Bible in 90 Days

¹⁶ Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, all the people, and the king, promising to follow the Eternal. ¹⁷ Because of this covenant, all the people demolished Baal’s temple, destroyed the altars and icons there, and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars. ¹⁸ Then Jehoiada restored the organization of the temple as David had intended: He appointed the Levitical priests^[a] to the offices of the Eternal’s temple, where they gave the burnt offerings to the Eternal (as Moses’ law required) with rejoicing and singing. ¹⁹ He preserved the sanctity of the Eternal’s temple by stationing gatekeepers there so ritually unclean people could not enter.

²⁰ He and the commanders of the divisions, the nobles, the rulers of the people, and all the people of the land took the king from the Eternal’s temple through the upper gate to the palace. There, they put Joash on his royal throne. ²¹ Since their rightful king was restored and Athaliah had been killed, all the people of the land rejoiced and were at peace.

24 Joash, whose mother Zibiah was from Beersheba, was only seven years old when he became king. He reigned 40 years in Jerusalem ² and followed the ways of the Eternal only as long as Jehoiada the priest was alive. ³ Jehoiada was like a father to Joash, finding two wives for the king, who would father sons and daughters and reconstitute the Davidic line.

⁴ After he had established his family, Joash decided to restore the Eternal’s temple ⁷ because the wicked Athaliah’s subjects had broken into the True God’s temple and used its dedicated contents to worship the Baals.^[b]

The Levites did not act quickly as their king had demanded, ⁶ so Joash rebuked Jehoiada the chief priest for not properly leading them.

⁸ He had a chest placed outside the Eternal’s temple near the gate ⁹ and told everyone in Judah and Jerusalem to bring the money that Moses, the servant of the True God, commanded Israel to bring to the Eternal while they were in the desert. ¹⁰ All the officers and all the people were excited to help restore the temple, as they had been when it was initially constructed, so they all put their money in the chest until it was full. ¹¹ Each day the Levites returned the chest to the king’s officer, where the king’s scribe and the chief priest’s officer would empty the chest and return it to the temple gate. They emptied the chest every day because the people gave so much money.

^12-13 Joash and Jehoiada gave the money to the Eternal’s temple servants, who contracted masons, carpenters, and iron and bronze workers. These workers worked to repair, restore, and strengthen the True God’s temple to King David’s original specifications. ¹⁴ So much money had been collected that the workers were able to return the extra to Joash and Jehoiada and make gold and silver vessels and utensils for services and burnt offerings in the Eternal’s temple. Having completed the renovations, everyone was faithful to God and gave burnt offerings in the Eternal’s temple for the rest of Jehoiada’s life.

¹⁵ Jehoiada was rewarded for his faithfulness to God with a long life. He was 130 years old when he died, ¹⁶ and the people buried him in the city of David, Jerusalem, among the kings, recognizing how he had helped Israel, his own extended family, and the True God.

^17-18 Then the officials of Judah (who had abandoned the house of the Eternal One, the True God of their ancestors, to follow Asherim and other idols) came and bowed down to the king, convincing him to listen to their advice. Joash, in the absence of Jehoiada, then led the nation to abandon God. God was infuriated with Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁹ In spite of His anger, the Eternal sent prophets to tell the people how they had sinned and that they should repent. But they did not listen.

²⁰ Then the Spirit of the True God possessed Zechariah, Jehoiada the priest’s son, giving him a message for the people.

²¹ The new advisors were so infuriated by his message that they conspired against him. Joash then commanded that they stone Zechariah inside the Eternal’s temple courts. ²² By murdering Zechariah, Joash ignored how kind Jehoiada had been to him.

²³ At the end of the year, the Aramean army attacked Judah and Jerusalem. It obliterated each of the officials who had advised Joash badly and sent the spoils to the king of Damascus, the capital city of Aram. ²⁴ Although the Aramean army was vastly outnumbered by the Judaean army, the Eternal exercised His judgment on Joash by giving the Arameans an impressive victory over the people who had abandoned the Eternal One, True God of their ancestors.

^25-26 When the Arameans left Judah, Joash was severely wounded. Now that the king’s supporters were dead, his own servants (Zabad, son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith the Moabitess) conspired to kill him. They remembered how he had killed Zechariah, Jehoiada’s son. The servants murdered Joash while he rested on his bed and buried him in the city of David, Jerusalem. However, they did not entomb him with the kings, his own ancestors. The good things that he did while Jehoiada advised him were forgotten.

²⁷ More about Joash’s reign (including the names of his children, the oracles against him, and the details of the temple’s restoration) is written in the commentary of the book of the kings.

Amaziah, his son, succeeded Joash as king.

25 Amaziah, son of Joash and Jehoaddan of Jerusalem, was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 29 years in Jerusalem.

² He followed the Eternal, but was not completely devoted to Him for his entire life.

³ As soon as he took power in the Southern Kingdom, Amaziah solidified his throne by executing his opponents, the servants who had assassinated his father Joash. ⁴ But Amaziah followed Moses’ law, which the Eternal had commanded, and had mercy on their children: “Everyone is responsible for his own sins. Therefore, parents will not be killed for their children’s actions and children will not be killed for their parents’ actions.”^[c]

⁵ Then Amaziah prepared for battle by gathering the Judahites and appointing commanders from each family in Judah and Benjamin. He took a census of the men 20 years old and older, and there were 300,000 ready to fight with spears and shields. ⁶ To enlarge his army, Amaziah also hired 100,000 heroic men from the Northern Kingdom for 7,500 pounds of silver. ⁷ But Amaziah was warned against hiring mercenaries from the Northern Kingdom by a man who followed after the True God.

¹⁰ So Amaziah dismissed the Northern Kingdom’s mercenaries as the man had advised him to do, and they returned home. The mercenaries were furious at Judah because they would lose their portion of the spoils of victory, ¹³ so they raided the cities in Judah (from Samaria in the north to Beth-horon in the south), killing 3,000 and taking spoils.^[d]

¹¹ But Amaziah was rewarded for obeying God’s message. He strengthened himself and led only Judahite soldiers into battle at the valley of Salt. There they killed 10,000 Edomites from the city of Seir and ¹² captured 10,000. The Judahites then threw the prisoners from the top of a cliff, crushing them on the rocks below.

¹⁴ Unfortunately, Amaziah did not remain faithful to God and His messages. When he returned from fighting the Edomites, he brought the gods of Seir back to Jerusalem where they worshiped them—bowing down and burning incense—as he had worshiped God.

¹⁵ Furious with Amaziah, the Eternal sent a message to the king through a prophet.

¹⁷ Then Amaziah, king of Judah, listened to his royal counselors’ advice and decided to address the Northern Kingdom’s invasion of Judah. He sent a message to Joash (son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu), the king of the Northern Kingdom asking for a face-to-face meeting.

²⁰ But Amaziah would not listen to Joash’s warning because the True God had allowed him to become stubborn. God intended to give Joash a victory over the Southern Kingdom because they worshiped the Edomite gods. ²¹ Then Joash, king of the Northern Kingdom, traveled south to the interior of the Southern Kingdom to face Amaziah, king of the Southern Kingdom, at Beth-shemesh. ²² As predicted, the Northern Kingdom defeated the Southern Kingdom, and the Judahites fled to their homes. ²³ Joash captured Amaziah, son of Joash who was the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh and took him to Jerusalem where the Northern forces tore down 600 feet of the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate. ²⁴ Joash took all the gold, silver, and utensils from the True God’s temple from the service of Obed-edom. He then returned to Samaria with the temple treasures, palace treasures, and hostages.

²⁵ Amaziah (son of Joash, king of the Southern Kingdom) lived 15 years longer than Joash (son of Jehoahaz, king of the Northern Kingdom). ²⁶ All the events of Amaziah’s reign are included in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel, from his ascension to his assassination. ²⁷ From the moment Amaziah stopped following the Eternal to follow the Edomite gods, the people of Jerusalem plotted against him. He fled to Lachish, where the people followed and killed him. ²⁸ They brought his body back to Judah on horseback, where they buried him. But Amaziah was not honored in his burial. He was not laid with the former kings, but with just his ancestors in the capital city of Judah, Jerusalem.

26 ^1-3 After Amaziah’s death, the Judahites chose Uzziah, who was 16 years old, as their next king. During his reign he recaptured the port city of Eloth for Judah, bringing economic growth to the nation. Uzziah, son of Amaziah and Jechiliah of Jerusalem, reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. ⁴ He acted just as his father Amaziah and his grandfather Joash had—following the Eternal initially, then turning away from Him.

⁵ While Zechariah the seer was alive, Uzziah followed the True God, listening to Zechariah’s messages from God as Joash had listened to Jehoiada’s counsel, and the True God blessed the king in battles, in building, and in wealth as long as he was obedient. ⁶ He attacked the Philistines and tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. To further weaken their nation, Uzziah built cities around Ashdod, the Philistine capital city, and elsewhere among the Philistines. ⁷ Just as the True God helped him against the Philistines, He gave Uzziah victory over the Arabians in Gur-baal and the Meunites. ⁸ Then the Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his political strength was infamous all the way to Egypt’s border.

⁹ In Jerusalem, Uzziah commissioned the building of towers at the corner gate, the valley gate, and in the wall’s corners to further fortify the city. ¹⁰ In the wilderness, he commissioned more towers and the digging of cisterns for his many livestock in the lowland and plain. And because he so cared for the land, he employed plowmen in the fertile fields and vinedressers in the hills to make the ground productive.

¹¹ Uzziah maintained a standing army ready for battle with numbered divisions and weapon specialties. Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the official (supervised by Hananiah, a royal officer) maintained the records of the divisions. ¹² Each division was led by a tribal leader who was also a heroic soldier. The 2,600 heroic soldiers ¹³ controlled a talented army of 307,500 soldiers who helped the king battle his enemies. ¹⁴ Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and sling stones to the army. ¹⁵ In Jerusalem, he positioned catapults to shoot arrows and great stones, a new invention by ingenious men, in the towers and on the corners of the city wall. Because of his impressive army, many of the surrounding nations knew about Uzziah and how God helped him win battles.

¹⁶ But when Uzziah had built his army and he no longer thought he needed God’s help in battles, he became prideful and corrupt. He was unfaithful to the Eternal One, his True God, entering the Eternal’s temple to burn incense on the altar.

¹⁷ Azariah the priest and 80 other brave priests of the Eternal followed the king into the temple to stop him.

¹⁹ Uzziah was furious at the priests for forbidding him, the king, to do something. As he stood next to the incense altar in the Eternal’s temple holding the censer, the king’s forehead erupted with leprosy, an inflamed skin disease. ²⁰ Azariah the chief priest and all the priests saw how the Eternal struck the king with leprosy on his forehead. As Uzziah rushed for the door, the priests hurried him out because the disease made him ritually unclean and unable to approach the temple. ²¹ For the rest of his life, King Uzziah was cursed with leprosy, so he was banned from the Eternal’s temple and lived away from society. During his absence, his son Jotham was in charge and judged the Southern Kingdom.

²² The prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, wrote about the rest of Uzziah’s actions. ²³ When Uzziah died, the people with his family buried him near his ancestors in a field that belonged to them. He was not buried in the same tomb as his ancestors because his skin disease made him unclean. Then his son, Jotham, succeeded him as king.

27 Jotham, son of Uzziah and Jerushah (daughter of Zadok), was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. ² He followed the Eternal as his father had at the beginning of his reign, but he did not enter the Eternal’s temple. In spite of his devotion, the people continued in corrupt lifestyles. ³ He built the upper gate of the Eternal’s temple and the large wall of Ophel (the southern hill on the temple mount). ⁴ He built cities in Judah’s hill country and fortresses and towers in the forests. ⁵ Jotham conquered the Ammonite king, and the Ammonites gave him 7,500 pounds of silver, 62,000 bushels of wheat, and 10,000 of barley for 3 years. ⁶ Jotham received all this wealth and power for himself and for the country because he followed the Eternal One, his True God.

⁷ All the events of Jotham’s reign, including his battles and other actions, are in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ⁸ He was 25 when he became king and ruled for 16 years.^{[e] 9} Jotham died, and his bones were gathered and buried along with his ancestors in the city of David, Jerusalem. His son, Ahaz, succeeded him as king.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

32 After his acts of faithfulness toward God, Hezekiah faced the greatest challenge of his reign. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities intending to conquer them for himself. ² Realizing that Sennacherib would eventually reach Jerusalem, Hezekiah prepared the city for a long siege. ^3-4 First, the king’s officers and warriors with a large number of the people dammed the water sources, both springs and rivers, outside the city so that when the Assyrians came they could not readily use the water sources. ⁵ Second, Hezekiah reinforced the city by repairing the existing wall structure which surrounded the city, building towers for offensive position, and erecting another wall far outside the main city wall. Between the two walls, he strengthened the city’s millo.

Third he cast new weapons and shields in abundance. ⁶ Finally he appointed the military leaders over the people and commissioned them at the city gate.

The people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

⁹ While Sennacherib, with his forces, was busy besieging Lachish in a bloody battle, the king of Assyria sent messengers to Jerusalem to persuade Hezekiah and all the Judahites to surrender.

¹⁶ Sennacherib’s servants continued blaspheming Hezekiah and the Eternal God. ^17-19 The Assyrian king himself wrote additional letters insulting the Eternal God of Israel, reminding the people that no god had ever saved his people from the Assyrians, and Israel’s God couldn’t either. Furthermore, Sennacherib wrote that God was a creation of humans, just as all the other pagan gods are. These letters were shouted in the common Judahite language of Hebrew as the people of Jerusalem stood on the city wall listening. The messengers thought their words would terrify and disturb the people into surrendering the city.

²⁰ But King Hezekiah and Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz, were not threatened by the Assyrians’ words. They relied on their God and called to heaven for help. ²¹ The Eternal responded quickly, sending a heavenly messenger to slaughter every Assyrian soldier, commander, and officer. Having been decidedly defeated by the very God he had taunted, Sennacherib, in shame, journeyed back to Assyria. In the security of his own god’s temple, Sennacherib was stabbed to death by his own children. ²² In this decisive way, the Eternal saved Hezekiah and Jerusalem from Sennacherib’s attempted conquest and any other nation’s imperial intentions. So God provided for His people by those around Judah. ²³ Many people brought gifts to the Eternal and Hezekiah in Jerusalem, so that other nations recognized the king’s authority.

^24-26 Hezekiah became proud and neglected to appreciate the gifts he received. So the Eternal was angry with him and all of Jerusalem and Judah. When Hezekiah became deathly ill, he realized what he had done wrong. He humbled himself and prayed to the Eternal, who answered the prayer and healed him as a sign. The people of Jerusalem and Judah also humbled themselves so that He was no longer angry with His people during Hezekiah’s days. ^27-29 In fact, the True God blessed them with great wealth and honor. Hezekiah filled his treasuries with silver, gold, gems, spices, shields, and other valuables. He filled his storehouses with grain, wine, and oil. His stables contained all kinds of cattle and flocks. Then Hezekiah built more cities and acquired more flocks and herds. ³⁰ He also dammed the Gihon River and diverted its waters to the west side of Jerusalem. Hezekiah was successful at all his endeavors.

³¹ Later, when the rulers of Babylon sent diplomats to learn about the miraculous sign given at Hezekiah’s healing when the sun moved backwards,^[h] the True God left Hezekiah and tested the king’s heart and devotion to Him.

³² The other actions and devotion of King Hezekiah, from his birth to his death, are recorded in the vision of Isaiah the prophet (son of Amoz) in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. ³³ Hezekiah joined his ancestors in death and was laid in an upper tomb, a place of honor, with the descendants of David. He was mourned by all Judah and all Jerusalem. Hezekiah’s son Manasseh reigned in his place.

33 Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem, the longest of any king in Israel. ² He behaved wickedly before the Eternal, acting with the same abominations as the previous nations did before the Eternal gave their land to Israel. ³ He reversed the good deeds of Hezekiah, rebuilding the high places and altars for the Baals and hoisting carved images of Asherah into the skies. He worshiped all the celestial bodies as false deities. ^4-5 He even desecrated the Eternal’s temple, the place honoring His reputation which was to remain in Jerusalem forever, by building pagan altars in two courts there. ⁶ In the valley of Ben-hinnom, Manasseh offered his children as burnt offerings to those false gods and used every form of magic: witchcraft, divination, sorcery, and necromancy. Manasseh’s evil actions infuriated the Eternal, but the worst of his actions was ⁷ his installation of an image of a statue in the True God’s temple. Many years before when His glory entered the temple for the first time, God had spoken.

⁹ Manasseh corrupted Judah and the people of Jerusalem until they were more evil than the nations whom the Eternal had destroyed before the Israelites. ¹⁰ Their minds were so full of sin that they didn’t hear the Eternal asking them to return to His ways. ¹¹ So to get their attention, the Eternal used the Assyrian army to express His anger. The commanders captured Manasseh, forced a ring through his nose, bound his limbs with bronze chains, and carried him to Babylon as if he were an animal. ¹² From this position of complete powerlessness, Manasseh finally humbled himself and begged the forgiveness of the Eternal God of his fathers. ¹³ He heard Manasseh’s prayer and found it sincere; He returned Manasseh to the throne in Jerusalem. From that day forward, Manasseh never doubted that the Eternal was the True God.

¹⁴ Having returned to proper faith, Manasseh continued his father’s work. He finished building the outer city wall from the west side of the Gihon River through the valley to the fish gate. Then he built high walls around the hill of Ophel^[j] and stationed commanders at each fortified city in Judah. ¹⁵ Then Manasseh began to purge the nation of the sin he had brought there. He tore out the idols from inside the Eternal’s temple and the foreign altars from the temple mount and in Jerusalem, disposing of them outside the city. ¹⁶ He then restored the Eternal’s altar and gave grateful offerings of peace and praise there. Even though Manasseh ordered the Judahites to serve only the Eternal God of Israel in the way that He commanded, ¹⁷ they continued to sacrifice to the Eternal God at other high places instead of only in Jerusalem.

¹⁸ The other actions of Manasseh, from his birth to his death, including his prayer to his True God and the oracles of the seers, those proclaiming the reputation of the Eternal God of Israel, are recorded in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ¹⁹ His prayer, the True God’s compassion, and a record of his sins, unfaithfulness, and the locations of the high places and cultic statues, before he humbled himself, are written in the chronicles of Hozai.^[k]

²⁰ But when Manasseh joined his ancestors in death, the people buried him in his house, not in the tombs with his ancestors. His son Amon reigned in his place.

²¹ Amon was 22 years old when he began his short two-year reign in Jerusalem. ²² Like his father, Manasseh, Amon committed evil acts before the Eternal by serving and sacrificing to Manasseh’s carved cultic images. ²³ But unlike his father, Amon did not recognize his sins and humble himself. In fact, his guilt was so prolific ²⁴ that his own servants murdered him in the palace.

²⁵ So the people killed the conspirators for their betrayal of King Amon and anointed Amon’s son Josiah as king instead.

34 Josiah was 8 years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. ² He was one of the few great kings of Israel, who determinedly obeyed the Eternal and followed the example of his ancestor David. ^3-4 His zeal for the True God of David began in the 8th year of his reign while he was still a child of 16, but he did not begin his reforms of Judah and Jerusalem until he was 20 years old. Then he removed the high places, chopped down the sacrificial altars and incense altars of the Baals, and smashed the carved and molten images of Asherah and other gods. He then took the broken pieces of the icons, crushed them into powder, and sprinkled that powder on the graves of the people who had worshiped them. ⁵ He even burned the bones of the priests who had served those gods on the cultic altars to completely purge Judah and Jerusalem. ⁶ He then continued his reforms throughout the region, including Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and Naphtali and their surrounding villages, ⁷ where he personally smashed the carved images of Asherah and other gods into powder and chopped down the incense altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

⁸ By the 18th year of his reign, Josiah had cleansed the nation and the temple. Now it was time to repair them both by rebuilding the temple. He sent Shaphan (son of Azaliah), Maaseiah (a city official), and Joah (son of Joahaz the recorder) to the temple of the True God, the Eternal, in order to organize repairs there. ⁹ First, they took the money from the temple coffers and gave it to Hilkiah, the high priest, so he could oversee the funds for the temple repairs. The money had been collected at the temple by the Levite doorkeepers from those remaining in the Northern Kingdom, including Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all those in the Southern Kingdom, including Judah, Benjamin, and the city of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ The money went to the Eternal’s temple construction supervisors who then subcontracted the work to tradesmen and craftsmen. ¹¹ Those subcontractors purchased cut stone, timber, and couplings to rebuild the portions of the temple that had become ruined because of the neglect by the kings of Judah. ¹² The subcontractors were dependable workers, following the guidance of their supervisors: Jahath and Obadiah (Levites from the clan of Merari), Zechariah and Meshullam (Levites from the clan of Kohath), and the Levite musicians. ¹³ These supervisors guided everyone on the job, from the subcontractors and foremen to the unskilled laborers, while performing their regular duties of record keepers, officials, and gatekeepers.

¹⁴ As Josiah’s three servants were bringing out the money from the Eternal’s treasury, Hilkiah the priest made an unexpected discovery. Deep inside the temple storerooms, long forgotten, was the Eternal’s law book, rules He had given to the Israelites through Moses.

Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, ¹⁶ who took it to the king and affirmed that they were proceeding with the temple repairs.

Shaphan then read these laws in the presence of the king.

¹⁹ When the king heard those words, he realized how far his nation had drifted from God’s path, and he tore his clothes in mourning. ²⁰ He then summoned five of his high-ranking officials: Hilkiah, Ahikam (son of Shaphan), Abdon (son of Micah), Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant.

²² The four men including Hilkiah went straight to Huldah the prophetess in Jerusalem’s Second Quarter because they knew He would speak through her. Huldah was the wife of Shallum (son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe).

The four servants gave the king this message, ²⁹ and he immediately summoned all the elders in Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ The entire nation (great and small, priest and layman, man and woman) went up to the Eternal’s temple where Josiah read to them the laws from the book of the covenant that was found in the Eternal’s temple. ^31-32 There, the king and the entire assembly in Jerusalem, people from Benjamin and Judah, stood and renewed Israel’s covenant with the Eternal, promising to follow His ways, obey His laws with all diligence, and perform the duties of the covenant described in the book. Then all the people in Jerusalem respected their covenant with the True God, the God of their ancestors, ³³ and Josiah purged all the lands of Israel of false worship, making certain everyone in Israel served the Eternal God. The people remained faithful to the Eternal God of their ancestors throughout Josiah’s reign.

35 On the 14th day of the first month after Josiah had rededicated the nation to God, the king instituted the Eternal’s Passover feast in Jerusalem by slaughtering the Passover animals. ² Josiah appointed the priests and encouraged them in performing their duties for the Eternal’s temple. ³ Then he commissioned the Levites, Israel’s teachers and the Eternal’s most holy servants, in their various duties for the feast.

⁷ Josiah donated 30,000 lambs and young goats and 3,000 bulls from his own herds and flocks for the people to sacrifice as the Passover offerings. ⁸ Then his officers in the True God’s temple voluntarily gave offerings for the people, priests, and Levites: Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel donated 2,600 sheep and 300 bulls for the Passover; ⁹ Conaniah, Shemaiah, Nethanel and his brothers, Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, all officers of the Levites, donated 5,000 sheep and 500 bulls to the Levites for the Passover.

¹⁰ Once the service was prepared, the priests were ready to perform their duties, and the Levites stood in their division as the king commanded. ^11-13 They offered the Passover animals. The Levites skinned all the animals, the priests sprinkled the animals’ blood, and then they roasted the animals on the altar. Once the animals were roasted, they took down the carcasses and distributed them to each tribe for offerings to the Eternal, just as the book of Moses prescribed. The Levites then boiled the other holy offerings in containers and took them to the people. ¹⁴ Once the people of the nation were enjoying the feast, the Levites prepared meals for themselves and for the priests (the Aaronites, who were busy with the burnt and fat offerings until late in the evening), ¹⁵ the singers (the sons of Asaph), Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun (the king’s seer), and the gatekeepers so that none of them needed to leave their prescribed duties to enjoy the feast.