[EMAIL PROTECTED] 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 God's house, and cut in pieces the vessels of God's house, 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 LORD's temple 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. ________________________________________________________________________ Footnotes: [1] {29:26} or, trumpets [2] {29:27} or, trumpets ________________________________________________________________________ The World English Bible: Messianic Edition is in the Public Domain. 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