15 In the twenty-seventh year of King Yarave’am’s reign over Yisrael, Amatsyah’s son Azaryah[fn] became king of Yehudah. 2 He was sixteen when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for fifty-two years. (His mother’s name was Jeholyah from Yerushalem.) 3 He did what Yahweh had said was correct behaviour like his father Amatsyah had done, 4 although the hilltop shrines weren’t removed—the people continued to sacrifice at them and burn incense. 5 Yahweh caused Azaryah to become a leper and he had to live separately from others for the rest of his life, so his son Yotam ran the palace and dealt with the people’s problems.

6 Everything else that Azaryah said and did is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 7 Azaryah died and was buried in the ancestral tomb in the city of David, and his son Yotam replaced him as king.[ref]

26 Then all the people took sixteen year old Uzziyah and made him king to replace his father Amatsyah. 2 Uzziyah restored Eylat City to Yehudah and rebuilt it after the death of his father.

3 Uzziyah was sixteen when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for fifty-two years. His mother was Yekolyah from Yerushalem. 4 He did the things that Yahweh said were good, like his father Amatsyah had done. 5 He strived to follow God during the lifetime of Zekaryah who instructed him. During the time that he obeyed Yahweh, God made him successful.

6 Uzziyah went to attack the Philistines, and successfully broke through the walls at Gat, Yavneh, and Ashdod. He rebuilt Ashdod and other cities in the Philistia region. 7 God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians who living in Gurbaal, and against the Meunites. 8 The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziyah, and his fame spread as far as the Egyptian border because he was becoming more powerful.

9 King Uzziyah built fortified towers in Yerushalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and at the angle in the wall. 10 He also built towers in the wilderness and dug many wells because he had a lot of cattle—both in the lowlands and in the plains. He was also interested in horticulture so he had workers stationed in his vineyards and in his fertile fields.

11 Uzziyah’s army was trained for fighting battles and organised into divisions set up by Yeiel the scribe and the commander Maaseyah, under the supervision of Hananyah, one of the king’s officials. 12 There were 2,600 clan leaders who led the powerful warriors, 13 and the full force of 37,500 was under them to support the king against his enemies. 14 Uzziyah supplied shields, spears, helmets, armoured vests, bows, and slingshots for the entire army. 15 Using a local invention, he made war machines in Yerushalem to be placed on the towers and corners of the walls to fire arrows and large stones. His fame now spread widely because he’d received a lot of help that had made him very powerful.

16 However, at the peak of his strength he became very arrogant and that led to his destruction. He disobeyed his god Yahweh and went into the temple to burn incense on the incense altar. 17 The high priest Azaryah and eighty other brave priests went in after him. 18 They confronted King Uzziyah and challenged him, “It’s not permitted for you, Uzziyah, to sacrifice to Yahweh, only for Aharon’s descendants the priests—the ones consecrated to sacrifice. Leave the sanctuary, because you’ve disobeyed Yahweh God so now he won’t honour you.”[ref]

19 Then Uzziyah who was holding an incense pan, became very angry, but when he started raging at the priests, spots of leprosy suddenly appeared on his forehead while he was still there beside the incense altar in front of the priests. 20 The high priest Azaryah looked more closely, and confirming that it was indeed leprosy on his forehead, hurried him outside. The king was now also in a hurry because Yahweh had afflicted him.

21 King Uzziyah had leprosy until he died, so he had to live in an isolated residence and wasn’t allowed to approach the temple. His son Yotam (Jotham) stood in for him—supervising the palace and ruling Yehudah.

22 The record of all the other things done by Uzziyah while he was king was written by the prophet Yeshayah (Isaiah) (son of Amots). 23 When Uzziyah died, because of his leprosy they buried him with his ancestors in a grave in the countryside for kings, and his son Yotam replaced him as king.[ref]

32 In the second year of Remalyah’s son Pekah’s reign over Yisrael, Azaryah’s son Yotam began to reign over Yehudah. 33 He was twenty-five when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for sixteen years. (His mother’s name was Yerusha, the daughter of Tsadok.) 34 He did what Yahweh had said was correct behaviour like his father Azaryah/Uzziyah had done, 35 although the hilltop shrines weren’t removed—the people continued to sacrifice at them and burn incense. Yotam built the upper gate to Yahweh’s temple.

36 Everything else that Yotam said and did is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 37 In those days, Yahweh began to send Aram’s King Retsin and Remalyah’s son Pekah against Yehudah. 38 Then Yotam died and was buried in their ancestral tomb in the city of his ancestor David, and his son Ahaz replaced him as king.

27 Yotam (Jotham) was twenty-five when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for sixteen years. His mother was Yerusha, daughter of the priest Tsadok. 2 He did the things that Yahweh said were good like his father Uzziyah had done (except that he didn’t trespass in Yahweh’s temple), However, the people were still behaving corruptly.

3 He rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple, and extended the Ofel wall. 4 He built cities in the Yehudah hill country, and built fortresses and towers in the forests. 5 He attacked the Ammonite king and dominated them. Then for the next three years, the Ammonites brought him three tonnes of silver, and 2,000 tonnes each of wheat and barley each year. 6 Yotham became more powerful because he’d established a pattern of obeying his god Yahweh. 7 The record of all the other things done by Yotam while he was king, including all his battles, was written on the scroll ‘The kings of Yisrael and Yehudah’. 8 He was twenty-five when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for sixteen years.

16 In the seventeenth year of Remaliah’s son Pekah’s reign over Israel, Yotam’s son Ahaz began to reign over Yehudah. 2 Ahaz was twenty when he became king and he reigned from Yerushalem for sixteen years, but he didn’t follow what his god Yahweh had said was correct behaviour like his ancestor David had done. 3 Actually he followed the behaviour of the kings of Yisrael, and he even sacrificed his son as a burnt offering like they do in the nations that Yahweh hated and which Yahweh had driven out of the land as the Israelis had entered.[ref] 4 Also he sacrificed on the hilltop shrines and burnt incense on them, and on the hills and under every large tree.

5 Then Aram’s King Retsin and Yisrael’s King Pekah (Remalyah’s son) came uphill to attack Yerushalem, and they laid siege against King Ahaz but they weren’t able to conquer the city.[ref] 6 At that time, Aram’s King Retsin recaptured Elat City for Aram, then he drove the Yehudans out of Elat and Arameans moved in instead and they have lived there to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Assyria’s King Tiglat-Pileser, “I’m your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the kings of Aram and Yisrael who are here attacking me.” 8 Ahaz took the gold and silver from Yahweh’s temple and from the palace treasuries, and sent it as a gift to the Assyrian king. 9 The king of Assyria listened to him and went in and attacked Damascus, and he captured it and exiled its people to Kir, and he executed King Retsin.

10 King Ahaz went to meet the Assyrian King Tiglat-Pileser in Damascus, and he saw the altar that was there. So he sent a drawing and the detailed measurements of the altar to the priest Uriyyah. 11 So Uriyyah built the altar according to the plans that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus and had it finished before King Ahaz returned from Damascus. 12 When the king got back to Yerushalem and saw the altar, he went up onto it 13 and made his burnt offering and his grain offering, and he poured out his drink offering, and he sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings onto the altar. 14 He got the bronze altar that had been dedicated to Yahweh moved back away from the temple and placed beside the newer, bigger altar.[ref] 15 Then King Ahaz ordered Uriyyah, “Use the large altar for the morning burnt offerings and the evening grain offerings, and for the king’s burnt offerings and grain offerings, and for the people’s burnt offerings and grain offerings and drink offerings. Use it for sprinkling all the blood of the burnt offerings and of the sacrifices on. But I will use the bronze altar for seeking guidance.” 16 So Uriyyah the priest put everything into effect that King Ahaz had commanded.

17 Then King Ahaz cut the frames off the stands outside the temple, and he removed the basins off them. He took down ‘The Sea’ that had been sitting on top of bronze bulls and put it on the stone floor.[ref] 18 He also removed the canopy that had been built at the temple for use on the Rest Days, and blocked up the king’s outer entrance to the temple so that the Assyrian king couldn’t use it.

19 Everything else that Ahaz said and did is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 20 Then Ahaz died and was buried in their ancestral tomb in the city of David, and his son Hizkiyah (Hezekiah) replaced him as king.[ref]

28 Ahaz was twenty-five when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for sixteen years, but he didn’t do what Yahweh wanted, like his ancestor David had. 2 Instead, he followed the ways fo Yisrael’s kings, including casting metal idols for the Baal. 3 He offered incense in the Ben-Hinnom valley and he burnt his children with fire[fn] like the detestable customs of the nations that Yahweh had driven away as the Israelis had entered the region, 4 plus he offered sacrifices and burnt incense at the hilltop shrines, and on the hills, and under every large, green tree.

22 While King Ahaz was experiencing those troubles, he disobeyed Yahweh even more 23 and sacrificed to the gods of Damascus (because Aram had defeated him). He reasoned, “Since the gods of the Aramean kings helped them, I’ll sacrifice to them, and then they’ll help me.” However, that led to Ahaz’s fall, and to the fall of all Yehudah.[fn] 24 Then Ahaz gathered all the furnishings that were used in the temple, and broke them into pieces and locked the temple doors. Then he set up pagan altars at every Yerushalem intersection 25 and in every Yehudah city he set up hilltop shrines to make sacrifices to other gods, thus angering Yahweh, the god of his ancestors.

26 The record of all the other things done by Ahaz while he was king was written on the scroll ‘The kings of Yehudah and Yisrael’. 27 Then Ahaz died and was buried in ‘The City of David’, but not in the tombs of the other kings of Yisrael. Then his son Hizkiyah replaced him as king.[ref]

18 In the third year of Elah’s son King Hoshea’s reign over Yisrael, Ahaz’s son Hizkiyah (Hezekiah) became king of Yehudah. 2 He was twenty-five when he became king and he reigned from Yerushalem for twenty-nine years. (His mother was Zekaryah’s daughter Abi.) 3 He did what Yahweh had said was correct behaviour like his ancestor King David had done. 4 He demolished the hilltop shrines and shattered their pillars, and he cut down the Asherah poles. He crushed the bronze serpent that Mosheh had made, because the Israelis had named it ‘Nehushtan’ and had been offering incense to it until then.[ref] 5 Hizkiyah fully trusted in Yisrael’s God Yahweh, and no other king was like him among all the kings of Yehudah that either preceded or followed him. 6 He relied completely on Yahweh—not turning away from following him, and he obeyed the instructions that Yahweh had commanded Mosheh. 7 So Yahweh helped him and he was successful in everything he did. He rebelled against the Assyrian king and refused to submit to his demands. 8 He attacked and defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders—both the smaller towns and the fortified city.

9 Then in the fourth year of King Hizkiyah’s reign (it was the seventh year of Elah’s son Hoshea’s reign over Yisrael), the Assyrian King Shalmaneser had attacked Shomron (Samaria) and besieged it. 10 They had finally captured the city after three years. That was the sixth year of Hizkiyah’s reign over Yehudah and the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign over Yisrael. 11 So that was when the Assyrian king had exiled the people of the northern kingdom of Yisrael to Halah and to Havor along the Gozan River, and to the cities of the Medes. 12 That happened because they didn’t obey their God Yahweh, but instead they broke the agreement with him—everything that Yahweh’s servant Mosheh had commanded. They didn’t take notice of it and they didn’t obey it.

13 In the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyah’s reign, Assyrian King Sanheriv attacked all the fortified cities in Yehudah and captured them. 14 So King Hizkiyah of Yehudah sent messengers to the Assyrian king at Lakish, saying, “I apologise for my mistake. Stop attacking me and I’ll give you whatever you demand of us.” Then the Assyrian king demanded a tribute of ten tonnes of gold and ten tonnes of silver. 15 So Hizkiyah gave him all the silver out of the temple and from the palace treasuries. 16 He cut the doors off Yahweh’s temple and the pillars that he’d overlaid gold onto, and gave them to the Assyrian king.

17 However, the Assyrian king still sent his general and some of his top officials from Lakish to King Hizkiyah in Yerushalem. They arrived at Yerushalem with a large army and camped by the aquifer supplying the upper pool that was near the field where the people washed their clothes. 18 They called out to the king, and Hilkiyyah’s son Elyakim who was the palace manager, and the scribe Shebna, and Asaf’s son Yoah the secretary, went out to them.

19 Then the top Assyrian commander said to them, “Now, tell Hizkiyah that the great Assyrian king asks him who he think’s he’s trusting in. 20 He claims to be powerful enough to fight us. Who is he trusting to help you all that gives you confidence to rebel against us? 21 Listen, your king’s trusting in a broken stick to lean on which will just splinter and pierce his hand. That’s what King Far-oh of Egypt is like to everyone who puts their trust in him. 22 Ah, but he might tell me that he’s trusting in your god Yahweh to help you all. If so, I’d ask him if he isn’t the one whose hilltop shrines King Hizkiyah demolished when he told you people in Yerushalem and all Yehudah that you have to worship at the altar there?

23 “So now ask your king if he’ll make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria: He’ll give you two thousand horses, on the condition that you can supply two thousand horsemen who can ride them. 24 If you can’t do that, how could you all possibly repel even one of our army units? Haha, but of course you trust in Egypt to supply chariots and horsemen. 25 Do you think that we’ve come here to destroy this place without Yahweh’s permission? No, no, it was Yahweh himself who told us to attack and destroy you.”

26 But Elyakim and Shebna and Yoah asked the Assyrian commander, “Please speak Aramaic to your servants because we understand it. Don’t speak our language because our people on the nearby city wall will be able to understand it.”

27 “Ha ha, do you think my master sent this message just to you three and your king?” he replied. “No, don’t you think that this message is also for the hungry people sitting on the wall who’ll soon have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine along with you?”

28 Then he stood up and called out loudly in Hebrew, “Everyone listen to what the great king from Assyria says: 29 He’s warning you all not to let Hizkiyah deceive you, because he’s unable to save you all from our army. 30 And don’t let him force you all to trust in Yahweh thinking that we won’t capture your city and that Yahweh will somehow rescue you all. 31 Don’t listen to Hizkiyah because the Assyrian king is offering you all a chance to come out of the city and surrender. In exchange for saving me some trouble, you’ll be able to drink fresh water again and enjoy the fruit off your own trees out here 32 until he comes here. Then he’ll take you to another country like your own—with grain and wine, and bread and vineyards, olive oil and honey. That way you’ll live and not die of starvation. So don’t listen to Hizkiyah when he misleads you saying that Yahweh will rescue you all.” 33 Did the gods of any of the other countries rescue their people from the power of the Assyrian king? 34 Where were the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where were the gods of Sefarvayim, Hena, and Ivvah? Were they able to save Shomron from the king’s power? 35 From all the other countries, which of their gods was able to save their people, that might give confidence that Yahweh might be able to rescue Yerushalem from the king’s power?”

36 But the people on the wall listening remained silent—they didn’t say a word because the king had already ordered them not to answer the Assyrians. 37 Then Hilkiyyah’s son Elyakim the palace manager, Shebna the scribe and Asaf’s son Yoah the secretary went back in the city to Hizkiyah, tearing their clothes as they went, and they relayed the words of the chief commander to him.

19 When King Hizkiyah heard the threats from the Assyrian king, he tore his clothes and dressed in sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s temple. 2 He sent his palace manager Elyakim and the scribe Shebna, along with the elders of the priests, all dressed in sackcloth, to Amots’s son Yeshayah (Isaiah) the prophet 3 to tell him, “Hizkiyah says: ‘Today is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as if the baby is right there ready to be delivered, but the mother has lost all her strength. 4 Perhaps your god Yahweh has heard everything that the chief commander said when his master the Assyrian king sent him: he defied the living God, and so maybe your god Yahweh will punish him for his words. Lift up a prayer on behalf of the people that are still left here.’ ”

5 When King Hizkiyah’s servants got to Yeshayah, 6 he told them, “This is what you all should tell your master: Yahweh says that you needn’t be afraid of what you heard when those young men from the Assyrian king insulted him. 7 Listen, Yahweh will cause him to hear a report and he’ll place a fearful spirit in him so he’ll decide to return to his own country where he’ll be assassinated.”

8 When the chief commander returned to the Assyrian king, he discovered that they’d pulled out of Lakish and were now fighting against Livnah city. 9 Then the king heard that the Ethiopian King Tirhakah was preparing to attack, so he decided to return home but he sent messengers to Hizkiyah to say, 10 “Tell Yehudah’s King Hizkiyah not to let the god he trusts in deceive him by telling him that Yerushalem won’t be captured by the king of Assyria. 11 Tell him that he must have heard how the Assyrian armies have completely devastated other countries, so he shouldn’t think that he will be saved from it. 12 The gods of the countries destroyed by my ancestors never saved them—those in Gozan, Haran, Retsef, or Eden’s descendants in Telassar. 13 Where’s the king of Hamat, or the king of Arpad, or the kings of the cities of Sefarvayim, Hena, or Ivvah now?”

14 Hizkiyah took the letter that the messengers had brought and read it, then he went up to the temple and spread it out in front of Yahweh 15 and prayed to him, “Yahweh the god of Yisrael, who lives above the winged creatures. You alone are God—the one over all the kingdoms of the earth. You yourself made the heavens and the earth.[ref] 16 Lean this way, Yahweh, and look, and listen to Sanheriv’s words mocking the living God. 17 Yes Yahweh, the Assyrian kings have certainly destroyed many countries and their lands. 18 The Assyrians burnt the peoples’ gods because they weren’t living gods, but rather gods of wood and stone made by people and they’ve destroyed them. 19 But now Yahweh our god, please save us from his army, then all the kingdoms in the world will know that you, Yahweh, are God—you alone.”

20 Then Amots’s son Yeshayah (Isaiah) sent this message to Hizkiyah: Yisrael’s God Yahweh says, “Because you prayed to me concerning the Assyrian King Sanheriv, I have listened. 21 This is what Yahweh says about that king:

Tsiyyon’s daughter despises you and derides you.

≈Yerushalem’s daughter shakes her head at you.

22 Who did you think you were teasing and insulting?

Who did you think you were shouting at?

Did you raise your eyebrows against Yisrael’s holy one?

23 You sent messengers that mocked me.

You said that you went over the highest mountains with your many chariots.

≈That you went to the highest parts of Lebanon and harvested its tallest cedars—its best trees.

That you’ve been to the end of the inhabited world with its densest forest.

24 You said that you’ve dug wells far away and drunk their water,

yet with your own feet you dried up all of Egypt’s rivers.

25 Haven’t you heard that I made plans long ago—

that what I previously planned, I’m now making it happen?

Fortified cities will collapse into heaps of rubble.

26 Their inhabitants will be powerless—dismayed and ashamed.

They’ll be as vulnerable as plants in the countryside,

or like the grass that grows on the rooftops—

they wilt and wither before they can grow tall. DOUBLE-CHECK

27 Yes, I know when you sit down and when you go out.

When you come in and rage against me.

28 Because you’ve raged against me and your arrogance has come to my ears,

I’ll put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,

and I’ll lead you back on the road that you came here on.

29 “So this will be a sign to you Hizkiyah:

This year you’ll eat what grew by itself,

and next year whatever seeded by itself,

but in the third year you’ll sow crops and plant vineyards, and eat what you harvest.

30 Yehudah’s surviving descendants will send their roots downwards and will produce fruit above,

31 because a remnant will survive Yerushalem’s siege,

≈and Mt. Tsiyyon will have survivors

because Yahweh’s enthusiasm will make sure it happens.

32 “So this is what Yahweh says to the Assyrian king:

He won’t enter this city or shoot an arrow into it.

He won’t push a large shield towards it or make a ramp up into it.

33 He’ll return on the same road that he arrived on,

and Yahweh declares that he won’t enter this city,

34 because Yahweh will defend this city

to save it for his own sake

and for the sake of his servant David.”

35 That very night, Yahweh sent an angel out to kill 185,000 warriors, so when the army got up early the next morning there were dead bodies all over the place. 36 So the Assyrian King Sanheriv pulled out and went back to live in Nineveh. 37 While he was bowing in the temple of his god Nisrok, Adrammelek and Sharezer ran him through with a sword before escaping to the Ararat region, and so his son Esarhaddon replaced him as king.

20 By that time, King Hizkiyah was terminally ill and Amots’s son the prophet Yeshayah (Isaiah) came to him and told him, “Yahweh says to get your affairs in order because you’re dying and won’t recover.”

2 But Hizkiyah rolled over to face the wall and prayed to Yahweh, 3 “Oh Yahweh, please remember that I’ve served you faithfully, and done what you asked with total sincerity.” Then Hizkiyah cried loudly.

4 As Yeshayah was leaving, Yahweh gave him this message before he’d even reached the middle courtyard, 5 “Go back and tell Hizkiyah, the leader of my people, ‘Your ancestor David’s God Yahweh says that he’s heard your prayer and seen your tears. He’s decided to heal you and you’ll be well enough to go to the temple within three days. 6 He’s added fifteen years to your life, plus he’ll rescue you and this city from the Assyrian king. Yahweh will defend Yerushalem for his own sake and for the sake of his servant David.”

7 Then Yeshayah told them to bring some pressed figs, and they brought them and placed them on the sore, and Hizkiyah started getting better.

8 Hizkiyah asked Yeshayah, “What’s the sign that Yahweh will heal me and that I’ll be able to go to the temple on the third day?”

9 “Yes, Yahweh will give you a sign that he’ll do what he said,” Yeshayah replied. “Do you want the shadows to advance suddenly or go back?”

10 “It’s easy for the shadows go forward,” said Hizkiyah. “So make them go backwards ten steps.”

11 So the prophet Yeshayah called to Yahweh, and he made the shadow go back on the steps made by King Ahaz—the shadow went ten steps backward.

12 At that time, Baladan’s son former King Berodak-Baladan of Babylon heard that Hizkiyah was sick and sent him letters and a gift. 13 When the messengers arrived, Hizkiyah listened to them, then he showed them his entire treasure house: the gold and silver, the spices and the best oil, the house of his armour, and everything that was in his treasuries. He didn’t keep anything in his palace or in his kingdom secret from them. 14 Later the prophet Yeshayah came to King Hizkiyah and he asked him, “Where were those men from and what did they say?”

“They came from a distant land—from Babylon,” he replied.

15 “What did they see in your house?” Yeshayah asked.

“They saw everything that’s in my house,” he replied. “There wasn’t anything in my treasuries that I didn’t show them.”

16 Then Yeshayah told Hizkiyah, “Listen to Yahweh’s message: 17 He says that days are coming when everything in your house, and everything that your ancestors stored carefully away until this day will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left behind.[ref] 18 What’s more, some of your own biological descendants will be taken and they’ll be castrated to become servants of the Babylonian king.”

19 “What you said from Yahweh is fine,” Hizkiyah replied to Yeshayah. “At least I might have peace and stability in my time.”

20 Everything else that Hizkiyah said and did, including his making the pool and tunnel to bring water into the city, is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 21 In due course, Hizkiyah died and his son Menashsheh replaced him as king.

29 Hizkiyah was twenty-five when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for twenty-nine years. His mother was Zekaryah’s daughter Aviyah. 2 He did what pleased Yahweh, like his ancestor King David had done.

3 In the very first month of his reign, he unlocked the temple doors and repaired them. 4 Then he summoned the priests and the Levites, and assembled them in the eastern temple courtyard 5 and told them, “Now you Levites, listen to me. You need to consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the residence of Yahweh, the god of your ancestors, and remove any defilement from the sacred place, 6 because our fathers were unfaithful and disobeyed our god Yahweh. Then they abandoned him and had no more interest in this temple and turned their back on it all. 7 They had extinguished the lamps and locked the temple up. After that, they didn’t burn any incense or offer any burnt sacrifices in the sacred place of Yisrael’s god. 8 That’s why Yahweh was angry at Yerushalem and all Yehudah, and allowed us to become a place of terror and horror and scorn as you’ve all seen with your own eyes. 9 As a result, our fathers fell in battle, and our wives and children have been captured and taken to other countries.

10 Now I sincerely want to make an agreement with Yisrael’s god Yahweh, so that his fierce anger will turn away from us. 11 So lads, don’t mess around because Yahweh has chosen you all to stand in his presence to serve him, and to be ministering and burning incense.

12 Then these Levites took action:

• from the Kohatites: Mahat (Amasai’s son) and Yoel (Azaryah’s son),
• from the descendants of Merari: Kish (Avdi’s son) and Azaryah (Yehallelel’s son),
• from the Gereshonites: Yoah (Zimmah’s son) and Eden (Yoah’s son),
• 13 from Elitsafan’s descendants: Shimri and Yeiel,
• from Asaf’s descendants: Zekaryah and Mattanyah,
• 14 from Heyman’s descendants: Yehiel and Shimei, and
• from Yedutun’s descendants: Shemayah and Uzziel.

15 They assembled their relatives and consecrated themselves, then they entered the temple to purify it as the king had ordered as a result of Yahweh’s message. 16 The priests entered the inner part of the temple to purify it, and they brought out everything they found that shouldn’t be in there to the temple courtyard, and then the Levites took it all out to be burnt down in the Kidron valley.

17 They began the purification at the beginning of March and worked outwards to the porch by the eighth, and then eight more days for the courtyard, so they finished on the sixteenth.

18 Then they reported to King Hizkiyah, “We’ve purified all of Yahweh’s temple, including the altar for burnt offerings and all its utensils, and the bread display table and all its utensils. 19 We’ve prepared and consecrated all the items which King Ahaz had rejected in his reign of unfaithfulness, and they’re back in front of Yahweh’s altar.”

Temple sacrifices restored

20 Early the next morning, King Hizkiyah assembled the city officials, and went to Yahweh’s residence, 21 taking seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs, and seven male goats to be a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Yehudah. He instructed the priests (Aharon’s descendants) to sacrifice the animals to Yahweh on the altar. 22 So they slaughtered the bulls and took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. Then they did the same for the rams, and then the lambs. 23 Finally, they brought the goats for the sin offering to the front, and the king and the people placed their hands on them 24 before the priests slaughtered them and splashed their blood on the altar so Yahweh would forgive the disobedience of all Yisrael. (The king had ordered the burnt offerings and the sin offering be for all Yisrael.)

25 Then he told the Levites to stand in the temple with cymbals, harps, and lyres—obeying what David and his prophets Gad and Natan had commanded. (Yahweh had actually given those orders through his prophets.) 26 The Levites stood with David’s instruments, and the priests with their trumpets, 27 then Hizkiyah said to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When they started to slaughter the animals, the people sang and praised Yahweh as the trumpets were blown and the other instruments played. 28 The entire assembly were bowing down and worshipping as the singers sang and the trumpeters played, until the burnt offering was completed, 29 then the king and everyone with him bowed down and worshipped. 30 Then King Hizkiyah and his officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to Yahweh using compositions of David and the prophet Asaf, so they cheerfully sang praises and bowed down and worshipped.

31 Then Hizkiyah responded, “You’ve all consecrated yourselves to Yahweh, so come near and bring your sacrifices and thanksgivings in to the house of Yahweh.” So the assembly brought in their sacrifices and thanksgiving gifts, plus those who wanted to, brought their sacrifices to be burnt.

32 Altogether they brought seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs to be completed burnt on the altar, 33 as well as six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep as dedicated offerings. 34 There weren’t enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, so their relatives the Levites helped them until the work was finished and until all the priests had consecrated themselves, because the Levites hard worked quicker to consecrate themselves than the priests had. 35 In addition to the burnt offernings, there was the fat from the peace offerings, and there were drink offerings.

So the service of Yahweh’s temple was reinstituted 36 and Hizkiyah and all the people celebrated about what God had prepared for the people, because it had all happened fairly quickly.

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