The Daily Audio Bible

30 Then Hizkiyahu sent to all Isra’el and Y’hudah, and wrote letters also to Efrayim and M’nasheh, summoning them to the house of Adonai in Yerushalayim, to keep the Pesach to Adonai the God of Isra’el. ² For the king, his officials and the entire Yerushalayim community had agreed to keep the Pesach in the second month. ³ They had not been able to observe it at the proper time because the cohanim had not consecrated themselves in sufficient number; also the people had not assembled in Yerushalayim. ⁴ The idea had seemed right to the king and to the whole community; ⁵ so they issued a decree that it should be proclaimed throughout all Isra’el, from Be’er-Sheva to Dan, that they should come to keep the Pesach to Adonai the God of Isra’el at Yerushalayim; for only a few had been observing it as prescribed.

⁶ So runners went with the letters from the king and his officers throughout all Isra’el and Y’hudah. They conveyed the king’s order: “People of Isra’el! Turn back to Adonai, the God of Avraham, Yitz’chak and Ya‘akov! Then he will return to those of you who remain, who escaped capture by the kings of Ashur. ⁷ Don’t be like your ancestors, or like your kinsmen who sinned against Adonai the God of their ancestors, with the result that he allowed them to become an object of horror, as you see. ⁸ Don’t be stiffnecked now, as your ancestors were. Instead, yield yourselves to Adonai; enter his sanctuary, which he has made holy forever; and serve Adonai your God; so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. ⁹ For if you turn back to Adonai, your kinsmen and children will find that those who took them captive will have compassion on them, and they will come back to this land. Adonai your God is compassionate and merciful; he will not turn his face away from you if you return to him.”

¹⁰ So the runners passed from city to city through the territory of Efrayim and M’nasheh, as far as Z’vulun; but the people laughed at them and made fun of them. ¹¹ Nevertheless, some from Asher, M’nasheh and Z’vulun were humble enough to come to Yerushalayim. ¹² Also in Y’hudah the hand of God was at work, uniting their hearts to do what the king and the leaders had ordered in accordance with the word of Adonai.

¹³ Thus, many people assembled in Yerushalayim to keep the festival of Matzot in the second month, a huge crowd. ¹⁴ First they set about removing the altars that were in Yerushalayim, and they also removed all the altars for incense and threw them in Vadi Kidron. ¹⁵ Then they slaughtered the Pesach lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. Ashamed of themselves, the cohanim and L’vi’im had consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings into the house of Adonai. ¹⁶ Now they stood at their stations, as prescribed in the Torah of Moshe the man of God; the cohanim splashed the blood given to them by the L’vi’im. ¹⁷ For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves; therefore the L’vi’im were responsible for slaughtering the Pesach lambs and consecrating them to Adonai on behalf of everyone who was not clean. ¹⁸ For a large number of the people, especially from Efrayim, M’nasheh, Yissakhar and Z’vulun, had not cleansed themselves but ate the Pesach lamb anyway, despite what is written. For Hizkiyahu had prayed for them, “May Adonai, who is good, pardon ¹⁹ everyone who sets his heart on seeking God, Adonai, the God of his ancestors, even if he hasn’t undergone the purification prescribed in connection with holy things.” ²⁰ Adonai heard Hizkiyahu and healed the people.

²¹ The people of Isra’el there in Yerushalayim observed the festival of Matzot for seven days with great joy; while every day the L’vi’im and cohanim praised Adonai, singing to Adonai with the accompaniment of loud instruments. ²² Hizkiyahu spoke encouragingly to all the L’vi’im who were well skilled in the service of Adonai. Thus they ate throughout the festival for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings and giving thanks to Adonai, the God of their ancestors.

²³ Then the whole assembly decided to celebrate for yet another seven days, and they observed those seven days too with joy. ²⁴ For Hizkiyahu king of Y’hudah gave the assembly a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for offerings, while the leaders gave the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep; and great numbers of cohanim consecrated themselves. ²⁵ All the people who had assembled from Y’hudah rejoiced, as did the cohanim and L’vi’im, those assembled from Isra’el, and the foreigners who had come from the territory of Isra’el or who lived in Y’hudah. ²⁶ So there was great joy in Yerushalayim; for since the time of Shlomo the son of David, king of Isra’el, there had been nothing like it in Yerushalayim. ²⁷ Then the cohanim, who were L’vi’im, stood up and blessed the people; [Adonai] heard their voice, and their prayer came up to the holy place where he lives, heaven.

31 After all this was over, all Isra’el who were there went out to the cities of Y’hudah and smashed the standing-stones, chopped down the sacred poles, and broke down the high places and altars throughout Y’hudah, Binyamin, Efrayim and M’nasheh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the people of Isra’el returned to their own cities, each to his own possession.

² Hizkiyahu re-established the divisions of the cohanim and L’vi’im in accordance with the way the divisions had been before, with each man assigned his task, both the cohanim and the L’vi’im, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to serve, to give thanks and to praise at the gates of Adonai’s camp. ³ He determined a portion of the king’s property to be given for the burnt offerings, that is, for the morning and evening burnt offerings and for burnt offerings on Shabbats, Rosh-Hodesh and the designated times, as prescribed by the Torah of Adonai. ⁴ He also ordered the people living in Yerushalayim to contribute the portion meant for the cohanim and L’vi’im, so that they would be submitting themselves to the Torah of Adonai. ⁵ As soon as the order was issued, the people of Isra’el gave in abundance from the firstfruits of the grain, wine, olive oil, honey and other agricultural produce; they brought the required tenth and more. ⁶ The people of Isra’el and Y’hudah living in the cities of Y’hudah also brought the required tenth of oxen and sheep and the required tenth of consecrated gifts that had been dedicated to Adonai their God, and piled them in heaps. ⁷ They began accumulating these heaps in the third month and completed them in the seventh month. ⁸ When Hizkiyahu and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed Adonai and his people Isra’el. ⁹ When Hizkiyahu asked the cohanim and L’vi’im about the heaps, ¹⁰ ‘Azaryahu the chief cohen, from the house of Tzadok, answered him, “Ever since the people began bringing offerings into the house of Adonai, we have had enough to eat and plenty left over; for Adonai has blessed his people, and what is left over is this massive supply.”

¹¹ Then Hizkiyahu ordered storerooms prepared in the house of Adonai. After preparing them, ¹² they faithfully brought in the offerings, the required tenths and the consecrated things. Konanyahu the Levi was put in charge of them, with Shim‘i his brother as his assistant. ¹³ Hizkiyahu the king and ‘Azaryahu the ruler of the house of God appointed Yechi’el, ‘Azazyahu, Nachat, ‘Asah’el, Yerimot, Yozavad, Eli’el, Yismachyah, Machat and B’nayahu as supervisors to serve under Konanyah and Shim‘i his brother. ¹⁴ Kore the son of Yimnah the Levi, gatekeeper at the East Gate, was responsible for the voluntary offerings to God; he had to distribute the offerings made to Adonai and the especially holy gifts. ¹⁵ Under him were ‘Eden, Minyamin, Yeshua, Sh’ma‘yahu, Amaryahu and Sh’khanyahu, in the cities of the cohanim, faithfully making the distributions to their kinsmen by divisions, to great and small alike. ¹⁶ Every male three years and older entitled to enter the house of Adonai was given his daily share for performing his duties according to his division, regardless of how he was recorded in the genealogies. ¹⁷ Likewise, those recorded in the genealogies of the cohanim by clans received shares, as did the L’vi’im twenty years and older who were performing their duties in their assigned divisions. ¹⁸ When shares were assigned, all their little ones, wives, sons and daughters were also recorded in the genealogies, throughout the entire community; for in their faithfulness to this task they consecrated themselves. ¹⁹ Finally, shares were assigned to the descendants of Aharon, the cohanim, who lived in the pasture-lands surrounding their cities — in each city they were mentioned by name. Thus portions were distributed to all the males among the cohanim and to all whose genealogies showed that they belonged to the L’vi’im.

²⁰ This is what Hizkiyahu did throughout all Y’hudah. He accomplished things that were good, right and faithful before Adonai his God. ²¹ Every project that he undertook in order to seek his God, whether in the service of the house of God or in connection with the Torah and the mitzvot, he did with all his heart; and so he succeeded.

15 So we who are strong have a duty to bear the weaknesses of those who are not strong, rather than please ourselves. ² Each of us should please his neighbor and act for his good, thus building him up. ³ For even the Messiah did not please himself; rather, as the Tanakh says, ‘The insults of those insulting you fell on me.’^{[a] 4} For everything written in the past was written to teach us, so that with the encouragement of the Tanakh we might patiently hold on to our hope. ⁵ And may God, the source of encouragement and patience, give you the same attitude among yourselves as the Messiah Yeshua had, ⁶ so that with one accord and with one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

⁷ So welcome each other, just as the Messiah has welcomed you into God’s glory. ⁸ For I say that the Messiah became a servant of the Jewish people in order to show God’s truthfulness by making good his promises to the Patriarchs, ⁹ and in order to show his mercy by causing the Gentiles to glorify God — as it is written in the Tanakh,

¹³ May God, the source of hope, fill you completely with joy and shalom as you continue trusting, so that by the power of the Ruach HaKodesh you may overflow with hope.

¹⁴ Now I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and well able to counsel each other. ¹⁵ But on some points I have written you quite boldly by way of reminding you about them, because of the grace God has given me ¹⁶ to be a servant of the Messiah Yeshua for the Gentiles, with the priestly duty of presenting the Good News of God, so that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, made holy by the Ruach HaKodesh.

¹⁷ In union with the Messiah Yeshua, then, I have reason to be proud of my service to God; ¹⁸ for I will not dare speak of anything except what the Messiah has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by my words and deeds, ¹⁹ through the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Yerushalayim all the way to Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the Good News of the Messiah. ²⁰ I have always made it my ambition to proclaim the Good News where the Messiah was not yet known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation, ²¹ but rather, as the Tanakh puts it,

²² This is also why I have so often been prevented from visiting you.