nathan the prophet. ²⁷ Then Hezekiah commanded the burnt offering be offered on the altar. During the offering, the musicians played their trumpets and David’s instruments, performing the song to the Eternal. ²⁸ The people worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpets sounded until the burnt offering was consumed. ²⁹ Then the king and all the people there bowed down and worshiped.

So the Levites praised Him joyously and bowed before Him in worship.

The people did as Hezekiah suggested, ^32-33 offering 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep, and some also brought burnt offerings to the Eternal: 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs. ³⁴ Because of the large number of offerings, the priests could not prepare all of the burnt offerings and the Levites had to help them skin the animals until all had been sacrificed and the priests had all sanctified themselves (which the Levites had already done since they were more concerned with cleansing than the priests were). ³⁵ The quantity of the burnt offerings, the fat of the peace offerings, and the libations for the burnt offerings were enough to restore the Eternal’s temple and its practices, ³⁶ so Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over how quickly the True God had changed the hearts of the people and brought them back to following Him.

30 ^1-5 Since the people could not gather in Jerusalem immediately and since not enough priests were sanctified in time to celebrate the Passover holiday during the first month of his reign, Hezekiah, the leaders, and the people of Jerusalem decided to celebrate during the second month.

So he decided to send word to everyone—from Beersheba in the far south to Dan in the far north—to come to the Eternal’s temple in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover honoring the Eternal One, True God of Israel. Until Hezekiah, Judah had not celebrated as frequently as they should have.

⁶ So messengers carried letters written by the king and his leaders throughout the kingdoms.

^10-12 When the messengers took this message throughout the Northern Kingdom, most of the Northerners ridiculed and ignored the message. But some people from the Northern tribes of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun obeyed Hezekiah and the leaders and humbly traveled to Jerusalem just as all of the Southern Kingdom were given one mind and obeyed under the guidance of the True God via the command of the king and his officials.

¹³ Vast numbers of people responded to the king’s message and traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the second month. ¹⁴ As part of the festivities, the people destroyed the Canaanite altars in Jerusalem and threw the incense altars into the Kidron Valley.

¹⁵ They slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth of the second month.

The priests and Levites humbled themselves, sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings to the Eternal’s temple. ¹⁶ There they attended to their assigned duties, as Moses the follower of the True God had described, sprinkling the blood of the animals which the Levites sacrificed. ¹⁷ The Levites slaughtered the Passover lambs that were offered by the unclean people in the assembly while those who had sanctified themselves slaughtered their own lambs to the Eternal. ¹⁸ Many of the people from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves as prescribed, but they were able to eat the Passover feast because Hezekiah prayed on their behalf.

²⁰ The Eternal One heard Hezekiah’s prayer and healed them from the threat of disease for not approaching God as instructed. ²¹ So the Israelites who had traveled to Jerusalem joyously celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days while the Levites and the priests played their instruments praising the Eternal daily. ²² Hezekiah commended the Levites who had remained faithful and prudent toward the Eternal, and everyone celebrated for seven days: feasting, sacrificing peace offerings, and offering praise to the Eternal One, True God of their ancestors.

²³ Everyone decided to celebrate for another seven days, and they celebrated with joy. ²⁴ By the time the festival ended, Hezekiah, king of the Southern Kingdom, had donated 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep, and the leaders had donated 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep for the people to sacrifice. Also many priests had sanctified themselves. ²⁵ Everyone in Judah rejoiced: priests, Levites, Northerners who had traveled for the festival, and Northerners who had moved to Judah permanently. ²⁶ Nothing like this celebration had happened in Jerusalem since the reign of Solomon, son of David, so the people were joyous. ²⁷ Finally the Levitical priests concluded the festival by blessing the people. And He heard their prayer from His sacred dwelling in heaven.

31 When the Passover was finished, all the Israelites who had attended the festival left Jerusalem for the cities of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. There they continued Hezekiah’s zeal by destroying all cultic statues and carved images of Asherah. Having purged the nation of idolatrous symbols like the high places and altars, the Israelites returned to their own homes.

² Meanwhile Hezekiah continued structuring the temple activities. He reorganized the divisions of priests and Levites according to their duties, such as making burnt or peace offerings, ministering, worshiping, or praising near the gates to the Eternal’s camp.

³ Just as his ancestors David and Solomon did before him, Hezekiah donated a portion of his animals for the morning, evening, Sabbath, new moon, and other festival burnt offerings as the Eternal’s law requires.^{[a] 4} He also commanded everyone in Jerusalem to offer a portion of their possessions to the priests and the Levites, so that each person could participate in the Eternal’s law by tithing. ⁵ Once everyone had heard Hezekiah’s request, the Israelites in Jerusalem gave more than was required from their best grain, wine, oil, honey, and produce, creating a surplus of offerings. ⁶ Those Israelites living in neighboring Judahite cities brought tithes and offerings of oxen, sheep, and other sacred gifts, which were cleansed and piled high for use by the Eternal One their God. ⁷ The offerings continued from the third month until the seventh month when the offerings were so plentiful that they lay in stacks around the temple yard. ⁸ Seeing the heaps of tithes, Hezekiah and his officers praised the Eternal and blessed the Israelites who had answered their obligations. ⁹ Hezekiah wondered why all the gifts had not been offered to God, so he asked the priests and Levites what would happen to the offerings. ¹⁰ Azariah, the chief priest and a Zadokite, answered.

¹¹ Having no place to put the abundance, Hezekiah commanded the priests and Levites to prepare storage rooms in the Eternal’s temple. Once the rooms were ready, ¹² the people continued offering their gifts, which were organized by Conaniah (the Levite) and his brother and assistant, Shimei. ¹³ They supervised Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah, who were all appointed overseers of the tithes by both King Hezekiah and chief priest Azariah.

¹⁴ Kore (son of Imnah the Levite and the eastern gatekeeper) distributed the freewill offerings to the True God—both the contributions to the Eternal and the most sacred gifts. ^15-16 He supervised Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah in the cities of the priests, and they fairly distributed the goods to the Levites by their divisions and gave an equal amount to all men 30^[b] years old and older, regardless of the size of their division or their lineage, who entered the Eternal’s temple to perform the daily duties. ¹⁷ Kore and his men also distributed goods to the priests according to their lineage and to the Levites 20 years old and older according to their duties and divisions. ¹⁸ (Included in those genealogical records were the Levites’ and priests’ wives and children who also cleansed themselves regularly to be holy before Him.)

¹⁹ Even the descendants of Aaron who lived outside the cities in the surrounding pasturelands were provided for. In each city men were designated to distribute goods to every male priest and every Levite included in a Levitical genealogy.

²⁰ Hezekiah organized the religious practices throughout all of Judah, just as the Eternal, his True God, considered right. ²¹ Every idea Hezekiah had concerning the improvement of the True God’s temple was begun by his commandments and carried out by his people. And Hezekiah did all out of a dedicated heart and was rewarded for his work.