The Second Book of Chronicles, starting at chapter 28
{28:1} Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; and he
reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he didn't do that which was
right in the eyes of the LORD, like David his father; {28:2} but he
walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images
for the Baals. {28:3} Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the
son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, according to the
abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out before the children
of Israel. {28:4} He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places,
and on the hills, and under every green tree. {28:5} Therefore the
LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and
they struck him, and carried away of his a great multitude of
captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the
hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter.
{28:6} For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah one hundred
twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men; because they had
forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. {28:7} Zichri, a mighty
man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam the ruler
of the house, and Elkanah who was next to the king. {28:8} The
children of Israel carried away captive of their brothers two hundred
thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil
from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria. {28:9} But a prophet of
the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the
army that came to Samaria, and said to them, "Behold, because the
LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he has delivered
them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has
reached up to heaven. {28:10} Now you purpose to keep under the
children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondservants and bondmaids for
yourselves. Aren't there even with you trespasses of your own against
the LORD your God? {28:11} Now hear me therefore, and send back the
captives, that you have taken captive from your brothers; for the
fierce wrath of the LORD is on you." {28:12} Then some of the heads of
the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Yochanan, Berechiah the
son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the
son of Hadlai, stood up against those who came from the war, {28:13}
and said to them, "You shall not bring in the captives here: for you
purpose that which will bring on us a trespass against the LORD, to
add to our sins and to our trespass; for our trespass is great, and
there is fierce wrath against Israel."
{28:14} So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the
princes and all the assembly. {28:15} The men who have been mentioned
by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all
who were naked among them, dressed them, gave them sandals, and gave
them something to eat and to drink, anointed them, carried all the
feeble of them on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of
palm trees, to their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria. {28:16}
At that time king Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him.
{28:17} For again the Edomites had come and struck Judah, and carried
away captives. {28:18} The Philistines also had invaded the cities of
the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth Shemesh,
and Aijalon, and Gederoth, and Soco with its towns, and Timnah with
its towns, Gimzo also and its towns: and they lived there. {28:19} For
the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he had
dealt wantonly in Judah, and trespassed severely against the LORD.
{28:20} Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and distressed
him, but didn't strengthen him. {28:21} For Ahaz took away a portion
out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king and of
the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria: but it didn't help
him. {28:22} In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more
against the LORD, this same king Ahaz. {28:23} For he sacrificed to
the gods of Damascus, which struck him; and he said, "Because the gods
of the kings of Syria helped them, so I will sacrifice to them, that
they may help me." But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.
{28:24} Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and
cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors
of the house of the LORD; and he made him altars in every corner of
Jerusalem. {28:25} In every city of Judah he made high places to burn
incense to other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD, the God of his
fathers. {28:26} Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and
last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and
Israel. {28:27} Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in
the city, even in Jerusalem; for they didn't bring him into the tombs
of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.
{29:1} Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old;
and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name
was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. {29:2} He did that which was
right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father
had done. {29:3} He in the first year of his reign, in the first
month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.
{29:4} He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them
together into the broad place on the east, {29:5} and said to them,
"Listen to me, you Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the
house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry out the
filthiness out of the holy place. {29:6} For our fathers have
trespassed, and done that which was evil in the sight of the LORD our
God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the
habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs. {29:7} Also they have
shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not
burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the
God of Israel. {29:8} Therefore the wrath of the LORD was on Judah and
Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to
be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you see with your eyes. {29:9}
For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and
our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. {29:10} Now it
is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel,
that his fierce anger may turn away from us. {29:11} My sons, don't be
negligent now; for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him, to
minister to him, and that you should be his ministers, and burn
incense."
{29:12} Then the Levites arose, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel
the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of
Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and
of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah;
{29:13} and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the
sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; {29:14} and of the sons of
Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and
Uzziel. {29:15} They gathered their brothers, and sanctified
themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by
the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD. {29:16} The
priests went in to the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse
it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple
of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. The Levites took
it, to carry it out abroad to the brook Kidron. {29:17} Now they began
on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day
of the month came they to the porch of the LORD; and they sanctified
the house of the LORD in eight days: and on the sixteenth day of the
first month they made an end. {29:18} Then they went in to Hezekiah
the king within the palace, and said, "We have cleansed all the house
of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all its vessels,
and the table of show bread, with all its vessels. {29:19} Moreover
all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign threw away when he
trespassed, have we prepared and sanctified; and behold, they are
before the altar of the LORD."
{29:20} Then Hezekiah the king arose early, and gathered the princes
of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD. {29:21} They
brought seven bulls, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven male
goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and
for Judah. He commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on
the altar of the LORD. {29:22} So they killed the bulls, and the
priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: and they
killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood on the altar: they killed
also the lambs, and sprinkled the blood on the altar. {29:23} They
brought near the male goats for the sin offering before the king and
the assembly; and they laid their hands on them: {29:24} and the
priests killed them, and they made a sin offering with their blood on
the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king commanded
that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all
Israel. {29:25} He set the Levites in the house of the LORD with
cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the
commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the
prophet; for the commandment was of the LORD by his prophets. {29:26}
The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with
the [1>]shofars[<1]. {29:27} Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt
offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of the
LORD began also, and the [2>]shofars[<2], together with the
instruments of David king of Israel. {29:28} All the assembly
worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this
continued until the burnt offering was finished. {29:29} When they had
made an end of offering, the king and all who were present with him
bowed themselves and worshiped. {29:30} Moreover Hezekiah the king and
the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises to the LORD with the
words of David, and of Asaph the seer. They sang praises with
gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped. {29:31} Then
Hezekiah answered, "Now you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD;
come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of
the LORD." The assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings; and
as many as were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. {29:32}
The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was
seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all these were
for a burnt offering to the LORD. {29:33} The consecrated things were
six hundred head of cattle and three thousand sheep. {29:34} But the
priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt
offerings: therefore their brothers the Levites helped them, until the
work was ended, and until the priests had sanctified themselves; for
the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the
priests. {29:35} Also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the
fat of the peace offerings, and with the drink offerings for every
burnt offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set in
order. {29:36} Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, because of that
which God had prepared for the people: for the thing was done suddenly.
{30:1} Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also
to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the
LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of
Israel. {30:2} For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and
all the assembly in Jerusalem, to keep the Passover in the second
month. {30:3} For they could not keep it at that time, because the
priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, neither
had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. {30:4} The
thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly.
{30:5} So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout
all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep
the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: for they
had not kept it in great numbers in such sort as it is written. {30:6}
So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes
throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of
the king, saying, "You children of Israel, turn again to the LORD, the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant
that have escaped of you out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.
{30:7} Don't be like your fathers, and like your brothers, who
trespassed against the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he gave
them up to desolation, as you see. {30:8} Now don't be stiff-necked,
as your fathers were; but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into
his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD
your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. {30:9} For if
you turn again to the LORD, your brothers and your children shall find
compassion before those who led them captive, and shall come again
into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and
will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him."
{30:10} So the couriers passed from city to city through the country
of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun: but they ridiculed them, and
mocked them. {30:11} Nevertheless certain men of Asher and Manasseh
and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. {30:12} Also
on Judah came the hand of God to give them one heart, to do the
commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the LORD.
{30:13} Many people assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of
unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly. {30:14}
They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all
the altars for incense took they away, and cast them into the brook
Kidron. {30:15} Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of
the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and
sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into the house of
the LORD. {30:16} They stood in their place after their order,
according to the Torah of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled
the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites. {30:17} For
there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves:
therefore the Levites were in charge of killing the Passovers for
everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to the LORD. {30:18} For
a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar
and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover
otherwise than it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them,
saying, "May the good the LORD pardon everyone {30:19} who sets his
heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even if they
aren't clean according to the purification of the sanctuary."
{30:20} The LORD listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.
{30:21} The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the
feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness; and the
Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with loud
instruments to the LORD. {30:22} Hezekiah spoke comfortably to all the
Levites who had good understanding in the service of the LORD. So they
ate throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of
peace offerings, and making confession to the LORD, the God of their
fathers. {30:23} The whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven
days; and they kept another seven days with gladness. {30:24} For
Hezekiah king of Judah gave to the assembly for offerings one thousand
bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the assembly a
thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep: and a great number of priests
sanctified themselves. {30:25} All the assembly of Judah, with the
priests and the Levites, and all the assembly who came out of Israel,
and the foreigners who came out of Eretz-Israel, and who lived in
Judah, rejoiced. {30:26} So there was great joy in Jerusalem; for
since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was
not the like in Jerusalem. {30:27} Then the priests the Levites arose
and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer
came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.
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Footnotes:
[1] {29:26} or, trumpets
[2] {29:27} or, trumpets
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