but the poles were long enough for their ends to extend to the front of the inner sanctuary, even though they could not be seen from outside. They remain there to this day.

"When the skies remain closed, and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, and they pray in the direction of this place, confessing your name and turning from their sin when you afflict them,

"Now therefore my eyes will remain open and my ears will remain listening to the prayers that are offered in this place.

And they rise early in the morning, and go out to the wilderness of Tekoa, and in their going out Jehoshaphat hath stood and saith, 'Hear me, O Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, remain stedfast in Jehovah your God, and be stedfast; remain stedfast in His prophets, and prosper.'

Another third of you priests and descendants of Levi will take your places in the royal palace, while another third of you priests and descendants of Levi will stand near the Foundation Gate. The rest of you will remain in the courtyard of the LORD's Temple.

Look, you say [that] you have struck Edom, and your heart has lifted you up to boast. Now remain at your home. Why stir up disaster that you fall, you and Judah with you?"

So the couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the hand of the king and his officials, and according to the king’s command, saying, “Israelites, return to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel so that He may return to those of you who remain, who have escaped from the grasp of the kings of Assyria.

“Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, ‘In what do you trust that you are remaining in Jerusalem under siege?

He built altars in the Lord’s temple, where Yahweh had said, “Jerusalem is where My name will remain forever.”

"Go, seek an oracle from the Lord for me and those who remain in Israel and Judah. Find out about the words of this scroll that has been discovered. For the Lord's fury has been ignited against us, because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the Lord by doing all that this scroll instructs!"