2 Chronicles 28–29

Ahaz Becomes King of Judah

28Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 16 years.

He didn’t do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He didn’t do what King David had done. ²He followed the ways of the kings of Israel. He also made metal statues of gods that were named after Baal. ³He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He sacrificed his children in the fire to other gods. He followed the practices of the nations. The Lord hated those practices. He had driven out those nations to make room for the people of Israel. ⁴Ahaz offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places. He also did it on the tops of hills and under every green tree.

⁵So the Lord his God handed him over to the king of Aram. The men of Aram won the battle over him. They took many of his people as prisoners. They brought them to Damascus.

God also handed Ahaz over to Pekah. His army wounded or killed many of the troops of Ahaz. Pekah was king of Israel. ⁶In one day Pekah killed 120,000 soldiers in Judah. That’s because Judah had deserted the Lord, the God of their people. Pekah was the son of Remaliah.

⁷Zicri was a fighting man from Ephraim. He killed Maaseiah, Azrikam and Elkanah. Maaseiah was the king’s son. Azrikam was the officer who was in charge of the palace. And Elkanah was next in command after the king. ⁸The men of Israel captured 200,000 wives, sons and daughters from their relatives in Judah. They also took a large amount of goods. They carried all of it back to Samaria.

⁹But a prophet of the Lord was there. His name was Oded. When the army returned to Samaria, he went out to meet them. He said to them, “The Lord is the God of your people. He burned with anger against Judah. So he handed them over to you. But you have killed them. Your anger reached all the way to heaven.

¹⁰“Now you are planning to make the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves. But aren’t you also guilty of sins against the Lord your God? ¹¹Listen to me! You have taken your relatives from Judah as prisoners. The Lord’s anger is burning against you. So send your relatives back.”

¹²Then some of the leaders in Ephraim stood up to those who were returning from the war. The leaders were Azariah, Berekiah, Jehizkiah and Amasa. Azariah was the son of Jehohanan. Berekiah was the son of Meshillemoth. Jehizkiah was the son of Shallum. And Amasa was the son of Hadlai. ¹³“Don’t bring those prisoners here,” they said. “If you do, we’ll be guilty in the sight of the Lord. Do you really want to add to our sin and guilt? We’re already very guilty. The Lord’s anger is burning against Israel.”

¹⁴So the soldiers gave up the prisoners and the goods they had taken. They did it in front of the officials and the whole community. ¹⁵Azariah, Berekiah, Jehizkiah and Amasa received the prisoners. From the goods that had been taken they gave clothes to all those who were naked. They gave them clothes, sandals, food, drink and healing lotion. They put all of the weak people on donkeys. They took them back to their relatives at Jericho. Then they returned to Samaria. Jericho was also known as the City of Palm Trees.

¹⁶At that time King Ahaz sent men to the king of Assyria to get help. ¹⁷The men of Edom had come again and attacked Judah. They had carried prisoners away. ¹⁸At the same time the Philistines had attacked towns in the western hills and in the Negev Desert of Judah. They had captured Beth Shemesh, Aijalon and Gederoth. They had also captured Soco, Timnah and Gimzo and the villages that were around them. They had settled down in all of them.

¹⁹The Lord had brought Judah down because of Ahaz, their king. Ahaz had stirred up the people of Judah to do evil things. He hadn’t been faithful to the Lord at all.

²⁰Tiglath-Pileser came to Ahaz. But he gave Ahaz trouble instead of help. Tiglath-Pileser was king of Assyria. ²¹Ahaz took some things from the Lord’s temple. He also took some from the royal palace and from the princes. He gave all of them to the king of Assyria. But that didn’t help him.

²²When King Ahaz was in trouble, he became even more unfaithful to the Lord. ²³He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus. They had won the battle over him. He thought, “The gods of the kings of Aram have helped them. So I’ll sacrifice to them. Then they’ll help me.” But they brought him down. In fact, they brought the whole nation of Israel down.

²⁴Ahaz gathered together everything that belonged to God’s temple. He took all of it away. He shut the doors of the Lord’s temple. He set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. ²⁵In every town in Judah he built high places. Sacrifices were burned there to other gods. That made the Lord, the God of his people, very angry.

²⁶The other events of the rule of Ahaz and all of his evil practices from beginning to end are written down. They are written in the records of the kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷Ahaz joined the members of his family who had already died. His body was buried in the city of Jerusalem. But it wasn’t placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah became the next king after him.

Hezekiah Purifies the Temple

29Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother’s name was Abijah. She was the daughter of Zechariah.

²Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as King David had done.

³In the first month of Hezekiah’s first year as king, he opened the doors of the Lord’s temple. He repaired them. ⁴He brought the priests and Levites in. He gathered them together in the open area on the east side of the temple.

⁵He said, “Levites, listen to me! Set yourselves apart to the Lord. Set apart the temple of the Lord. He’s the God of your people. Remove anything that is ‘unclean’ from the temple. ⁶Our people weren’t faithful. They did what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They deserted him. They turned their faces away from the place where he lives. They turned their backs on him. ⁷They also shut the doors of the temple porch. They put the lamps out. They didn’t burn incense at the temple. They didn’t sacrifice burnt offerings to the God of Israel there.

⁸“So the Lord has become angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He has made them look so bad that everyone is shocked when they see them. They laugh at them. You can see it with your own eyes. ⁹That’s why our people have been killed with swords. That’s why our sons and daughters and wives have become prisoners.

¹⁰“So I’m planning to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel. Then he’ll turn his burning anger away from us.

¹¹“My sons, don’t fail to obey the Lord. He has chosen you to stand in front of him and work for him. He wants you to serve him and burn incense to him.”

¹²Here are the Levites who went to work.

Mahath and Joel were from the family line of Kohath.

Mahath was the son of Amasai. Joel was the son of Azariah.

Kish and Azariah were from the family line of Merari.

Kish was the son of Abdi. Azariah was the son of Jehallelel.

Joah and Eden were from the family line of Gershon.

Joah was the son of Zimmah. Eden was the son of Joah.

¹³Shimri and Jeiel were from

the family line of Elizaphan.

Zechariah and Mattaniah were from

the family line of Asaph.

¹⁴Jehiel and Shimei were from

the family line of Heman.

Shemaiah and Uzziel were from

the family line of Jeduthun.

¹⁵All of those Levites gathered the other Levites together. They set themselves apart to the Lord. Then they went in to purify the Lord’s temple. That’s what the king had ordered them to do. They did what the Lord told them to. ¹⁶The priests went into the Lord’s temple to make it pure. They brought out to the temple courtyard everything that was “unclean.” They had found “unclean” things in the Lord’s temple. The Levites took them and carried them out to the Kidron Valley.

¹⁷On the first day of the first month they began to set everything in the temple apart to the Lord. By the eighth day of the month they reached the Lord’s porch. For eight more days they set the Lord’s temple itself apart to him. They finished on the 16th day of the first month.

¹⁸Then they went to King Hezekiah. They reported, “We’ve purified the whole temple of the Lord. That includes the altar for burnt offerings and all of its tools. It also includes the table for the holy bread and all of its articles. ¹⁹We’ve prepared all of the articles King Ahaz had removed. We’ve set them apart to the Lord. Ahaz had removed them while he was king. He wasn’t faithful to the Lord. The articles are now in front of the Lord’s altar.”

²⁰Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials together. They went up to the Lord’s temple. ²¹They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats with them. They sacrificed the animals as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the temple and for Judah. The king commanded the priests to offer them on the Lord’s altar. The priests were from the family line of Aaron.

²²They killed the bulls. Then they sprinkled the blood on the altar. Next they killed the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar. Then they killed the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar.

²³The goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the whole community. They placed their hands on them. ²⁴Then the priests killed the goats. They put the blood on the altar as a sin offering. It paid for the sin of the whole nation of Israel. The king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for the whole nation.

²⁵He stationed the Levites in the Lord’s temple. They had cymbals, harps and lyres. They did everything in the way King David, his prophet Gad, and the prophet Nathan had required. The Lord had given commands about all of those things through his prophets. ²⁶So the Levites stood ready with David’s musical instruments. And the priests had their trumpets ready.

²⁷Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. The offering began. Singing to the Lord also began. The…