2 Chronicles 28–29

Chapter 28

Achaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord as David his father had done,

²But walked in the ways of the kings of Israel; moreover also he cast statues for Baalim.

³It was he that burnt incense in the valley of Benennom, and consecrated his sons in the fire according to the manner of the nations, which the Lord slew at the coming of the children of Israel.

⁴He sacrificed also, and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵And the Lord his God delivered him into the hands of the king of Syria, who defeated him, and took a great booty out of his kingdom, and carried it to Damascus: he was also delivered into the hands of the king of Israel, who overthrew him with a great slaughter.

⁶For Phacee the son of Romelia slew of Juda a hundred and twenty thousand in one day, all valiant men, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers.

⁷At the same time Zechri a powerful man of Ephraim, slew Maasias the king’s son, and Ezricam the governor of his house, and Elcana who was next to the king.

⁸And the children of Israel carried away of their brethren two hundred thousand women, boys, and girls, and an immense booty: and they brought it to Samaria.

⁹At that time there was a prophet of the Lord there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria, and said to them: Behold the Lord the God of your fathers being angry with Juda, hath delivered them into your hands, and you have butchered them cruelly, so that your cruelty hath reached up to heaven.

¹⁰Moreover you have a mind to keep under the children of Juda and Jerusalem for your bondmen and bondwomen, which ought not to be done: for you have sinned in this against the Lord your God.

¹¹But hear ye my counsel, and release the captives that you have brought of your brethren, because a great indignation of the Lord hangeth over you.

¹²Then some of the chief men of the sons of Ephraim, Azarias the son of Johanan, Barachias the son of Mosollamoth, Ezechias the son of Sellum, and Amasa the son of Adali, stood up against them that came from the war.

¹³And they said to them: You shall not bring in the captives hither, lest we sin against the Lord. Why will you add to our sins, and heap up upon our former offences? for the sin is great, and the fierce anger of the Lord hangeth over Israel.

¹⁴So the soldiers left the spoils, and all that they had taken, before the princes and all the multitude.

¹⁵And the men, whom we mentioned above, rose up and took the captives, and with the spoils clothed all them that were naked: and when they had clothed and shod them, and refreshed them with meat and drink, and anointed them because of their labour, and had taken care of them, they set such of them as could not walk, and were feeble, upon beasts, and brought them to Jericho the city of palm trees to their brethren, and they returned to Samaria.

¹⁶At that time king Achaz sent to the king of the Assyrians asking help.

¹⁷And the Edomites came and slew many of Juda, and took a great booty.

¹⁸The Philistines also spread themselves among the cities of the plains, and to the south of Juda: and they took Bethsames, and Aialon, and Gaderoth, and Socho, and Thamnan, and Gamzo, with their villages, and they dwelt in them.

¹⁹For the Lord had humbled Juda because of Achaz the king of Juda, for he had stripped it of help, and had contemned the Lord.

²⁰And he brought against him Thelgathphalnasar king of the Assyrians, who also afflicted him, and plundered him without any resistance.

²¹And Achaz stripped the house of the Lord, and the house of the kings, and of the princes, and gave gifts to the king of the Assyrians, and yet it availed him nothing.

²²Moreover also in the time of his distress he increased contempt against the Lord: king Achaz himself by himself,

²³Sacrificed victims to the gods of Damascus that struck him, and he said: The gods of the kings of Syria help them, and I will appease them with victims, and they will help me; whereas on the contrary they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.

²⁴Then Achaz having taken away all the vessels of the house of God, and broken them, shut up the doors of the temple of God, and made himself altars in all the corners of Jerusalem.

²⁵And in all the cities of Juda he built altars to burn frankincense, and he provoked the Lord the God of his fathers to wrath.

²⁶But the rest of his acts, and all his works first and last are written in the book of the kings of Juda and Israel.

²⁷And Achaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of Jerusalem: for they received him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel. And Ezechias his son reigned in his stead.

Chapter 29

Now Ezechias began to reign, when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Abia, the daughter of Zacharias.

²And he did that which was pleasing in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.

³In the first year and month of his reign he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them.

⁴And he brought the priests and the Levites, and assembled them in the east street.

⁵And he said to them: Hear me, ye Levites, and be sanctified, purify the house of the Lord the God of your fathers, and take away all filth out of the sanctuary.

⁶Our fathers have sinned and done evil in the sight of the Lord God, forsaking him: they have turned away their faces from the tabernacle of the Lord, and turned their backs.

⁷They have shut up the doors that were in the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burnt incense, nor offered holocausts in the sanctuary of the God of Israel.

⁸Therefore the wrath of the Lord hath been stirred up against Juda and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, and to destruction, and to be hissed at, as you see with your eyes.

⁹Behold, our fathers are fallen by the sword, our sons, and our daughters, and wives are led away captives for this wickedness.

¹⁰Now therefore I have a mind that we make a covenant with the Lord the God of Israel, and he will turn away the wrath of his indignation from us.

¹¹My sons, be not negligent: the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him, and to minister to him, and to worship him, and to burn incense to him.

¹²Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azarias, of the sons of Caath: and of the sons of Merari, Cis the son of Abdi, and Azarias the son of Jalaleel. And of the sons of Gerson, Joah the son of Zemma, and Eden the son of Joah.

¹³And of the sons of Elisaphan, Samri, and Jahiel. Also of the sons of Asaph, Zacharias, and Mathanias.

¹⁴And of the sons of Heman, Jahiel, and Semei: and of the sons of Idithun, Semeias, and Oziel.

¹⁵And they gathered together their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and went in according to the commandment of the king, and the precept of the Lord, to purify the house of God.

¹⁶And the priests went into the temple of the Lord to sanctify it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found within to the entrance of the house of the Lord, and the Levites took it away, and carried it out abroad to the torrent Cedron.

¹⁷And they began to cleanse on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the same month they came into the porch of the temple of the Lord, and they purified the temple in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the same month they finished what they had begun.

¹⁸And they went in to king Ezechias, and said to him: We have sanctified all the house of the Lord, and the altar of holocaust, and the vessels thereof, and the table of proposition with all its vessels,

¹⁹And all the furniture of the temple, which king Achaz in his reign had defiled, after his transgression; and behold they are all set forth before the altar of the Lord.

²⁰And king Ezechias rising early, assembled all the rulers of the city, and went up into the house of the Lord:

²¹And they offered together seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats for sin, for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, for Juda: and he spoke to the priests the sons of Aaron, to offer them upon the altar of the Lord.

²²Therefore they killed the bullocks, and the priests took the blood, and poured it upon the altar; they killed also the rams, and their blood they poured also upon the altar, and they killed the lambs, and poured the blood upon the altar.

²³And they brought the he goats for sin before the king, and the whole multitude, and they laid their hand upon them:

²⁴And the priests immolated them, and sprinkled their blood before the altar for an expiation of all Israel: for the king had commanded that the holocaust and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.

²⁵And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, and psalteries, and harps according to the regulation of David the king, and of Gad the seer, and of Nathan the prophet: for it was the commandment of the Lord by the hand of his prophets.

²⁶And the Levites stood, with the instruments of David, and the priests with trumpets.

²⁷And Ezechias commanded that they should offer holocausts upon the altar: and when the holocausts were offered, they began to sing praises to the Lord, and to sound with trumpets, and divers instruments which David the king of Israel had prepared.

²⁸And all the multitude adored, and the singers, and the trumpeters, were in their office till the holocaust was finished.

²⁹And when the oblation was ended, the king, and all that were with him bowed down and adored.

³⁰And Ezechias and the princes commanded the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David, and Asaph the seer: and they praised him with great joy, and bowing the knee adored.

³¹And Ezechias added, and said: You have filled your hands to the Lord, come and offer…