2 Chronicles 30–33

Chapter 30

All Israel Invited to the Passover

¹Now Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to ¹celebrate the Passover to the Lord God of Israel.

²For the king and his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem had decided ^ato celebrate the Passover in the second month,

³since they could not celebrate it ^aat that time, because the priests had not consecrated themselves in sufficient numbers, nor had the people been gathered to Jerusalem.

⁴Thus the thing was right in the sight of the king and ¹all the assembly.

⁵So they established a decree to circulate a ¹proclamation throughout all Israel ^afrom Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to celebrate the Passover to the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem. For they had not celebrated it in great numbers as it was ²prescribed.

^6aThe ¹couriers went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the hand of the king and his princes, even according to the command of the king, saying, “O sons of Israel, return to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that He may return to those of you who escaped and are left from ^bthe ²hand of the kings of Assyria.

⁷“^aDo not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were unfaithful to the Lord God of their fathers, so that ^bHe made them a horror, as you see.

⁸“Now do not ^astiffen your neck like your fathers, but ¹yield to the Lord and enter His sanctuary which He has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, ^bthat His burning anger may turn away from you.

⁹“For ^aif you return to the Lord, your brothers and your sons will find compassion before those who led them captive and will return to this land. ^bFor the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”

¹⁰So the ¹couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but ^athey laughed them to scorn and mocked them.

¹¹Nevertheless ^asome men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.

¹²The ^ahand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the Lord.

Passover Reinstituted

¹³Now many people were gathered at Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread ^ain the second month, a very large assembly.

¹⁴They arose and removed the altars which were in Jerusalem; they also ^aremoved all the incense altars and ^bcast them into the brook Kidron.

¹⁵Then ^athey slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth of the second month. And ^bthe priests and Levites were ashamed of themselves, and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the Lord.

^16aThey stood at their stations after their custom, according to the law of Moses the man of God; the priests sprinkled the blood which they received from the hand of the Levites.

¹⁷For there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves; therefore, ^athe Levites were over the slaughter of the Passover lambs for everyone who was unclean, in order to consecrate them to the Lord.

¹⁸For a multitude of the people, ^aeven many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not purified themselves, ^byet they ate the Passover ^cotherwise than ¹prescribed. For Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon

^19aeveryone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”

²⁰So the Lord heard Hezekiah and ^ahealed the people.

²¹The sons of Israel present in Jerusalem ^acelebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day after day with loud instruments to the Lord.

²²Then Hezekiah ^aspoke ¹encouragingly to all the Levites who showed good insight in the things of the Lord. So they ate for the appointed seven days, sacrificing peace offerings and ^bgiving thanks to the Lord God of their fathers.

²³Then the whole assembly ^adecided to celebrate the feast another seven days, so they celebrated the seven days with joy.

²⁴For ^aHezekiah king of Judah had contributed to the assembly 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep, and the princes had contributed to the assembly 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep; and ^ba large number of priests consecrated themselves.

²⁵All the assembly of Judah rejoiced, with the priests and the Levites and ^aall the assembly that came from Israel, both the sojourners who came from the land of Israel and those living in Judah.

²⁶So there was great joy in Jerusalem, because there was nothing like this in Jerusalem ^asince the days of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.

²⁷Then ^athe Levitical priests arose and ^bblessed the people; and their voice was heard and their prayer came to ^cHis holy dwelling place, to heaven.

Chapter 31

Idols Are Destroyed

¹Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, ^abroke the pillars in pieces, cut down the ¹Asherim and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, ²until they had destroyed them all. Then all the sons of Israel returned to their cities, each to his possession.

²And Hezekiah appointed ^athe divisions of the priests and the Levites by their divisions, each according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, ^bfor burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister and to give thanks and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord.

Reforms Continued

³He also appointed ^athe king’s portion of his goods for the burnt offerings, namely, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths and for the new moons and for the fixed festivals, ^bas it is written in the law of the Lord.

⁴Also he ¹commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give ^athe portion due to the priests and the Levites, that they might devote themselves to ^bthe law of the Lord.

⁵As soon as the ¹order spread, the sons of Israel provided in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly ^athe tithe of all.

⁶The sons of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and ^athe tithe of ¹sacred gifts which were consecrated to the Lord their God, and placed them in heaps.

⁷In the third month they began to ¹make the heaps, and finished them by the seventh month.

⁸When Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and ^aHis people Israel.

⁹Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps.

¹⁰Azariah the chief priest ^aof the house of Zadok said to ¹him, “^bSince the contributions began to be brought into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat with plenty left over, for the Lord has blessed His people, and this great quantity is left over.”

¹¹Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare ^arooms in the house of the Lord, and they prepared them.

¹²They faithfully brought in the contributions and the tithes and the consecrated things; and Conaniah the Levite was the officer in charge ^aof them and his brother Shimei was second.

¹³Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath and Benaiah were overseers ¹under the authority of Conaniah and Shimei his brother by the appointment of King Hezekiah, and ^aAzariah was the chief officer of the house of God.

¹⁴Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the eastern gate, was over the freewill offerings of God, to apportion the contributions for the Lord and the most holy things.

¹⁵¹Under his authority were ^aEden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah in ^bthe cities of the priests, to distribute faithfully their portions to their brothers by divisions, whether great or small,

¹⁶without regard to their genealogical enrollment, to the males from ^1athirty years old and upward—everyone who entered the house of the Lord ^bfor his daily obligations—for their work in their duties according to their divisions;

¹⁷as well as the priests who were enrolled genealogically according to their fathers’ households, and the Levites ^afrom twenty years old and upwards, by their duties and their divisions.

¹⁸The genealogical enrollment included ¹all their little children, their wives, their sons and their daughters, for the whole assembly, for they consecrated themselves ²faithfully in holiness.

¹⁹Also for the sons of Aaron the priests who were in ^athe pasture lands of their cities, or in each and every city, ^bthere were men who were designated by name to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone genealogically enrolled among the Levites.

²⁰Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah; and ^ahe did what was good, right and true before the Lord his God.

²¹Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and ^aprospered.

Chapter 32

Sennacherib Invades Judah

¹After these ¹acts of faithfulness ^aSennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and ²thought to break into them for himself.

²Now when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that ¹he intended to make war on Jerusalem,

³he decided with his officers and his warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him.

⁴So many people assembled ^aand stopped up all the springs and ^bthe stream which flowed ¹through the region, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?”

⁵And he took courage and ^arebuilt all the wall that had been broken down and ¹erected towers on it, and built ^banother outside wall and strengthened the ^cMillo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in great number.

⁶He appointed military officers over the people and gathered them to him in the square at the city gate, and ^aspoke ¹…