2 Chronicles 24-36

Living Bible

24 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah, from Beersheba. ² Joash tried hard to please the Lord all during the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest. ³ Jehoiada arranged two marriages for him, and he had sons and daughters.

⁴ Later on Joash decided to repair and recondition the Temple. ⁵ He summoned the priests and Levites and gave them these instructions:

“Go to all the cities of Judah and collect offerings for the building fund so that we can maintain the Temple in good repair. Get at it right away. Don’t delay.” But the Levites took their time.

⁶ So the king called for Jehoiada the High Priest and asked him, “Why haven’t you demanded that the Levites go out and collect the Temple taxes from the cities of Judah and from Jerusalem? The tax law enacted by Moses the servant of the Lord must be enforced so that the Temple can be repaired.”

^7-8 (The followers of wicked Athaliah had ravaged the Temple, and everything dedicated to the worship of God had been removed to the temple of Baalim.) So now the king instructed that a chest be made and set outside the Temple gate. ⁹ Then a proclamation was sent to all the cities of Judah and throughout Jerusalem telling the people to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had assessed upon Israel. ¹⁰ And all the leaders and the people were glad, and brought the money and placed it in the chest until it was full.

¹¹ Then the Levites carried the chest to the king’s accounting office, where the recording secretary and the representative of the High Priest counted the money and took the chest back to the Temple again. This went on day after day, and money continued to pour in. ¹² The king and Jehoiada gave the money to the building superintendents, who hired masons and carpenters to restore the Temple, and to foundrymen, who made articles of iron and brass. ¹³ So the work went forward, and finally the Temple was in much better condition than before. ¹⁴ When all was finished, the remaining money was brought to the king and Jehoiada, and it was agreed to use it for making the gold and silver spoons and bowls used for incense, and for making the instruments used in the sacrifices and offerings.

Burnt offerings were sacrificed continually during the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest. ¹⁵ He lived to a very old age, finally dying at 130. ¹⁶ He was buried in the City of David among the kings because he had done so much good for Israel, for God, and for the Temple.

^17-18 But after his death, the leaders of Judah came to King Joash and induced him to abandon the Temple of the God of their ancestors and to worship shameful idols instead! So the wrath of God came down upon Judah and Jerusalem again. ¹⁹ God sent prophets to bring them back to the Lord, but the people wouldn’t listen.

²⁰ Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, Jehoiada’s son. He called a meeting of all the people. Standing before them upon a platform, he said to them, “God wants to know why you are disobeying his commandments. For when you do, everything you try fails. You have forsaken the Lord, and now he has forsaken you.”

²¹ Then the leaders plotted to kill Zechariah, and finally King Joash himself ordered him executed in the court of the Temple. ²² That was how King Joash repaid Jehoiada for his love and loyalty—by killing his son. Zechariah’s last words as he died were, “Lord, see what they are doing and pay them back.”

²³ A few months later the Syrian army arrived and conquered Judah and Jerusalem, killing all the leaders of the nation and sending back great quantities of booty to the king of Damascus. ²⁴ It was a great triumph for the tiny Syrian army, but the Lord let the great army of Judah be conquered by them because they had forsaken the Lord God of their ancestors. In that way God executed judgment upon Joash. ²⁵ When the Syrians left—leaving Joash severely wounded—his own officials decided to kill him for murdering the son of Jehoiada the priest. They assassinated him as he lay in bed, and buried him in the City of David, but not in the cemetery of the kings. ²⁶ The conspirators were Zabad, whose mother was Shimeath, a woman from Ammon; and Jehozabad, whose mother was Shimrith, a woman from Moab.

²⁷ If you want to read about the sons of Joash and the curses laid upon Joash, and about the restoration of the Temple, see The Annals of the Kings.

When Joash died, his son Amaziah became the new king.

25 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan, a native of Jerusalem. ² He did what was right, but sometimes resented it! ³ When he was well established as the new king, he executed the men who had assassinated his father. ⁴ However, he didn’t kill their children but followed the command of the Lord written in the law of Moses, that the fathers shall not die for the children’s sins, nor the children for the father’s sins. No, everyone must pay for his own sins.

^5-6 Another thing Amaziah did was to organize the army, assigning leaders to each clan from Judah and Benjamin. Then he took a census and found that he had an army of 300,000 men twenty years old and older, all trained and highly skilled in the use of spear and sword. He also paid $200,000 to hire 100,000 experienced mercenaries from Israel.

⁷ But a prophet arrived with this message from the Lord: “Sir, do not hire troops from Israel, for the Lord is not with them. ⁸ If you let them go with your troops to battle, you will be defeated no matter how well you fight; for God has power to help or to frustrate.”

⁹ “But the money!” Amaziah whined. “What shall I do about that?”

And the prophet replied, “The Lord is able to give you much more than this!”

¹⁰ So Amaziah sent them home again to Ephraim, which made them very angry and insulted. ¹¹ Then Amaziah took courage and led his army to Salt Valley and there killed 10,000 men from Seir. ¹² Another 10,000 were taken alive to the top of a cliff and thrown over so that they were crushed upon the rocks below.

¹³ Meanwhile, the army of Israel that had been sent home raided several of the cities of Judah in the vicinity of Beth-horon toward Samaria, killing 3,000 people and carrying off great quantities of booty.

¹⁴ When King Amaziah returned from this slaughter of the Edomites, he brought with him idols taken from the people of Seir, set them up as gods, bowed before them, and burned incense to them! ¹⁵ This made the Lord very angry, and he sent a prophet to demand, “Why have you worshiped gods who couldn’t even save their own people from you?”

¹⁶ “Since when have I asked your advice?” the king retorted. “Be quiet now before I have you killed.”

The prophet left with this parting warning: “I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have worshiped these idols and have not accepted my counsel.”

¹⁷ King Amaziah of Judah now took the advice of his counselors and declared war on King Joash of Israel (son of Jehoahaz, grandson of Jehu).

¹⁸ King Joash replied with this parable: “Out in the Lebanon mountains a thistle demanded of a cedar tree, ‘Give your daughter in marriage to my son.’ Just then a wild animal came by and stepped on the thistle, crushing it! ¹⁹ You are very proud about your conquest of Edom, but my advice is to stay home and don’t meddle with me, lest you and all Judah get badly hurt.”

²⁰ But Amaziah wouldn’t listen for God was arranging to destroy him for worshiping the gods of Edom. ²¹ The armies met at Beth-shemesh in Judah, ²² and Judah was defeated and its army fled home. ²³ King Joash of Israel captured the defeated King Amaziah of Judah and took him as a prisoner to Jerusalem. Then King Joash ordered 200 yards of the walls of Jerusalem dismantled, from the gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate. ²⁴ He carried off all the treasures and gold bowls from the Temple, as well as the treasures from the palace; and he took hostages, including Obed-edom, and returned to Samaria.

²⁵ However, King Amaziah of Judah lived on for fifteen years after the death of King Joash of Israel. ²⁶ The complete biography of King Amaziah is written in The Annals of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷ This account includes a report of Amaziah’s turning away from God, how his people conspired against him in Jerusalem, and how he fled to Lachish—but they went after him and killed him there. ²⁸ And they brought him back on horses to Jerusalem and buried him in the royal cemetery.

26 The people of Judah now crowned sixteen-year-old Uzziah as their new king. ² After his father’s death, he rebuilt the city of Eloth and restored it to Judah. ³ In all, he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah, from Jerusalem. ⁴ He followed in the footsteps of his father Amaziah and was, in general, a good king in the Lord’s sight.

⁵ While Zechariah was alive Uzziah was always eager to please God. Zechariah was a man who had special revelations from God. And as long as the king followed the paths of God, he prospered, for God blessed him.

⁶ He declared war on the Philistines and captured the city of Gath and broke down its walls, also those of Jabneh and Ashdod. Then he built new cities in the Ashdod area and in other parts of the Philistine country. ⁷ God helped him not only with his wars against the Philistines but also in his battles with the Arabs of Gur-baal and in his wars with the Meunites. ⁸ The Ammonites paid annual tribute to him, and his fame spread even to Egypt, for he was very powerful.

⁹ He built fortified towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, and the Valley Gate, and at the turning of the wall. ¹⁰ He also constructed forts in the Negeb and made many water reservoirs, for he had great herds of cattle out in the valleys and on the plains. He was a man who loved the soil and had many farms and vineyards, both on the hillsides and in the fertile valleys.

¹¹ He organized his army into regiments to which men were drafted under quotas set by Jeiel, the secretary of the army, and his assistant, Maaseiah. The commander-in-chief was General Hananiah. ¹² Twenty-six hundred brave clan leaders commanded these regiments. ¹³ The army consisted of 307,500 men, all elite troops. ¹⁴ Uzziah issued to them shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and sling stones. ¹⁵ And he produced engines of war manufactured in Jerusalem, invented by brilliant men to shoot arrows and huge stones from the towers and battlements. So he became very famous, for the Lord helped him wonderfully until he was very powerful.

¹⁶ But at that point he became proud—and corrupt. He sinned against the Lord his God by entering the forbidden sanctuary of the Temple and personally burning incense upon the altar. ^17-18 Azariah the High Priest went in after him with eighty other priests, all brave men, and demanded that he get out.

“It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense,” they declared. “That is the work of the priests alone, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated to this work. Get out, for you have trespassed, and the Lord is not going to honor you for this!”

¹⁹ Uzziah was furious and refused to set down the incense burner he was holding. But look! Suddenly—leprosy appeared on his forehead! ²⁰ When Azariah and the others saw it, they rushed him out; in fact, he himself was as anxious to get out as they were to get him out because the Lord had struck him.

²¹ So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death and lived in isolation, cut off from his people and from the Temple. His son Jotham became vice-regent, in charge of the king’s affairs and of the judging of the people of the land.

²² The other details of Uzziah’s reign from first to last are recorded by the prophet Isaiah (son of Amoz). ²³ When Uzziah died, he was buried in the royal cemetery even though he was a leper, and his son Jotham became the new king.

27 Jotham was twenty-five years old at the time he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother was Jerushah, daughter of Zadok. ² He followed the generally good example of his father, Uzziah—who had, however, sinned by invading the Temple—but even so his people became very corrupt.

³ He built the Upper Gate of the Temple and also did extensive rebuilding of the walls on the hill where the Temple was situated. ⁴ And he built cities in the hill country of Judah and erected fortresses and towers on the wooded hills.

⁵ His war against the Ammonites was successful so that for the next three years he received from them an annual tribute of $200,000 in silver, 10,000 sacks of wheat, and 10,000 sacks of barley. ⁶ King Jotham became powerful because he was careful to follow the path of the Lord his God.

⁷ The remainder of his history, including his wars and other activities, is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah. ⁸ In summary, then, he was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. ⁹ When he died, he was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Ahaz became the new king.

28 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. But he was an evil king, unlike his ancestor King David. ² For he followed the example of the kings over in Israel and worshiped the idols of Baal. ³ He even went out to the valley of Hinnom, and it was not just to burn incense to the idols, for he even sacrificed his own children in the fire, just like the heathen nations that were thrown out of the land by the Lord to make room for Israel. ⁴ Yes, he sacrificed and burned incense at the idol shrines on the hills and under every green tree.

⁵ That is why the Lord God allowed the king of Syria to defeat him and deport large numbers of his people to Damascus. The armies from Israel also slaughtered great numbers of his troops. ⁶ On a single day Pekah, the son of Remaliah, killed 120,000 of his bravest soldiers because they had turned away from the Lord God of their fathers. ⁷ Then Zichri, a great warrior from Ephraim, killed the king’s son Maaseiah, the king’s administrator Azrikam, and the king’s second-in-command Elkanah. ⁸ The armies from Israel also captured 200,000 Judean women and children and tremendous amounts of booty, which they took to Samaria.

⁹ But Oded, a prophet of the Lord, was there in Samaria, and he went out to meet the returning army.

“Look!” he exclaimed. “The Lord God of your fathers was angry with Judah and let you capture them, but you have butchered them without mercy, and all heaven is disturbed. ¹⁰ And now are you going to make slaves of these people from Judah and Jerusalem? What about your own sins against the Lord your God? ¹¹ Listen to me and return these relatives of yours to their homes, for now the fierce anger of the Lord is upon you.”

¹² Some of the top leaders of Ephraim also added their opposition. These men were Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai.

¹³ “You must not bring the captives here!” they declared. “If you do, the Lord will be angry, and this sin will be added to our many others. We are in enough trouble with God as it is.”

¹⁴ So the army officers turned over the captives and booty to the political leaders to decide what to do. ¹⁵ Then the four men already mentioned distributed captured stores of clothing to the women and children who needed it and gave them shoes, food, and wine, and put those who were sick and old on donkeys, and took them back to their families in Jericho, the City of Palm Trees. Then their escorts returned to Samaria.

¹⁶ About that time King Ahaz of Judah asked the king of Assyria to be his ally in his war against the armies of Edom. For Edom was invading Judah and capturing many people as slaves. ^17-18 Meanwhile, the Philistines had invaded the lowland cities and the Negeb and had already captured Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo with their surrounding villages, and were living there. ¹⁹ For the Lord brought Judah very low on account of the evil deeds of King Ahaz of Israel,^[a] for he had destroyed the spiritual fiber of Judah and had been faithless to the Lord. ²⁰ But when Tilgath-pilneser, king of Assyria, arrived, he caused trouble for King Ahaz instead of helping him. ²¹ So even though Ahaz had given him the Temple gold and the palace treasures, it did no good.

²² In this time of deep trial, King Ahaz collapsed spiritually. ²³ He sacrificed to the gods of the people of Damascus who had defeated him, for he felt that since these gods had helped the kings of Syria, they would help him too if he sacrificed to them. But instead, they were his ruin, and that of all his people. ²⁴ The king took the gold bowls from the Temple and slashed them to pieces, and nailed the door of the Temple shut so that no one could worship there, and made altars to the heathen gods in every corner of Jerusalem. ²⁵ And he did the same in every city of Judah, thus angering the Lord God of his fathers.

²⁶ The other details of his life and activities are recorded in The Annals of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷ When King Ahaz died, he was buried in Jerusalem but not in the royal tombs, and his son Hezekiah became the new king.

29 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became the king of Judah, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ² His reign was generally good in the Lord’s sight, just as his ancestor David’s had been.

³ In the very first month of the first year of his reign, he reopened the doors of the Temple and repaired them. ^4-5 He summoned the priests and Levites to meet him at the open space east of the Temple and addressed them thus:

“Listen to me, you Levites. Sanctify yourselves and sanctify the Temple of the Lord God of your ancestors—clean all the debris from the holy place. ⁶ For our fathers have committed a deep sin before the Lord our God; they abandoned the Lord and his Temple and turned their backs on it. ⁷ The doors have been shut tight, the perpetual flame has been put out, and the incense and burnt offerings have not been offered. ⁸ Therefore, the wrath of the Lord has been upon Judah and Jerusalem. He has caused us to be objects of horror, amazement, and contempt, as you see us today. ⁹ Our fathers have been killed in war, and our sons and daughters and wives are in captivity because of this.

¹⁰ “But now I want to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel so that his fierce anger will turn away from us. ¹¹ My children, don’t neglect your duties any longer, for the Lord has chosen you to minister to him and to burn incense.”

^12-14 Then the Levites went into action:

¹⁵ They in turn summoned their fellow Levites and sanctified themselves, and began to clean up and sanctify the Temple, as the king (who was speaking for the Lord) had commanded them. ¹⁶ The priests cleaned up the inner room of the Temple and brought out into the court all the filth and decay they found there. The Levites then carted it out to Kidron Brook. ¹⁷ This all began on the first day of April, and by the eighth day they had reached the outer court, which took eight days to clean up, so the entire job was completed in sixteen days.

¹⁸ Then they went back to the palace and reported to King Hezekiah, “We have completed the cleansing of the Temple and of the altar of burnt offerings and of its accessories, also the table of the Bread of the Presence and its equipment. ¹⁹ What’s more, we have recovered and sanctified all the utensils thrown away by King Ahaz when he closed the Temple. They are beside the altar of the Lord.”

²⁰ Early the next morning King Hezekiah went to the Temple with the city officials, ²¹ taking seven young bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the nation and for the Temple.

He instructed the priests, the sons of Aaron, to sacrifice them on the altar of the Lord. ²² So they killed the young bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar, and they killed the rams and sprinkled their blood upon the altar, and did the same with the lambs. ²³ The male goats for the sin offering were then brought before the king and his officials, who laid their hands upon them. ²⁴ Then the priests killed the animals and made a sin offering with their blood upon the altar to make atonement for all Israel, as the king had commanded—for the king had specified that the burnt offering and sin offering must be sacrificed for the entire nation.

^25-26 He organized Levites at the Temple into an orchestral group, using cymbals, psalteries, and harps. This was in accordance with the directions of David and the prophets Gad and Nathan, who had received their instructions from the Lord. The priests formed a trumpet corps. ²⁷ Then Hezekiah ordered the burnt offering to be placed upon the altar, and as the sacrifice began, the instruments of music began to play the songs of the Lord, accompanied by the trumpets. ²⁸ Throughout the entire ceremony everyone worshiped the Lord as the singers sang and the trumpets blew. ²⁹ Afterwards the king and his aides bowed low before the Lord in worship. ³⁰ Then King Hezekiah ordered the Levites to sing before the Lord some of the psalms of David and of the prophet Asaph, which they gladly did, and bowed their heads and worshiped.

³¹ “The consecration ceremony is now ended,” Hezekiah said. “Now bring your sacrifices and thank offerings.” So the people from every part of the nation brought their sacrifices and thank offerings, and those who wished to brought burnt offerings too. ^32-33 In all, there were 70 young bulls for burnt offerings, 100 rams, and 200 lambs. In addition, 600 oxen and 3,000 sheep were brought as holy gifts. ³⁴ But there were too few priests to prepare the burnt offerings, so their brothers the Levites helped them until the work was finished—and until more priests had reported to work—for the Levites were much more ready to sanctify themselves than the priests were. ³⁵ There was an abundance of burnt offerings, and the usual drink offering with each, and many peace offerings. So it was that the Temple was restored to service, and the sacrifices offered again. ³⁶ And Hezekiah and all the people were very happy because of what God had accomplished so quickly.

30 King Hezekiah now sent letters throughout all of Israel, Judah, Ephraim, and Manasseh, inviting everyone to come to the Temple at Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration. ^2-3 The king, his aides, and all the assembly of Jerusalem had voted to celebrate the Passover in May this time, rather than at the normal time in April, because not enough priests were sanctified at the earlier date, and there wasn’t enough time to get notices out. ⁴ The king and his advisors were in complete agreement in this matter, ⁵ so they sent a Passover proclamation throughout Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, inviting everyone. They had not kept it in great numbers as prescribed.^[b]

⁶ “Come back to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,” the king’s letter said, “so that he will return to us who have escaped from the power of the kings of Assyria. ⁷ Do not be like your fathers and brothers who sinned against the Lord God of their fathers and were destroyed. ⁸ Do not be stubborn, as they were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his Temple which he has sanctified forever, and worship the Lord your God so that his fierce anger will turn away from you. ⁹ For if you turn to the Lord again, your brothers and your children will be treated mercifully by their captors, and they will be able to return to this land. For the Lord your God is full of kindness and mercy and will not continue to turn away his face from you if you return to him.”

¹⁰ So the messengers went from city to city throughout Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun. But for the most part they were received with laughter and scorn! ¹¹ However, some from the tribes of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun turned to God and came to Jerusalem. ¹² But in Judah the entire nation felt a strong, God-given desire to obey the Lord’s direction as commanded by the king and his officers. ¹³ And so it was that a very large crowd assembled at Jerusalem in the month of May for the Passover celebration. ¹⁴ They set to work and destroyed the heathen altars in Jerusalem, and knocked down all the incense altars, and threw them into Kidron Brook.

¹⁵ On the first day of May the people killed their Passover lambs. Then the priests and Levites became ashamed of themselves for not taking a more active part, so they sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings into the Temple. ¹⁶ They stood at their posts as instructed by the law of Moses the man of God; and the priests sprinkled the blood received from the Levites.

^17-19 Since many of the people arriving from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun were ceremonially impure because they had not undergone the purification rites, the Levites killed their Passover lambs for them, to sanctify them. Then King Hezekiah prayed for them, and they were permitted to eat the Passover anyway, even though this was contrary to God’s rules. But Hezekiah said, “May the good Lord pardon everyone who determines to follow the Lord God of his fathers, even though he is not properly sanctified for the ceremony.” ²⁰ And the Lord listened to Hezekiah’s prayer and did not destroy them.

²¹ So the people of Israel celebrated the Passover at Jerusalem for seven days with great joy.

Meanwhile the Levites and priests praised the Lord with music and cymbals day after day. ²² (King Hezekiah spoke very appreciatively to the Levites of their excellent music.)

So for seven days the observance continued, and peace offerings were sacrificed, and the people confessed their sins to the Lord God of their fathers. ²³ The enthusiasm continued, so it was unanimously decided to continue the observance for another seven days. ²⁴ King Hezekiah gave the people 1,000 young bulls for offerings and 7,000 sheep; and the princes donated 1,000 young bulls and 10,000 sheep. And at this time another large group of priests stepped forward and sanctified themselves.

²⁵ Then the people of Judah, together with the priests, the Levites, the foreign residents, and the visitors from Israel, were filled with deep joy. ²⁶ For Jerusalem hadn’t seen a celebration like this one since the days of King David’s son Solomon. ²⁷ Then the priests and Levites stood and blessed the people, and the Lord heard their prayers from his holy temple in heaven.

31 Afterwards a massive campaign against idol worship was begun. Those who were at Jerusalem for the Passover went out to the cities of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh and tore down the idol altars, the obelisks, the shameful images, and other heathen centers of worship. Then the people who had come to the Passover from the northern tribes returned again to their own homes.

² Hezekiah now organized the priests and Levites into service corps to offer the burnt offerings and peace offerings, and to worship and give thanks and praise to the Lord. ³ He also made a personal contribution of animals for the daily morning and evening burnt offerings, as well as for the weekly Sabbath and monthly new moon festivals, and for the other annual feasts as required in the law of God.

⁴ In addition, he required the people in Jerusalem to bring their tithes to the priests and Levites so that they wouldn’t need other employment but could apply themselves fully to their duties as required in the law of God. ^5-6 The people responded immediately and generously with the first of their crops and grain, new wine, olive oil, honey, and everything else—a tithe of all they owned, as required by law to be given to the Lord their God. Everything was laid out in great piles. The people who had moved to Judah from the northern tribes and the people of Judah living in the provinces also brought in the tithes of their cattle and sheep, and brought a tithe of the dedicated things to give to the Lord, and piled them up in great heaps. ^7-8 The first of these tithes arrived in June, and the piles continued to grow until October. When Hezekiah and his officials came and saw these huge piles, how they blessed the Lord and praised his people!

⁹ “Where did all this come from?” Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites.

¹⁰ And Azariah the High Priest from the clan of Zadok replied, “These are tithes! We have been eating from these stores of food for many weeks, but all this is left over, for the Lord has blessed his people.”

¹¹ Hezekiah decided to prepare storerooms in the Temple. ^12-13 All the dedicated supplies were brought into the Lord’s house. Conaniah the Levite was put in charge, assisted by his brother Shimei and the following aides: Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, Benaiah.

These appointments were made by King Hezekiah and Azariah the High Priest.

^14-15 Kore (son of Imnah, the Levite), who was the gatekeeper at the East Gate, was put in charge of distributing the offerings to the priests. His faithful assistants were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah. They distributed the gifts to the clans of priests in their cities, dividing them to young and old alike. ¹⁶ However, the priests on duty at the Temple and their families^[c] were supplied directly from there, so they were not included in this distribution. ^17-18 The priests were listed in the genealogical register by clans, and the Levites twenty years old and older were listed under the names of their work corps. A regular food allotment was given to all families of properly registered priests, for they had no other source of income because their time and energies were devoted to the service of the Temple. ¹⁹ One of the priests was appointed in each of the cities of the priests to issue food and other supplies to all priests in the area and to all registered Levites.

²⁰ In this way King Hezekiah handled the distribution throughout all Judah, doing what was just and fair in the sight of the Lord his God. ²¹ He worked very hard to encourage respect for the Temple, the law, and godly living, and was very successful.

32 Some time later after this good work of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah and laid siege to the fortified cities, planning to place them under tribute. ² When it was clear that Sennacherib was intending to attack Jerusalem, ³ Hezekiah summoned his princes and officers for a council of war, and it was decided to plug the springs outside the city. ⁴ They organized a huge work crew to block them and to cut off the brook running through the fields.

“Why should the king of Assyria come and find water?” they asked.

⁵ Then Hezekiah further strengthened his defenses by repairing the wall wherever it was broken down, and by adding to the fortifications, and constructing a second wall outside it. He also reinforced Fort Millo in the City of David and manufactured large numbers of weapons and shields. ⁶ He recruited an army and appointed officers, and summoned them to the plains before the city, and encouraged them with this address:

⁷ “Be strong, be brave, and do not be afraid of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is someone with us who is far greater than he is! ⁸ He has a great army, but they are all mere men, while we have the Lord our God to fight our battles for us!” This greatly encouraged them.

⁹ Then King Sennacherib of Assyria, while still besieging the city of Lachish, sent ambassadors with this message to King Hezekiah and the citizens of Jerusalem:

¹⁰ “King Sennacherib of Assyria asks, ‘Do you think you can survive my siege of Jerusalem? ¹¹ King Hezekiah is trying to persuade you to commit suicide by staying there—to die by famine and thirst—while he promises that “the Lord our God will deliver us from the king of Assyria”! ¹² Don’t you realize that Hezekiah is the very person who destroyed all the idols, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem to use only the one altar at the Temple, and to burn incense upon it alone? ¹³ Don’t you realize that I and the other kings of Assyria before me have never yet failed to conquer a nation we attacked? The gods of those nations weren’t able to do a thing to save their lands! ¹⁴ Name just one time when anyone, anywhere, was able to resist us successfully. What makes you think your God can do any better? ¹⁵ Don’t let Hezekiah fool you! Don’t believe him. I say it again—no god of any nation has ever yet been able to rescue his people from me or my ancestors; how much less your God!’” ¹⁶ Thus the ambassador mocked the Lord God and God’s servant Hezekiah, heaping up insults.

¹⁷ King Sennacherib also sent letters scorning the Lord God of Israel.

“The gods of all the other nations failed to save their people from my hand, and the God of Hezekiah will fail too,” he wrote.

¹⁸ The messengers who brought the letters shouted threats in the Jewish language to the people gathered on the walls of the city, trying to frighten and dishearten them. ¹⁹ These messengers talked about the God of Jerusalem just as though he were one of the heathen gods—a handmade idol!

²⁰ Then King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet (son of Amoz) cried out in prayer to God in heaven, ²¹ and the Lord sent an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army with all its officers and generals! So Sennacherib returned home in deep shame to his own land. And when he arrived at the temple of his god, some of his own sons killed him there. ²² That is how the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem. And now there was peace at last throughout his realm.

²³ From then on King Hezekiah became immensely respected among the surrounding nations, and many gifts for the Lord arrived at Jerusalem, with valuable presents for King Hezekiah too.

²⁴ But about that time Hezekiah became deathly sick, and he prayed to the Lord, and the Lord replied with a miracle. ²⁵ However, Hezekiah didn’t respond with true thanksgiving and praise for he had become proud, and so the anger of God was upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. ²⁶ But finally Hezekiah and the residents of Jerusalem humbled themselves, so the wrath of the Lord did not fall upon them during Hezekiah’s lifetime.

²⁷ So Hezekiah became very wealthy and was highly honored. He had to construct special treasury buildings for his silver, gold, precious stones, and spices, and for his shields and gold bowls. ^28-29 He also built many storehouses for his grain, new wine, and olive oil, with many stalls for his animals and folds for the great flocks of sheep and goats he purchased; and he acquired many towns, for God had given him great wealth. ³⁰ He dammed up Gihon’s Upper Spring and brought the water down through an aqueduct to the west side of the City of David sector in Jerusalem. He prospered in everything he did.

³¹ However, when ambassadors arrived from Babylon to find out about the miracle of his being healed, God left him to himself in order to test him and to see what he was really like.

³² The rest of the story of Hezekiah and all of the good things he did are written in The Book of Isaiah (the prophet, the son of Amoz), and in The Annals of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ³³ When Hezekiah died, he was buried in the royal hillside cemetery among the other kings, and all Judah and Jerusalem honored him at his death. Then his son Manasseh became the new king.

33 Manasseh was only twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ² But it was an evil reign, for he encouraged his people to worship the idols of the heathen nations destroyed by the Lord when the people of Israel entered the land. ³ He rebuilt the heathen altars his father Hezekiah had destroyed—the altars of Baal, and of the shameful images, and of the sun, moon, and stars. ^4-5 He even constructed heathen altars in both courts of the Temple of the Lord for worshiping the sun, moon, and stars—in the very place where the Lord had said that he would be honored forever. ⁶ And Manasseh sacrificed his own children as burnt offerings in the valley of Hinnom. He consulted spirit-mediums, too, and fortune-tellers and sorcerers, and encouraged every sort of evil, making the Lord very angry.

⁷ Think of it! He placed an idol in the very Temple of God, where God had told David and his son Solomon, “I will be honored here in this Temple and in Jerusalem—the city I have chosen to be honored forever above all the other cities of Israel. ⁸ And if you will only obey my commands—all the laws and instructions given to you by Moses—I won’t ever again exile Israel from this land which I gave your ancestors.”

⁹ But Manasseh encouraged the people of Judah and Jerusalem to do even more evil than the nations the Lord destroyed when Israel entered the land. ¹⁰ Warnings from the Lord were ignored by both Manasseh and his people. ¹¹ So God sent the Assyrian armies, and they seized him with hooks and bound him with bronze chains and carted him away to Babylon. ¹² Then at last he came to his senses and cried out humbly to God for help. ¹³ And the Lord listened and answered his plea by returning him to Jerusalem and to his kingdom! At that point Manasseh finally realized that the Lord was really God!

¹⁴ It was after this that he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David and the wall from west of the spring of Gihon in the Kidron Valley, and then to the Fish Gate, and around Citadel Hill, where it was built very high. And he stationed his army generals in all of the fortified cities of Judah. ¹⁵ He also removed the foreign gods from the hills and took his idol from the Temple, and tore down the altars he had built on the mountain, where the Temple stood, and the altars that were in Jerusalem, and dumped them outside the city. ¹⁶ Then he rebuilt the altar of the Lord and offered sacrifices upon it—peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings—and demanded that the people of Judah worship the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁷ However, the people still sacrificed upon the altars on the hills, but only to the Lord their God.

¹⁸ The rest of Manasseh’s deeds, and his prayer to God, and God’s reply through the prophets—this is all written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁹ His prayer, and the way God answered, and a frank account of his sins and errors, including a list of the locations where he built idols on the hills and set up shameful and graven images (this of course was before the great change in his attitude), are recorded in The Annals of the Prophets.

^20-21 When Manasseh died, he was buried beneath his own palace, and his son Amon became the new king. Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign in Jerusalem, but he lasted for only two years. ²² It was an evil reign like the early years of his father Manasseh; for Amon sacrificed to all the idols just as his father had. ²³ But he didn’t change as his father did; instead he sinned more and more. ²⁴ At last his own officers assassinated him in his palace. ²⁵ But some public-spirited citizens killed all of those who assassinated him and declared his son Josiah to be the new king.

34 Josiah was only eight years old when he became king. He reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ² His was a good reign, as he carefully followed the good example of his ancestor King David. ³ For when he was sixteen years old, in the eighth year of his reign, he began to search for the God of his ancestor David; and four years later he began to clean up Judah and Jerusalem, destroying the heathen altars and the shameful idols on the hills. ⁴ He went out personally to watch as the altars of Baal were knocked apart, the obelisks above the altars chopped down, and the shameful idols ground into dust and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. ⁵ Then he burned the bones of the heathen priests upon their own altars, feeling that this action would clear the people of Judah and Jerusalem from the guilt of their sin of idol worship.

⁶ Then he went to the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, even to distant Naphtali, and did the same thing there. ⁷ He broke down the heathen altars, ground to powder the shameful idols, and chopped down the obelisks. He did this everywhere throughout the whole land of Israel before returning to Jerusalem.

⁸ During the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purged the land and cleaned up the situation at the Temple, he appointed Shaphan (son of Azaliah) and Maaseiah, governor of Jerusalem, and Joah (son of Joahaz), the city treasurer, to repair the Temple. ⁹ They set up a collection system for gifts for the Temple. The money was collected at the Temple gates by the Levites on guard duty there. Gifts were brought by the people coming from Manasseh, Ephraim, and other parts of the remnant of Israel, as well as from the people of Jerusalem. The money was taken to Hilkiah the High Priest for accounting, ^10-11 and then used by the Levites to pay the carpenters and stonemasons and to purchase building materials—stone building blocks, timber, lumber, and beams. He now rebuilt what earlier kings of Judah had torn down.

¹² The workmen were energetic under the leadership of Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the subclan of Merari. Zechariah and Meshullam, of the subclan of Kohath, were the building superintendents. The Levites who were skilled musicians played background music while the work progressed. ¹³ Other Levites superintended the unskilled laborers who carried in the materials to the workmen. Still others assisted as accountants, supervisors, and carriers.

¹⁴ One day when Hilkiah the High Priest was at the Temple recording the money collected at the gates, he found an old scroll that turned out to be the laws of God as given to Moses!

^15-16 “Look!” Hilkiah exclaimed to Shaphan, the king’s secretary. “See what I have found in the Temple! These are the laws of God!” Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, and Shaphan took it to the king, along with his report that there was good progress being made in the reconstruction of the Temple.

¹⁷ “The money chests have been opened and counted, and the money has been put into the hand of the overseers and workmen,” he said to the king.

¹⁸ Then he mentioned the scroll and how Hilkiah had discovered it. So he read it to the king. ¹⁹ When the king heard what these laws required of God’s people, he ripped his clothing in despair ²⁰ and summoned Hilkiah, Ahikam (son of Shaphan), Abdon (son of Micah), Shaphan the treasurer, and Asaiah, the king’s personal aide.

²¹ “Go to the Temple and plead with the Lord for me!” the king told them. “Pray for all the remnant of Israel and Judah! For this scroll says that the reason the Lord’s great anger has been poured out upon us is that our ancestors have not obeyed these laws that are written here.”

²² So the men went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum (son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah). (Shallum was the king’s tailor, living in the second ward.) When they told her of the king’s trouble, ²³ she replied, “The Lord God of Israel says, Tell the man who sent you,

²⁴ “‘Yes, the Lord will destroy this city and its people. All the curses written in the scroll will come true. ²⁵ For my people have forsaken me and have worshiped heathen gods, and I am very angry with them for their deeds. Therefore, my unquenchable wrath is poured out upon this place.’

²⁶ “But the Lord also says this to the king of Judah who sent you to ask me about this: Tell him, the Lord God of Israel says, ²⁷ ‘Because you are sorry and have humbled yourself before God when you heard my words against this city and its people, and have ripped your clothing in despair and wept before me—I have heard you, says the Lord, ²⁸ and I will not send the promised evil upon this city and its people until after your death.’” So they brought back to the king this word from the Lord. ²⁹ Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, ³⁰ and the priests and Levites and all the people great and small, to accompany him to the Temple. There the king read the scroll to them—the covenant of God that was found in the Temple. ³¹ As the king stood before them, he made a pledge to the Lord to follow his commandments with all his heart and soul and to do what was written in the scroll. ³² And he required everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin to subscribe to this pact with God, and all of them did.

³³ So Josiah removed all idols from the areas occupied by the Jews and required all of them to worship Jehovah their God. And throughout the remainder of his lifetime they continued serving Jehovah, the God of their ancestors.

35 Then Josiah announced that the Passover would be celebrated on the first day of April in Jerusalem. The Passover lambs were slain that evening. ² He also reestablished the priests in their duties and encouraged them to begin their work at the Temple again. ³ He issued this order to the sanctified Levites, the religious teachers in Israel:

“Since the Ark is now in Solomon’s Temple and you don’t need to carry it back and forth upon your shoulders, spend your time ministering to the Lord and to his people. ^4-5 Form yourselves into the traditional service corps of your ancestors, as first organized by King David of Israel and by his son Solomon. Each corps will assist particular clans of the people who bring in their offerings to the Temple. ⁶ Kill the Passover lambs and sanctify yourselves and prepare to assist the people who come. Follow all of the instructions of the Lord through Moses.”

⁷ Then the king contributed 30,000 lambs and young goats for the people’s Passover offerings and 3,000 young bulls. ⁸ The king’s officials made willing contributions to the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the overseers of the Temple, gave the priests 2,600 sheep and goats and 300 oxen as Passover offerings. ⁹ The Levite leaders—Conaniah, Shemaiah, and Nethanel, and his brothers Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad—gave 5,000 sheep and goats and 500 oxen to the Levites for their Passover offerings.

¹⁰ When everything was organized and the priests were standing in their places, and the Levites were formed into service corps as the king had instructed, ¹¹ then the Levites killed the Passover lambs and presented the blood to the priests, who sprinkled it upon the altar as the Levites removed the skins. ¹² They piled up the carcasses for each tribe to present its own burnt sacrifices to the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses. They did the same with the oxen. ¹³ Then, as directed by the laws of Moses, they roasted the Passover lambs and boiled the holy offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, and hurried them out to the people to eat. ¹⁴ Afterwards the Levites prepared a meal for themselves and for the priests, for they had been busy from morning till night offering the fat of the burnt offerings.

¹⁵ The singers (the sons of Asaph) were in their places, following directions issued centuries earlier by King David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s prophet. The gatekeepers guarded the gates and didn’t need to leave their posts of duty, for their meals were brought to them by their Levite brothers. ¹⁶ The entire Passover ceremony was completed in that one day. All the burnt offerings were sacrificed upon the altar of the Lord, as Josiah had instructed.

¹⁷ Everyone present in Jerusalem took part in the Passover observance, and this was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread for the next seven days. ¹⁸ Never since the time of Samuel the prophet had there been such a Passover—not one of the kings of Israel could vie with King Josiah in this respect, involving so many of the priests, Levites, and people from Jerusalem and from all parts of Judah, and from Israel. ¹⁹ This all happened in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah.

²⁰ Afterwards King Neco of Egypt led his army to Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and Josiah declared war on him.

²¹ But King Neco sent ambassadors to Josiah with this message: “I don’t want a fight with you, O king of Judah! I have come only to fight the power with which I am at war. Leave me alone! God has told me to hurry! Don’t meddle with God or he will destroy you, for he is with me.”

²² But Josiah refused to turn back. Instead he led his army into the battle at the valley of Megiddo. (He laid aside his royal robes so that the enemy wouldn’t recognize him.) Josiah refused to believe that Neco’s message was from God. ²³ The enemy archers struck King Josiah with their arrows and fatally wounded him.

“Take me out of the battle,” he exclaimed to his aides.

^24-25 So they lifted him out of his chariot and placed him in his second chariot and brought him back to Jerusalem where he died. He was buried there in the royal cemetery. And all Judah and Jerusalem, including even Jeremiah the prophet, mourned for him, as did the Temple choirs. To this day they still sing sad songs about his death, for these songs of sorrow were recorded among the official lamentations.

²⁶ The other activities of Josiah, and his good deeds, and how he followed the laws of the Lord, ²⁷ all are written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

36 Josiah’s son Jehoahaz was selected as the new king. ² He was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, but lasted only three months. ³ Then he was deposed by the king of Egypt, who demanded an annual tribute from Judah of $230,000.

⁴ The king of Egypt now appointed Eliakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, as the new king of Judah. (Eliakim’s name was changed to Jehoiakim.) Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt as a prisoner. ⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; but his reign was an evil one. ⁶ Finally Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and took away the king in chains to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the gold bowls and other items from the Temple, placing them in his own temple in Babylon. ⁸ The rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim and all the evil he did are written in The Annals of the Kings of Judah; and his son Jehoiachin became the new king.

⁹ Jehoiachin was eighteen^[d] years old when he ascended the throne. But he lasted only three months and ten days, and it was an evil reign as far as the Lord was concerned. ¹⁰ The following spring he was summoned to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. Many treasures from the Temple were taken away to Babylon at that time, and King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Jehoiachin’s brother Zedekiah as the new king of Judah and Jerusalem.

¹¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. ¹² His reign, too, was evil so far as the Lord was concerned, for he refused to take the counsel of Jeremiah the prophet, who gave him messages from the Lord. ¹³ He rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, even though he had taken an oath of loyalty. Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man so far as obeying the Lord God of Israel was concerned, for he refused to follow him.

¹⁴ All the important people of the nation, including the High Priests, worshiped the heathen idols of the surrounding nations, thus polluting the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Jehovah the God of their fathers sent his prophets again and again to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and on his Temple. ¹⁶ But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words, scoffing at the prophets until the anger of the Lord could no longer be restrained, and there was no longer any remedy.

¹⁷ Then the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them and killed their young men, even going after them right into the Temple, and had no pity upon them, killing even young girls and old men. The Lord used the king of Babylon to destroy them completely. ¹⁸ He also took home with him all the items, great and small, used in the Temple, and treasures from both the Temple and the palace, and took with him all the royal princes. ¹⁹ Then his army burned the Temple and broke down the walls of Jerusalem and burned all the palaces and destroyed all the valuable Temple utensils. ²⁰ Those who survived were taken away to Babylon as slaves to the king and his sons until the kingdom of Persia conquered Babylon.

²¹ Thus the word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah came true, that the land must rest for seventy years to make up for the years when the people refused to observe the Sabbath.

^22-23 But in the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to make this proclamation throughout his kingdom, putting it into writing:

“All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord God of heaven, and he has instructed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in the land of Judah. All among you who are the Lord’s people return to Israel for this task, and the Lord be with you.”

This also fulfilled the prediction of Jeremiah the prophet.