Bible in 90 Days

¹⁶ Jehoiada then made a covenant between himself, all the people, and the king, that they would be the Lord’s people. ¹⁷ Then all the people went to Baal’s temple and tore it down, smashing its altars and images into pieces. They executed Baal’s priest Mattan in front of the altars. ¹⁸ Jehoiada appointed the priests and^[a] Levites in charge of the Lord’s temple, and then appointed the divisions of the priests and Levites^[b] that David had assigned to the Lord’s temple to offer entirely burned sacrifices to the Lord, as written in the Instruction from Moses, with rejoicing and singing, just as David had ordered. ¹⁹ He posted guards at the gates of the Lord’s temple so that no one who was unclean in any way could enter. ²⁰ Then he took the unit commanders, the officials, the rulers of the people, and all the people of the land, and they led the king down from the Lord’s temple, processing through the Upper Gate to the palace, where the king sat upon the royal throne. ²¹ All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was at peace now that Athaliah had been executed at the palace.

Jehoash rules

24 Jehoash^[c] was 7 years old when he became king, and he ruled for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba. ² Jehoash did what was right in the Lord’s eyes as long as Jehoiada the priest was alive. ³ Jehoiada had him marry two wives, and Jehoash fathered sons and daughters.

⁴ Sometime later, Jehoash wanted to renovate the Lord’s temple. ⁵ He gathered the priests and the Levites and said, “Go to the cities of Judah and collect the annual tax of silver due from all Israel for the upkeep of God’s temple. Do it right away.”

But the Levites procrastinated. ⁶ So the king summoned the chief priest Jehoiada and asked him, “Why haven’t you required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax imposed by the Lord’s servant Moses and the Israelite assembly for the covenant tent?” (⁷ Now wicked Athaliah and her followers had broken into God’s temple and used all the holy objects of the Lord’s temple in their worship of the Baals.) ⁸ So at the king’s command a box was made and placed outside the gate of the Lord’s temple. ⁹ Then a proclamation was issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem requiring the people to bring to the Lord the tax that God’s servant Moses had imposed on Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰ This so pleased all the leaders and all the people that they gladly dropped their money in the box until it was full. ¹¹ Whenever the box was brought by the Levites to the royal accountants, as soon as they saw that a large amount of money was in the box, the royal scribe and the representative of the high priest would come, empty the box, and return it to its place. This took place day after day, and a large amount of money was collected. ¹² The king and Jehoiada would give it to those in charge of the work on the Lord’s temple who in turn hired masons and carpenters to renovate the Lord’s temple, as well as metalworkers for the iron and bronze to repair the Lord’s temple. ¹³ The workers labored hard, and the restoration progressed smoothly under their control until they had brought God’s temple back to its original state and reinforced it. ¹⁴ As soon as they finished, they brought the remaining money to the king and Jehoiada. They used it to make equipment for the Lord’s temple, including what was used for the service and the entirely burned offerings, pans, and other objects made of gold and silver. As long as Jehoiada lived, the entirely burned offerings were regularly offered in the Lord’s temple.

¹⁵ Jehoiada grew old, and when he reached the age of 130, he died. ¹⁶ He was buried among the kings in David’s City because of his exemplary service to Israel, God, and God’s temple.

¹⁷ After Jehoiada’s death, however, the leaders of Judah came and bowed before the king, and the king listened to them. ¹⁸ They abandoned the temple of the Lord, their ancestors’ God, and worshipped sacred poles^[d] and idols. Anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem as a consequence of their sin, ¹⁹ and though God sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord and to warn them, they refused to listen. ²⁰ Then the spirit of God enwrapped Zechariah the son of the priest Jehoiada. Standing before the people, he told them, “This is what God says: Why do you defy the Lord’s commands and keep yourselves from prospering? Because you have abandoned the Lord, he has abandoned you!” ²¹ But the people plotted against Zechariah, and at the king’s command stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. ²² King Jehoash failed to remember the loyalty that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him and murdered Jehoiada’s son, who cried out as he lay dying, “May the Lord see and seek vengeance!”

²³ That spring the Aramean army marched against Jehoash. They attacked Judah and Jerusalem, destroyed all the people’s leaders, and sent all the loot to the king of Damascus. ²⁴ Although the Aramean forces were relatively small, the Lord handed over to them a very large army, because the people of Judah had abandoned the Lord, their ancestors’ God. Jehoash was justly punished. ²⁵ The Arameans left him badly wounded, but his own officials plotted against him for murdering the son^[e] of the priest Jehoiada. So they killed him in his bed. He died and was buried in David’s City but not in the royal cemetery. ²⁶ Those who plotted against him were the Ammonite Zabad, Shimeath’s son, and the Moabite Jehozabad, Shimrith’s son. ²⁷ The list of Jehoash’s sons, the many prophecies against him, and the account of his restoration of God’s temple are written in the comments on the records of the kings. His son Amaziah succeeded him as king.

Amaziah rules

25 Amaziah was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. ² He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes but not with all his heart. ³ Once he had secured control over his kingdom, he executed the officials who had assassinated his father the king. ⁴ However, he didn’t kill their children because of what is written in the Instruction scroll from Moses, where the Lord commanded, Parents shouldn’t be executed because of what their children have done; neither should children be executed because of what their parents have done. Each person should be executed for their own guilty acts.^[f]

⁵ Amaziah gathered the people of Judah, organizing them into family units under captains of thousands and hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He summoned everyone 20 years old and older and found that there were three hundred thousand select troops, ready for service and able to handle spears and body-sized shields. ⁶ He also hired one hundred thousand warriors from Israel for one hundred kikkars of silver.

⁷ But a man of God confronted him. “King,” he said, “the troops from Israel must not go with you, because the Lord isn’t on the side of Israel or any Ephraimite. ⁸ Should you go with them anyway, even if you fight fiercely, God will make you stumble before the enemy, because God has the ability to either help or make someone stumble.”

⁹ Amaziah asked the man of God, “What about the hundred kikkars I paid for the Israelite troops?”

“God can give you much more than that,” the man of God replied.

¹⁰ Amaziah released the Ephraimite troops who had joined him so they could go home, but this only infuriated them against Judah, and they left in a rage. ¹¹ Amaziah courageously led his people to the Salt Valley, where they killed ten thousand people from Seir. ¹² The Judean forces captured another ten thousand alive, brought them to the top of a cliff, and threw them off so that all were dashed to pieces. ¹³ Meanwhile, the troops Amaziah had released from fighting alongside him raided cities in Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, killing three thousand people and carrying off a large amount of loot. ¹⁴ When Amaziah returned after defeating the Edomites, he brought the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down before them, and burned incense to them. ¹⁵ As a result, the Lord was angry with Amaziah and sent a prophet to him.

“Why do you seek the gods of this people?” the prophet asked. “They couldn’t even deliver their own people from you!”

¹⁶ “Since when do you give me advice?” Amaziah interrupted. “You better quit before you end up dead!”

So the prophet stopped, but not until he said, “I know God plans to destroy you because you’ve done this and because you’ve refused to listen to my advice.”

¹⁷ After Judah’s King Amaziah consulted with his advisors, he sent a challenge to Israel’s King Joash, Jehoahaz’s son and Jehu’s grandson. “Come on,” he said, “let’s go head-to-head!”

¹⁸ Israel’s King Joash sent the following reply to Judah’s King Amaziah: “Once upon a time, a thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar: ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ But then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle. ¹⁹ Do you think that because you’ve defeated Edom, you can arrogantly seek even more? Stay home! Why invite disaster when both you and Judah will fall?” ²⁰ But Amaziah wouldn’t listen, because God intended to use this to destroy them since they had sought Edom’s gods. ²¹ So Israel’s King Joash moved against Judah’s King Amaziah and went head-to-head in battle at Beth-shemesh in Judah. ²² Judah was defeated by Israel, and everyone ran home. ²³ At Beth-shemesh, Israel’s King Joash captured Judah’s King Amaziah, Jehoash’s^[g] son and Ahaziah’s^[h] grandson. Joash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down six hundred feet of the Jerusalem wall from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. ²⁴ Joash took^[i] all the gold and silver, and all the objects he could find in God’s temple in the care of Obed-edom, and in the treasuries of the palace, along with some hostages. Then he returned to Samaria.

²⁵ Judah’s King Amaziah, Jehoash’s son, lived fifteen years after the death of Israel’s King Joash, Jehoahaz’s son. ²⁶ The rest of Amaziah’s deeds, from beginning to end, aren’t they written in the official records of Israel’s and Judah’s kings? ²⁷ From the time Amaziah turned away from the Lord, some people conspired against him in Jerusalem. When Amaziah fled to Lachish, they sent men after him, and they murdered him in Lachish. ²⁸ They carried him back on horses and he was buried with his ancestors in David’s City.^[j]

Uzziah rules Judah

26 Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah,^[k] who was 16 years old, and made him king after his father Amaziah. ² He rebuilt Eloth, restoring it to Judah after King Amaziah had lain down with his ancestors.

³ Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king, and he ruled for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. ⁴ He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ He sought God as long as Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear^[l] of God, was alive. And as long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success. ⁶ He marched against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he rebuilt towns near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines. ⁷ God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs who inhabited Gur,^[m] and the Meunites. ⁸ The Meunites^[n] paid taxes to Uzziah, whose fame spread even to Egypt because he had grown so powerful. ⁹ He built towers in Jerusalem, at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and reinforced them. ¹⁰ He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many wells for his large herds in the lowlands and the plain. He had many workers who tended his farms and vineyards, because he loved the soil. ¹¹ Uzziah had a standing army equipped for combat whose units went to war according to the number determined by the scribe Jeiel and Maaseiah, an officer under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king’s officials. ¹² The grand total of family heads in charge of these courageous warriors was twenty-six hundred. ¹³ They commanded an army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred. They formed a powerful force that could support the king against the enemy. ¹⁴ Uzziah supplied the entire force with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and sling stones. ¹⁵ He set up clever devices in Jerusalem on the towers and corners of the wall designed to shoot arrows and large stones. And so Uzziah’s fame spread far and wide, because he had received wonderful help until he became powerful.

¹⁶ But as soon as he became powerful, he grew so arrogant that he acted corruptly. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God by entering the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense upon the incense altar. ¹⁷ The priest Azariah, accompanied by eighty other of the Lord’s courageous priests, went in after him ¹⁸ and confronted King Uzziah.

“You have no right, Uzziah,” he said, “to burn incense to the Lord! That privilege belongs to the priests, Aaron’s descendants, who have been ordained to burn incense. Get out of this holy place because you have been unfaithful! The Lord God won’t honor you for this.”

¹⁹ Then Uzziah, who already had a censer in his hand ready to burn the incense, became angry. While he was fuming at the priests, skin disease^[o] erupted on his forehead in the presence of the priests before the incense altar in the Lord’s temple. ²⁰ When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests turned and saw the skin disease on his forehead, they rushed him out of there. Uzziah also was anxious to leave because the Lord had afflicted him. ²¹ King Uzziah had skin disease until the day he died. He lived in a separate house,^[p] diseased in his skin, because he was barred from the Lord’s temple. His son Jotham supervised the palace administration and governed the people of the land. ²² The rest of Uzziah’s deeds, from beginning to end, were written down by the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son. ²³ Uzziah died and was buried with his ancestors in a field belonging to the kings, because people said, “He had skin disease.” His son Jotham succeeded him as king.

Jotham rules

27 Jotham was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah; she was Zadok’s daughter. ² Jotham did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, just as his father Uzziah had done. Unlike Uzziah, Jotham didn’t enter the Lord’s temple. But the people continued their crooked practices. ³ Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the Lord’s temple and did extensive work on the wall of the elevated fortress.^{[q] 4} He built towns in Judah’s highlands and fortresses and towers in the wooded areas. ⁵ He fought against the king of the Ammonites and defeated the Ammonites. They paid him one hundred kikkars of silver, ten thousand kors^[r] of wheat, and ten thousand kors of barley that year and for the next two years. ⁶ Jotham was securely established because he maintained a faithful life before the Lord his God. ⁷ The rest of Jotham’s deeds, including all his wars and accomplishments, are written in the official records of Israel’s and Judah’s kings. ⁸ He was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. ⁹ Jotham lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David’s City. His son Ahaz succeeded him as king.

Ahaz rules

28 Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he ruled for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do what was right in the Lord’s eyes, unlike his ancestor David. ² Instead, he walked in the ways of Israel’s kings, making images of the Baals ³ and burning incense in the Ben-hinnom Valley. He even burned his own sons alive, imitating the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. ⁴ He also sacrificed and burned incense at the shrines on every hill and beneath every shady tree. ⁵ So the Lord his God handed him over to Aram’s king, who defeated him and carried off many prisoners, bringing them to Damascus. Ahaz was also handed over to Israel’s king, who defeated him with a severe beating. ⁶ In Judah, Pekah, Remaliah’s son, killed one hundred twenty thousand warriors in the course of a single day because they had abandoned the Lord, God of their ancestors. ⁷ An Ephraimite warrior named Zichri killed the king’s son Maaseiah, the palace administrator Azrikam, and Elkanah, the king’s second in command. ⁸ The Israelites took captive two hundred thousand women, boys, and girls from their Judean relatives and seized enormous amounts of plunder, which they took back to Samaria.

⁹ One of the Lord’s prophets named Oded lived in Samaria. When the army arrived there, he went to meet them and said, “Don’t you see that the Lord God of your ancestors was angry with Judah and let you defeat them? But look what you’ve done! Your merciless slaughter of them stinks to high heaven! ¹⁰ And now you think you can enslave the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem? What about your own guilt before the Lord your God? ¹¹ Listen to me! Send back the captives you took from your relatives, because the Lord is furious with you.”

¹² At this, some of the Ephraimite leaders—Johanan’s son Azariah, Meshillemoth’s son Berechiah, Shallum’s son Jehizkiah, and Hadlai’s son Amasa—confronted those returning from battle. ¹³ “Don’t bring the captives here,” they told them. “Your plan will only add to our sin and guilt before the Lord. We’re already guilty enough, and great anger is already directed at Israel.” ¹⁴ So the warriors released the captives and brought the loot before the officers and the whole assembly. ¹⁵ Then people named for this task took charge of the captives and dressed everyone who was naked with items taken from the loot. They gave them clothing, sandals, food and drink, and bandaged their wounds. Everyone who couldn’t walk they placed on donkeys, and they brought them to Jericho, Palm City, near their Judean relatives. Then they returned to Samaria.

¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz sent for help from the king^[s] of Assyria. ¹⁷ Once again, the Edomites had invaded Judah, defeating Judah and carrying off captives. ¹⁸ The Philistines had raided the towns in the lowlands and the arid southern plain of Judah, capturing Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, and Gederoth, along with Soco and its surrounding villages, Timnah and its surrounding villages, and Gimzo and its surrounding villages, and occupying all of these cities. ¹⁹ The Lord was humiliating Judah on account of Israel’s King Ahaz, because he had exercised no restraint in Judah and had been utterly unfaithful to the Lord. ²⁰ Assyria’s King Tiglath-pileser^[t] came to Ahaz, but he brought trouble, not support. ²¹ Even though Ahaz took items from the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and the officials to buy off the king of Assyria, it was of no help.

²² It was during this troubled time that King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord ²³ by sacrificing to the gods of Damascus, who had defeated him.

“Since the gods of Aram’s kings are helping them,” he said, “I’ll sacrifice to them too, so that they will help me.”

But they became the ruin of both him and all Israel. ²⁴ Ahaz gathered the objects from God’s temple, cut them up, shut the doors of the Lord’s temple, and made himself altars on every corner in Jerusalem. ²⁵ He made shrines in all the towns of Judah for burning incense to other gods. This made the Lord, the God of his ancestors, very angry.

²⁶ The rest of Ahaz’s deeds, from beginning to end, are written in the official records of Israel’s and Judah’s kings. ²⁷ Ahaz lay down with his ancestors and was buried in the city, in Jerusalem, but not in the royal cemetery of Israel’s kings. His son Hezekiah succeeded him as king.

Hezekiah rules

29 Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah; she was Zechariah’s daughter. ² He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, just as his ancestor David had done. ³ In the very first year of his rule, during the first month, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Lord’s temple, having repaired them. ⁴ Then he brought in the priests and Levites and assembled them in the eastern square.

⁵ “Listen to me, you Levites!” he said. “Make yourselves holy so you can make holy the temple of the Lord God of your ancestors by removing from the sanctuary any impure thing. ⁶ Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the Lord our God’s eyes. They abandoned him, they ignored the Lord’s dwelling, and they defied him. ⁷ They even closed the doors of the entrance hall, snuffed out the lamps, and stopped burning incense and offering entirely burned offerings in the sanctuary of the God of Israel. ⁸ This angered the Lord so much that he made Judah and Jerusalem an object of terror and horror, something people hiss at, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹ That’s why our ancestors died violent deaths, while our sons, daughters, and wives were taken captive. ¹⁰ But now I intend to make a covenant with the Lord, Israel’s God, so God will no longer be angry with us. ¹¹ Don’t be careless, my sons! The Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence to serve him, so that you can be his servants and burn incense to him.”

¹² Then the following Levites got up:

¹⁵ These men gathered their relatives, made themselves holy, and went in to purify the Lord’s temple by obeying the king’s command as the Lord had told him. ¹⁶ The priests went in to purify the inner portion of the Lord’s temple. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple all the impurities they discovered inside. Then the Levites took them out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ They began to make things holy on the first day of the first month.^[u] On the eighth day of the month they reached the Lord’s entrance hall. They made holy the Lord’s temple for eight days, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.

¹⁸ Then they went before King Hezekiah. “We have purified the Lord’s entire temple,” they said, “and the altar for the entirely burned offering together with all its equipment, and the table for the stacks of bread together with all its equipment. ¹⁹ We have also restored and made holy all the items King Ahaz threw out during his rule in his unfaithfulness. They are now before the Lord’s altar.”

Hezekiah rededicates the temple

²⁰ Early the next morning Hezekiah gathered the city leaders and went to the Lord’s temple. ²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, and seven lambs, along with seven male goats, for a purification offering on behalf of the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah. Hezekiah ordered the priests, Aaron’s sons, to offer them up on the Lord’s altar. ²² When they slaughtered the bulls, the priests took the blood and splashed it against the altar. Next they slaughtered the rams and splashed their blood against the altar, and also slaughtered the lambs, splashing their blood against the altar as well. ²³ Finally, they brought the goats for the purification offering before the king and the assembly. After laying their hands on them, ²⁴ the priests slaughtered them and smeared the blood on the altar as a purification offering to take away the sin of all Israel, because the king had specifically ordered that the entirely burned sacrifice and the purification offering should be on behalf of all Israel. ²⁵ Hezekiah had the Levites stand in the Lord’s temple with cymbals, harps, and zithers, just as the Lord had ordered through David, the king’s seer Gad, and the prophet Nathan. ²⁶ While the Levites took their places holding David’s instruments, and the priests their trumpets, ²⁷ Hezekiah ordered the entirely burned offering to be offered up on the altar. As they began to offer the entirely burned offering, the Lord’s song also began, accompanied by the trumpets and the other instruments of Israel’s King David. ²⁸ The whole congregation worshipped with singing choirs and blaring trumpets until the end of the entirely burned offering. ²⁹ After the entirely burned offering was complete, the king and all who were with him bowed down in worship. ³⁰ Then King Hezekiah and the leaders ordered the Levites to praise the Lord by using the words of David and the seer Asaph. They did so joyously; then they bowed down in worship too.

³¹ “Now that you have dedicated yourselves to the Lord,” King Hezekiah told them, “bring sacrificial thank offerings to the Lord’s temple.” So the assembly brought sacrificial thank offerings, with some people volunteering to provide entirely burned offerings. ³² All in all, the congregation brought seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs as entirely burned offerings for the Lord, ³³ as well as six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep as holy offerings. ³⁴ Unfortunately, there weren’t enough priests to skin all these entirely burned offerings. So their relatives the Levites (who had been more conscientious about preparing themselves than the priests) stepped in and helped them until the work was done or additional priests had made themselves holy. ³⁵ In addition to the wealth of entirely burned offerings, there was the fat of the well-being sacrifices and drink offerings accompanying the entirely burned offerings. In this way, the service of the Lord’s temple was restored, ³⁶ and Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had done for them, since it had happened so quickly.

Hezekiah’s Passover

30 Then Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh as well, inviting them to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Lord God of Israel. ² The king, his officials, and the entire Jerusalem congregation had decided to celebrate Passover in the second month.^{[v] 3} They had been unable to celebrate it at the usual time because the priests had failed to make themselves holy in sufficient numbers, and the people hadn’t gathered at Jerusalem. ⁴ Since the plan seemed good to the king and the entire congregation, ⁵ they made arrangements to circulate an announcement throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover of the Lord God of Israel, because they hadn’t often kept it as written. ⁶ Under the authority of the king, runners took letters from the king and his officials throughout all Israel and Judah, which read:

¹⁰ So the runners went from town to town in Ephraim and Manasseh, all the way to Zebulun. But they were laughed at and made fun of. ¹¹ Even so, some people from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun were submissive and came to Jerusalem. ¹² Moreover, God’s power was at work in Judah, unifying them to do what the king and his officials had ordered by the Lord’s command.

¹³ A huge crowd gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the second month. A very large congregation gathered. ¹⁴ First, they removed the altars in Jerusalem, and hauled off the incense altars and dumped them in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁵ They slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the second month. Ashamed of themselves, the priests and the Levites made themselves holy and brought entirely burned offerings to the Lord’s temple. ¹⁶ They now took their places as laid out in the Instruction from Moses the man of God, and the priests splashed the blood they received from the Levites against the altar. ¹⁷ Since many in the congregation hadn’t made themselves holy, the Levites slaughtered the Passover lambs, making them holy to the Lord for all who weren’t ceremonially clean. ¹⁸ This included most of those who had come from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—people who hadn’t purified themselves and so hadn’t eaten the Passover meal in the prescribed way. But Hezekiah prayed for them: “May the good Lord forgive ¹⁹ everyone who has decided to seek the true God, the Lord, the God of their ancestors, even though they aren’t ceremonially clean by sanctuary standards.” ²⁰ The Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people. ²¹ So the Israelites in Jerusalem joyfully celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days, with the Levites and the priests praising the Lord every day, accompanied by the Lord’s mighty instruments. ²² Hezekiah congratulated all the Levites who had performed so skillfully for the Lord. They feasted throughout the seven days of the festival, sacrificing well-being offerings and praising the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

²³ Then the whole congregation agreed to celebrate another seven days, which they joyfully did. ²⁴ Judah’s King Hezekiah contributed one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for the congregation, while the officials provided another thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep, and great numbers of priests made themselves holy. ²⁵ Then the whole congregation of Judah rejoiced, as did the priests and the Levites, the whole congregation from Israel, the immigrants who had come from the land of Israel, and those who lived in Judah. ²⁶ There was great joy in Jerusalem. Nothing like this had taken place in Jerusalem since the days of Israel’s King Solomon, David’s son. ²⁷ Then the levitical priests blessed the people, and their voice was heard when their prayer reached God’s holy dwelling in heaven.

31 When all of these things were finished, all of the Israelites who were present went out to the cities of Judah, smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the sacred poles,^[w] and completely destroyed the shrines and altars throughout Judah as well as Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Then all the Israelites returned to their individual homes in their own cities.

Hezekiah’s reform

² Hezekiah reappointed the priests and the Levites, each to their divisions and their tasks, to make entirely burned offerings and well-being sacrifices, to serve, to give thanks, and to offer praise in the gates of the Lord’s camp. ³ As his portion, the king personally contributed the entirely burned offerings for the morning and evening sacrifices, as well as the entirely burned offerings for the Sabbaths, new moons, and festivals, as written in the Lord’s Instruction. ⁴ He ordered the people living in Jerusalem to provide the required portion for the priests and the Levites so they could devote themselves to the Lord’s Instruction. ⁵ As soon as the order was issued, the Israelites generously gave the best of their grain, new wine, oil, honey, and all their crops—a tenth of everything, a huge amount. ⁶ The people of Israel and Judah, living in the cities of Judah, also brought in a tenth of their herds and flocks and a tenth of the items that had been dedicated to the Lord their God, stacking it up in piles. ⁷ They began stacking up the piles in the third month^[x] and finished them in the seventh.^{[y] 8} When Hezekiah and the officials saw the piles, they blessed the Lord and his people Israel.

⁹ When Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites about the piles, ¹⁰ the chief priest Azariah, who was from Zadok’s family, answered, “Ever since the people started bringing contributions to the Lord’s temple we’ve had enough to eat with plenty to spare. The Lord has definitely blessed his people! There’s a lot left over.”

¹¹ So Hezekiah ordered them to prepare storerooms in the Lord’s temple. When they finished preparing them, ¹² the priests conscientiously brought in the contributions, the tenth-part gifts, and the dedicated things. Conaniah, a Levite, was put in charge, assisted by his brother Shimei, ¹³ while Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah served as supervisors under them, as appointed by King Hezekiah and Azariah the official in charge of God’s temple. ¹⁴ The Levite Kore, Imnah’s son, who was keeper of the east gate, was in charge of the spontaneous gifts to God. He was responsible for distributing the contribution reserved for the Lord and the dedicated gifts. ¹⁵ Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah faithfully assisted him regarding^[z] the priests by distributing the portions to their relatives, old and young alike, by divisions. ¹⁶ Additionally, they also distributed daily rations to those males, registered by genealogy, three years old and older, all who entered the Lord’s temple to carry out their daily duties as their divisions required. ¹⁷ They also distributed to those priests registered by their families, and to Levites 20 years of age and older according to their divisional responsibilities. ¹⁸ The official genealogy included all their small children, their wives, their sons, and their daughters—the entire congregation—for they had faithfully made themselves holy. ¹⁹ As for Aaron’s descendants, the priests who lived in the outskirts of the cities, men were assigned to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to every Levite listed in the genealogical records. ²⁰ This is what Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, doing what the Lord his God considered good, right, and true. ²¹ Everything that Hezekiah began to do for the service of God’s temple, whether by the Instruction or the commands, in order to seek his God, he did successfully and with all his heart.

Sennacherib’s invasion

32 After these things and these faithful acts, Assyria’s King Sennacherib invaded Judah and attacked its fortified cities, intending to capture them. ² When Hezekiah realized that Sennacherib also planned on fighting Jerusalem, ³ he consulted with his officials and soldiers about stopping up the springs outside the city, and they supported him. ⁴ A large force gathered to stop up all the springs and the streams that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they asked. ⁵ Hezekiah vigorously rebuilt all the broken sections of the wall, erected towers, constructed another wall outside the first, reinforced the terrace of David’s City, and made a large supply of weapons and shields. ⁶ He appointed military officers over the troops, assembled them in the square of the city gate, and spoke these words of encouragement: ⁷ “Be brave and be strong! Don’t let the king of Assyria and all those warriors he brings with him scare you or cause you dismay, because our forces are greater than his.^{[aa] 8} All he has is human strength, but we have the Lord our God, who will help us fight our battles!”

The troops trusted Judah’s King Hezekiah.

⁹ After this Assyria’s King Sennacherib, who was attacking Lachish with all his forces, sent his servants to Jerusalem with the following message for Judah’s King Hezekiah and all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem:

¹⁶ The Assyrian king’s servants continued to make fun of the Lord God and his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ He wrote other letters insulting the Lord God of Israel, defying him by saying, “Just as the gods of the nations in other countries couldn’t rescue their people from my power, Hezekiah’s god won’t be able to rescue his people from my power.” ¹⁸ Then they shouted loudly in Hebrew^[ab] at the people of Jerusalem gathered on the wall, in an attempt to frighten and demoralize them, in order to capture the city. ¹⁹ They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as though he were the work of human hands, like the gods of the other peoples of the earth. ²⁰ King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son, prayed about this, crying out to heaven. ²¹ Then the Lord sent a messenger who destroyed every warrior, leader, and officer in the camp of the Assyrian king. When Sennacherib went home in disgrace, he entered the temple of his god, and his own sons killed him with a sword. ²² This is how the Lord rescued Hezekiah and the citizens of Jerusalem from the power of Assyria’s King Sennacherib, and all others, giving them rest^[ac] on all sides. ²³ Many people brought offerings to the Lord in Jerusalem and costly gifts to Judah’s King Hezekiah, who was highly regarded by all the nations from then on.

Hezekiah’s illness

²⁴ Around that same time, Hezekiah became deathly ill and prayed to the Lord, who answered him with a miraculous sign. ²⁵ But Hezekiah was too proud to respond appropriately to the kindness he had received, and he, along with Judah and Jerusalem, experienced anger. ²⁶ However, Hezekiah and the citizens of Jerusalem humbled themselves in their pride, and so they didn’t experience the Lord’s anger for the rest of Hezekiah’s reign.

²⁷ Hezekiah became very wealthy and greatly respected. He made storehouses for his silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and other valuables. ²⁸ He made barns to store the harvest of grain, wine, and olive oil; stalls for all kinds of cattle; and pens for flocks. ²⁹ He acquired towns for himself and many flocks and herds because God had given him great wealth. ³⁰ Hezekiah was the one who blocked the upper outlet of the waters of the Gihon Spring, channeling them down to the west side of David’s City. Hezekiah succeeded in all that he did, ³¹ even in the matter of the ambassadors sent from Babylonian officials to find out about the miraculous sign that occurred in the land, when God had abandoned him in order to test him and to discover what was in his heart.

³² The rest of Hezekiah’s deeds, including his faithfulness, are written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah, Amoz’s son, in the records of Israel’s and Judah’s kings. ³³ Hezekiah lay down with his ancestors and was buried in the upper area of the tombs of David’s sons. All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death. His son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

Manasseh rules

33 Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he ruled for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ² He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. ³ He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, set up altars for the Baals, and made sacred poles.^[ad] He bowed down to all the stars in the sky and worshipped them. ⁴ He even built altars in the Lord’s temple, the very place the Lord was speaking about when he said, “My name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” ⁵ Manasseh built altars for all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of the Lord’s temple. ⁶ He burned his own sons alive in the Ben-hinnom Valley, consulted sign readers, fortune-tellers, and sorcerers, and used mediums and diviners. He did much evil in the Lord’s eyes and made him angry.

⁷ Manasseh set up the carved image he had made in God’s temple, the very temple God had spoken about to David and his son Solomon, saying: In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have selected out of all Israel’s tribes, I will put my name forever. ⁸ I will never again remove Israel from the fertile land I gave to your ancestors, provided they carefully do everything I have commanded them—keeping all the Instruction, the regulations, and the case laws given through Moses. ⁹ In this way Manasseh led Judah and the residents of Jerusalem into doing even more evil than the nations that the Lord had wiped out before the Israelites.

¹⁰ The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they wouldn’t listen. ¹¹ So the Lord brought the army commanders of Assyria’s king against them. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon. ¹² During his distress, Manasseh made peace with the Lord his God, truly submitting himself to the God of his ancestors. ¹³ He prayed, and God was moved by his request. God listened to Manasseh’s prayer and restored him to his rule in Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was the true God.

¹⁴ After this, Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of David’s City, west of the Gihon Spring in the valley, extending as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate, enclosing the elevated fortress^[ae] and greatly increasing its height. He also installed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah. ¹⁵ He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the Lord’s temple, as well as all the altars he had built on the hill of the Lord’s temple and in Jerusalem, dumping them outside the city. ¹⁶ He restored the Lord’s altar, offered well-being sacrifices and thank offerings on it, and ordered the people of Judah to worship the Lord, Israel’s God. ¹⁷ The people, however, still sacrificed at the shrines, but only to the Lord their God. ¹⁸ The rest of Manasseh’s deeds, including his prayer to God and what the seers told him in the name of the Lord, Israel’s God, are found in the records of Israel’s kings. ¹⁹ Manasseh’s prayer and its answer, all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the locations of the shrines, sacred poles,^[af] and idols he set up before he submitted are written in the records of Hozai.^{[ag] 20} Manasseh lay down with his ancestors and was buried in his palace. His son Amon succeeded him as king.

Amon rules

²¹ Amon was 22 years old when he became king, and he ruled for two years in Jerusalem. ²² He did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes, just as his father Manasseh had done. He sacrificed to all the idols his father had made and worshipped them. ²³ But unlike his father Manasseh, Amon didn’t submit before the Lord; instead, Amon increased his guilt. ²⁴ His own officials plotted against him and killed him in his palace. ²⁵ The people of the land then executed all those who had plotted against King Amon and made his son Josiah the next king.

Josiah rules

34 Josiah was 8 years old when he became king, and he ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ² He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes and walked in the ways of his ancestor David, not deviating from it even a bit to the right or left. ³ In the eighth year of his rule, while he was just a boy, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began purifying Judah and Jerusalem of the shrines, the sacred poles,^[ah] idols, and images. ⁴ Under his supervision, the altars for the Baals were torn down, and the incense altars that were above them were smashed. He broke up the sacred poles, idols, and images, grinding them to dust and scattering them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ⁵ He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, purifying Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, all the way up to Naphtali, he removed their temples,^{[ai] 7} tore down the altars and sacred poles, ground the idols to dust, and smashed all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then Josiah returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah repairs the temple

⁸ In the eighteenth year of his rule, after he had purified the land and the temple, Josiah sent Azaliah’s son Shaphan, Maaseiah the mayor of the city, and Joahaz’s son Joah the secretary to repair the Lord his God’s temple. ⁹ When they came to the high priest Hilkiah, they delivered the money that had been collected in God’s temple by the levitical gatekeepers from Manasseh, Ephraim, and the rest of Israel, as well as from Judah, Benjamin, and the residents of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They handed it over to the supervisors^[aj] in charge of the Lord’s temple, who in turn paid it to those working on, repairing, and restoring the Lord’s temple. ¹¹ They then gave it to the carpenters and the builders to pay for quarried stone and lumber for rafters and beams in the buildings the kings of Judah had neglected. ¹² The men worked conscientiously under the supervision of Jahath and Obadiah, who were Levites descended from Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam from the Kohathites. The Levites, all of whom were accomplished musicians, ¹³ were also in charge of the laborers and all the workers, no matter what their jobs, while some of the Levites served as scribes, officials, and guards.

The Instruction scroll

¹⁴ While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the Lord’s temple, Hilkiah the priest found the Instruction scroll that the Lord had given through Moses. ¹⁵ Hilkiah told the secretary Shaphan, “I have found the Instruction scroll in the Lord’s temple.”

Then Hilkiah turned the scroll over to Shaphan, ¹⁶ who brought it to the king with this report: “Your servants are doing everything you’ve asked them to do. ¹⁷ They have released the money that was found in the Lord’s temple and have handed it over to the supervisors and the workers.” ¹⁸ Then the secretary Shaphan told the king, “The priest Hilkiah has given me a scroll,” and he read it out loud before the king.

¹⁹ As soon as the king heard what the Instruction scroll said, he ripped his clothes. ²⁰ The king ordered Hilkiah, Shaphan’s son Ahikam, Micah’s son Abdon, the secretary Shaphan, and the royal officer Asaiah as follows: ²¹ “Go and ask the Lord on my behalf, and on behalf of those who still remain in Israel and Judah, concerning the contents of this scroll that has been found. The Lord must be furious with us because our ancestors failed to obey the Lord’s word and do everything written in this scroll.”

²² So Hilkiah and the royal officials went to the prophetess Huldah. She was married to Shallum, Tokhath’s son and Hasrah’s grandson, who was in charge of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the second district. When they spoke to her, ²³ she replied, “This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says: Tell this to the man who sent you to me: ²⁴ This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring disaster on this place and its citizens—all the curses written in the scroll that they have read to Judah’s king. ²⁵ My anger burns against this place, never to be quenched, because they’ve deserted me and have burned incense to other gods, angering me by everything they have done.^{[ak] 26} But also say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to question the Lord: This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says about the message you’ve just heard: ²⁷ Because your heart was broken and you submitted before the Lord when you heard what he said against this place and its citizens,^[al] and because you ripped your clothes and cried before me, I have listened to you, declares the Lord. ²⁸ I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will go to your grave in peace. You won’t experience the disaster I am about to bring on this place and its citizens.”

When they reported Huldah’s words to the king, ²⁹ the king sent a message and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ Then the king went up to the Lord’s temple, together with all the people of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, and all the people, young and old alike. There the king read out loud all the words of the covenant scroll that had been found in the Lord’s temple. ³¹ The king stood in his place and made a covenant with the Lord that he would follow the Lord by keeping his commandments, his instructions, and his regulations with all his heart and all his being, in order to fulfill the words of the covenant that were written in this scroll. ³² Then he made everyone found in Jerusalem and Benjamin join in a similar promise. The citizens of Jerusalem lived according to the covenant made with God, the God of their ancestors. ³³ Josiah got rid of all the detestable idols from all the regions that belonged to the Israelites, and he made everyone who lived in Israel serve the Lord their God. As long as Josiah lived, they didn’t turn away from following the Lord God of their ancestors.

Josiah’s Passover

35 Then Josiah celebrated the Lord’s Passover in Jerusalem. They slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month.^{[am] 2} He assigned the priests to their posts, encouraging them to fulfill their responsibilities in the Lord’s temple.

³ Next Josiah ordered the Levites, who were holy to the Lord and who instructed all Israel: “Put the holy chest in the temple built by Israel’s King Solomon, David’s son. You don’t need to carry it around on your shoulders anymore. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. ⁴ Organize yourselves by families according to your divisions, as directed by Israel’s King David and his son Solomon. ⁵ Stand in the sanctuary, according to the family divisions of your relatives the laypeople, so that there can be Levites for each family division.^{[an] 6} Slaughter the Passover lambs and prepare the holy sacrifices^[ao] for your relatives in order to celebrate according to the Lord’s word through Moses.”

⁷ On behalf of the laypeople, Josiah donated from his personal holdings thirty thousand lambs and young goats, and three thousand bulls, all for the Passover offerings. ⁸ His officials also provided spontaneous gift offerings for the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the ones in charge of God’s temple, gave two thousand six hundred Passover lambs and three hundred bulls for the priests. ⁹ Conaniah and his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, along with Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, provided the Levites with five thousand lambs and five hundred bulls as Passover sacrifices. ¹⁰ When everything was ready, the priests and the Levites took their places as the king had ordered. ¹¹ Then they slaughtered the Passover lambs, and the priests splashed the blood^[ap] while the Levites skinned the animals. ¹² Next they divided the entirely burned offerings among the laypeople by their families to sacrifice to the Lord as written in the scroll from Moses, and they did the same with the bulls. ¹³ They roasted the Passover lambs in the fire as instructed, cooked the holy offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, and brought them quickly to all the laypeople. ¹⁴ Next they prepared food for themselves and for the priests. Since the priests, Aaron’s descendants, were busy offering up the entirely burned offerings and fat pieces until nighttime, the Levites prepared food for themselves and for the priests, Aaron’s descendants. ¹⁵ The Asaphite singers also remained at their stations as ordered by David, Asaph, Heman, and the king’s seer Jeduthun, as did the guards at the various gates. They didn’t need to leave their tasks because their fellow Levites prepared food for them.