¹King Hoshea, son of Elah, had been king in Israel for three years when King Hezekiah, son of Ahaz of Judah, began to rule as king. ²Hezekiah was 25 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Abi, daughter of Zechariah.

³He did what the Lord considered right, as his ancestor David had done. ⁴He got rid of the illegal places of worship, crushed the sacred stones, and cut down the poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah. He even crushed the bronze snake that Moses had made because up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. They called it Nehushtan. ⁵Hezekiah trusted the Lord God of Israel. No king among all the kings of Judah was like Hezekiah. ⁶He was loyal to the Lord and never turned away from him. He obeyed the commands that the Lord had given through Moses, ⁷so the Lord was with him. He succeeded in everything he tried: He rebelled against the king of Assyria and wouldn’t serve him anymore. ⁸He conquered the Philistines from the ⸤smallest⸥ watchtower to the ⸤largest⸥ fortified city all the way to Gaza and its territory.

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