Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them.

And it came to pass, as he talked with him, that the king said unto him, Art thou made of the king's counsel? forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten? Then the prophet forbare, and said, I know that God hath determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened unto my counsel.

And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle.

Thou saidst, Behold, thou didst strike Edom; and thy heart lifted thee up to boast: now dwell in thy house; wherefore wilt thou be stirred up in evil, and thou fallest, and Judah with thee?

But Amaziah refused to listen, because the situation was being orchestrated by God in order to turn them over to the control of their enemies because they had pursued those Edomite gods.

Judah was defeated by Israel; and they fled every man to his tent.

and, Amaziah king of Judah, son of Joash son of Jehoahaz, was taken by Joash king of Israel, in Beth-shemesh, - and he brought him to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, from the gate of Ephraim as far as the corner-gate, four hundred cubits;

And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels which were in the house of the Lord, under the care of Obed-edom, and all the wealth from the king's house, as well as those whose lives would be the price of broken faith, and went back to Samaria.

His body was carried back by horses, and he was buried in Jerusalem with his ancestors in the City of David.

He practiced what the LORD considered to be right, following the example set by his father Amaziah's accomplishments.

And he will be for seeking God in the days of Zechariah understanding in the visions of God: and in the days of his seeking Jehovah, God prospered him.

And Uzziah buildeth towers in Jerusalem, by the gate of the corner, and by the gate of the valley, and by the angle, and strengtheneth them;

Moreover Uzziah had an host of fighting men, that went out to war by bands, according to the number of their account by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the ruler, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king's captains.

and by their hand is the force of the host, three hundred thousand, and seven thousand, and five hundred warriors, with mighty power to give help to the king against the enemy.

And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.

But when he became strong, he grew arrogant and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God by going into the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar.

And they withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the LORD, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the LORD God.

Then Uzziah was angry; and he had in his hand a vessel for burning perfume; and while his wrath was bitter against the priests, the mark of the leper's disease came out on his brow, before the eyes of the priests in the house of the Lord by the altar of perfumes.

King Uzziah suffered from a skin disease until the day he died. He lived in separate quarters, afflicted by a skin disease and banned from the Lord's temple. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace and ruled over the people of the land.

Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, were recorded by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

He practiced what the LORD considered to be right, just as his father Uzziah had done, even though he did not enter the Temple. Nevertheless, the people continued acting corruptly.

He fought also with the king of the Ammonites, and prevailed against them. And the children of Ammon gave him the same year an hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon pay unto him, both the second year, and the third.

And Jotham will be strengthened, for he prepared his ways before Jehovah his God.

Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, but he did not practice what the LORD considered to be right, as his ancestor David had done.

He offered sacrifices in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and passed his sons through the fire, a horrible sin practiced by the nations whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.

Then Yahweh his God gave him into the hand of the king of Aram who defeated him and captured many captives from him and brought [them to] Damascus. Moreover, he was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, and he defeated him by a great attack.

And now your purpose is to keep the children of Judah and Jerusalem as men-servants and women-servants under your yoke: but are there no sins against the Lord your God to be seen among yourselves?

And said to them, You are not to let these prisoners come here; for what you are designing to do will be a cause of sin against the Lord to us, making even greater our sin and our wrongdoing, which now are great enough, and his wrath is burning against Israel.

And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.

And in all the cities of Judah, city by city, he made hill altars to burn incense unto other gods, and angered the LORD God of his fathers.

He practiced what the LORD considered to be right, following all of the examples set by his ancestor David.

"Pay attention to me, you descendants of Levi! Consecrate yourselves and the Temple of the LORD God of your ancestors by taking out from the Holy Place whatever is unclean. Our ancestors have been unfaithful. They practiced what the LORD considers to be evil, abandoned him, turned their faces away from the place where the LORD resides, and turned their backs to him.

Wherefore the wrath of Jehovah was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to be tossed to and fro, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as ye see with your eyes.

For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.

Now it is my purpose to make an agreement with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from us.

My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, and that ye should minister unto him, and burn incense.

And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.

And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to make it clean, and everything unclean which was to be seen in the Temple of the Lord they took out into the outer square of the Lord's house, and the Levites got it together and took it away to the stream Kidron.

On the first day of the first month they began consecrating; by the eighth day of the month they reached the porch of the Lord's temple. For eight more days they consecrated the Lord's temple. On the sixteenth day of the first month they were finished.

And they went in to king Hezekiah, and said, We have cleansed all the house of Jehovah, and the altar of burnt-offering with all its vessels, and the table of the bread to be set in rows, and all its vessels;

And all the vessels which were turned out by King Ahaz in his sin while he was king, we have put in order and made holy, and now they are in their places before the altar of the Lord.

And they took with them seven oxen and seven male sheep and seven lambs and seven he-goats as a sin-offering for the kingdom and for the holy house and for Judah. And he gave orders to the sons of Aaron, the priests, that these were to be offered on the altar of the Lord.

So they put the oxen to death and their blood was given to the priests to be drained out against the altar; then they put the male sheep to death, draining out their blood against the altar, and they put the lambs to death, draining out their blood against the altar.

And the priests killed them, and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel: for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.

And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the LORD by his prophets.

The descendants of Levi played instruments that had been crafted by David and the priests sounded trumpets.

And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by David king of Israel.

And Hezekiah the king saith, and the princes, to the Levites to give praise to Jehovah in the words of David, and of Asaph the seer, and they praise -- unto joy, and they bow, and do obeisance.

The number of burnt offerings brought by the assembly was 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs. All of these were burnt offerings to the LORD.

And also the burnt-offering for multitude, with the fat of the peace offerings, and with the libations for the burnt-offering. And the service of the house of Jehovah will be prepared.

This decision seemed to be a good one in the opinion of the king and of the entire assembly,

So it was ordered that word was to be sent out through all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that they were to come to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: because they had not kept it in great numbers in agreement with the law.

So runners went with letters from the king and his chiefs through all Israel and Judah, by the order of the king, saying, O children of Israel, come back again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may come again to that small band of you which has been kept safe out of the hands of the kings of Assyria.

And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as ye see.

Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.

For if you come back to the Lord, those who took away your brothers and your children will have pity on them, and let them come back to this land: for the Lord your God is full of grace and mercy, and his face will not be turned away from you if you come back to him.

And the runners will be passing from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and even to Zebulon: and laughing upon them, and deriding over them.

Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD.

And they took their places in their right order, as it was ordered in the law of Moses, the man of God: the priests draining out on the altar the blood given them by the Levites.

Because there were so many in the assembly that had not consecrated themselves, therefore the descendants of Levi supervised the slaughter of the Passover sacrifices on behalf of everyone who remained unclean, so they could be consecrated to the LORD.

Even though a large crowd of people from as far away as Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not completed consecrating themselves, they still ate the Passover in a manner not proscribed by the Law, because Hezekiah had prayed like this for them: "May the good LORD extend a pardon on behalf of

That prepareth his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.

And the children of Israel that 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 unto the LORD.

And by the desire of all the people, the feast went on for another seven days, and they kept the seven days with joy.

And there will be great gladness in Jerusalem: for from the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there was not as this in Jerusalem.

Now when all this was over, all the men of Israel who were present went out into the towns of Judah, causing the stone pillars to be broken up and the wood pillars to be cut down, pulling down the high places and the altars in all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, till all were gone. Then all the children of Israel went back to their towns, every man to his property.

And Hezekiah appointeth the courses of the priests, and of the Levites, by their courses, each according to his service, of the priests and of the Levites, for burnt-offering, and for peace-offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to give praise in the gates of the camps of Jehovah.

And he ordered that the king's portion should be taken from his substance for the burnt-offerings: for the morning and evening burnt-offerings, for the burnt-offerings of the sabbaths, and of the new moons, and of the set feasts, as it is written in the law of Jehovah.

Moreover he commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the LORD.

And concerning the children of Israel and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated unto the LORD their God, and laid them by heaps.

In the third month they began to make the heaps, and finished them by the seventh month.

and Azariah the head priest, of the house of Zadok, speaketh unto him, and saith, 'From the beginning of the bringing of the heave-offering to the house of Jehovah, there is to eat, and to be satisfied, and to leave abundantly, for Jehovah hath blessed His people, and that left is this store.'

Then Hezekiah said that store-rooms were to be made ready in the house of the Lord; and this was done.

they brought in the contributions, tithes, and consecrated items that had been offered. Konaniah, a Levite, was in charge of all this, assisted by his brother Shimei.

And Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.

And next him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their set office, to give to their brethren by courses, as well to the great as to the small:

besides them that were reckoned by genealogy of males, from three years old and upward, even every one that entered into the house of Jehovah, as the duty of every day required, for their service in their offices according to their courses;

Both to the genealogy of the priests by the house of their fathers, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their charges by their courses;

and them that were reckoned by genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation: for in their office of trust they sanctified themselves in holiness.

Also of the sons of Aaron the priests, which were in the fields of the suburbs of their cities, in every several city, the men that were expressed by name, to give portions to all the males among the priests, and to all that were reckoned by genealogies among the Levites.

Hezekiah did this throughout all of Judah, and he acted well, doing what the LORD his God considered to be right and true.

Now after these things and this true-hearted work, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came into Judah, and put his army in position before the walled towns of Judah, designing to make his way into them by force.

he decided, together with his officers and his soldiers, to stop up the water [supply] from the springs which were outside the city [by enclosing them with masonry and concealing them], and they helped him.

And much people will be gathered together, and they will stop all the fountains, and the torrent gushing through the midst of the land, saving, Wherefore shall the kings of Assur come and find many waters?

Then Hezekiah strengthened his position by rebuilding the entire broken-down wall and heightening the towers and the other outside wall. He repaired the supporting terraces of the city of David, and made an abundance of weapons and shields.

Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him:

With him is an arm of flesh, and with us is Jehovah our God, to help us, and to fight our battles;' and the people are supported by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

After this hath Sennacherib king of Asshur sent his servants to Jerusalem -- and he is by Lachish, and all his power with him -- against Hezekiah king of Judah, and against all Judah, who are in Jerusalem, saying,

Doth not Hezekiah persuade you to give over yourselves to die by famine and by thirst, saying, The LORD our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

Hath not Hezekiah himself turned aside His high places, and His altars, and speaketh to Judah and to Jerusalem, saying, Before one altar ye bow yourselves, and on it ye make perfume?

Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand?

So do not be tricked by Hezekiah or let him get you to do this, and do not put any faith in what he says: for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to keep his people safe from my hands, or the hands of my fathers: how much less will your God keep you safe from my hands!

They spoke against the God of Jerusalem like they had spoken against the gods of the peoples of the earth, which were made by human hands.

and Jehovah sendeth a messenger, and cutteth off every mighty one of valour -- both leader and head -- in the camp of the king of Asshur, and he turneth back with shame of face to his land, and entereth the house of his god, and those coming out of his bowels have caused him to fall there by the sword.

Many were bringing presents to the Lord in Jerusalem and precious gifts to King Hezekiah of Judah. From that time on he was respected by all the nations.

In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. He prayed to the Lord, who answered him and gave him a sign confirming that he would be healed.

But Hezekiah was ungrateful; he had a proud attitude, provoking God to be angry at him, as well as Judah and Jerusalem.

And it came to pass that, Hezekiah, had riches and honour in great abundance, - and, treasuries, made he for himself - for silver and for gold and for costly stones, and for spices and for precious things, and for all utensils to be coveted;

However, in the business of the representatives sent by the rulers of Babylon to get news of the wonder which had taken place in the land, God gave up guiding him, testing him to see what was in his heart.

But he practiced what the LORD considered to be evil by behaving detestably, as did the nations whom the LORD expelled in front of the Israelis.