The king would not listen to the people because the turn of events was from God, so that the LORD might fulfill his prediction that he spoke through Nebat's son Ahijah the Shilonite.

by placing troops in all of the fortified citadels through Judah and by establishing garrisons throughout the land of Judah and in the cities that his father Asa had captured.

They taught throughout Judah from a copy of the Book of the Law of the LORD that they took with them as they passed through all the cities of Judah, teaching among all the people.

He also took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the people's governors, and all the people of the land, and they all marched with the king from the LORD's Temple through the upper gate to the royal palace, where they installed the king on his royal throne.

Hezekiah stationed descendants of Levi in the LORD's Temple to play cymbals and stringed instruments, just as David, Gad the seer, and Nathan the prophet had directed, because the command to do so was from the LORD through those prophets.

Many people gathered together and plugged up all the springs, along with the stream that flowed through the region. They were thinking to themselves, "Why should the Assyrian kings invade and discover an abundant water supply?"

and "I won't let Israel's foothold slip on the land that I've given to your ancestors, if only they will be careful to keep everything that I commanded them in the Law, in the statutes, and in the ordinance through Moses."

But Josiah wouldn't turn around. In fact, he put on a disguise so he could fight Neco. He wouldn't listen to what God told him through what Neco had to say, and as a result, Josiah came to attack Neco on the Megiddo plain.

The LORD God of their ancestors pleaded with them time and again through his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on the place of his residence,

All of this fulfilled what the LORD had predicted through Jeremiah. And so the land enjoyed its Sabbaths, and the length of the land's desolation lasted until a 70-year long Sabbath had been completed.