Day 139 of 364

^28:1Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, like David his father, ^28:2but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and also made molten images for the Baals. ^28:3Moreover he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. ^28:4He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. ^28:5Therefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria. They struck him, and carried away from him a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter. ^28:6For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah one hundred twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. ^28:7Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king’s son, Azrikam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah who was next to the king. ^28:8The children of Israel carried away captive of their brothers two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters, and also took away much plunder from them, and brought the plunder to Samaria. ^28:9But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria, and said to them, “Behold, because the LORD, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven. ^28:10Now you intend to degrade the children of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for yourselves. Aren’t there even with you trespasses of your own against the LORD your God? ^28:11Now hear me therefore, and send back the captives that you have taken captive from your brothers, for the fierce wrath of the LORD is on you.” ^28:12Then some of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who came from the war, ^28:13and said to them, “You must not bring in the captives here, for you intend that which will bring on us a trespass against the LORD, to add to our sins and to our guilt; for our guilt is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.” ^28:14So the armed men left the captives and the plunder before the princes and all the assembly. ^28:15The men who have been mentioned by name rose up and took the captives, and with the plunder clothed all who were naked among them, dressed them, gave them sandals, gave them something to eat and to drink, anointed them, carried all the feeble of them on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria. ^28:16At that time King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him. ^28:17For again the Edomites had come and struck Judah, and carried away captives. ^28:18The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and also Gimzo and its villages; and they lived there. ^28:19For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, because he acted without restraint in Judah and trespassed severely against the LORD. ^28:20Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came to him and gave him trouble, but didn’t strengthen him. ^28:21For Ahaz took away a portion out of the LORD’s house, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it didn’t help him. ^28:22In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against the LORD, this same King Ahaz. ^28:23For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him. He said, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them, that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel. ^28:24Ahaz gathered together the vessels of God’s house, cut the vessels of God’s house in pieces, and shut up the doors of the LORD’s house; and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. ^28:25In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked the LORD, the God of his fathers, to anger. ^28:26Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ^28:27Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem, because they didn’t bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. ^29:1Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ^29:2He did that which was right in the LORD’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done. ^29:3In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the LORD’s house and repaired them. ^29:4He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them together into the wide place on the east, ^29:5and said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry the filthiness out of the holy place. ^29:6For our fathers were unfaithful, and have done that which was evil in the LORD our God’s sight, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs. ^29:7Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. ^29:8Therefore the LORD’s wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment and a hissing, as you see with your eyes. ^29:9For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. ^29:10Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. ^29:11My sons, don’t be negligent now; for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers and burn incense.” ^29:12Then the Levites arose: Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; ^29:13and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; ^29:14and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. ^29:15They gathered their brothers, sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the LORD’s words, to cleanse the LORD’s house. ^29:16The priests went into the inner part of the LORD’s house to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the LORD’s temple into the court of the LORD’s house. The Levites took it from there to carry it out to the brook Kidron. ^29:17Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the LORD’s porch. They sanctified the LORD’s house in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. ^29:18Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace and said, “We have cleansed all the LORD’s house, including the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the table of show bread with all its vessels. ^29:19Moreover, we have prepared and sanctified all the vessels which King Ahaz threw away in his reign when he was unfaithful. Behold, they are before the LORD’s altar.” ^29:20Then Hezekiah the king arose early, gathered the princes of the city, and went up to the LORD’s house. ^29:21They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. He commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the LORD’s altar. ^29:22So they killed the bulls, and the priests received the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. They killed the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar. They also killed the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ^29:23They brought near the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly; and they laid their hands on them. ^29:24Then the priests killed them, and they made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel. ^29:25He set the Levites in the LORD’s house with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was from the LORD by his prophets. ^29:26The Levites stood with David’s instruments, and the priests with the trumpets. ^29:27Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the LORD’s song also began, along with the trumpets and instruments of David king of Israel. ^29:28All the assembly worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished. ^29:29When they had finished offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped. ^29:30Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises to the LORD with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped. ^29:31Then Hezekiah answered, “Now you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD. Come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the LORD’s house.” The assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as many as were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. ^29:32The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs. All these were for a burnt offering to the LORD. ^29:33The consecrated things were six hundred head of cattle and three thousand sheep. ^29:34But the priests were too few, so that they could not skin all the burnt offerings. Therefore their brothers the Levites helped them until the work was ended, and until the priests had sanctified themselves, for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests. ^29:35Also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings and with the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the LORD’s house was set in order. ^29:36Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of that which God had prepared for the people; for the thing was done suddenly. ^30:1Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the LORD’s house at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel. ^30:2For the king had taken counsel with his princes and all the assembly in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the second month. ^30:3For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, and the people had not gathered themselves together to Jerusalem. ^30:4The thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly. ^30:5So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem, for they had not kept it in great numbers in the way it is written. ^30:6So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. ^30:7Don’t be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see. ^30:8Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. ^30:9For if you turn again to the LORD, your brothers and your children will find compassion with those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you if you return to him.” ^30:10So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but people ridiculed them and mocked them. ^30:11Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. ^30:12Also the hand of God came on Judah to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the LORD’s word. ^30:13Many people assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly. ^30:14They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away all the altars for incense and threw them into the brook Kidron. ^30:15Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into the LORD’s house. ^30:16They stood in their place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites. ^30:17For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves; therefore the Levites were in charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to the LORD. ^30:18For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover other than the way it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD pardon everyone ^30:19who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, even if they aren’t clean according to the purification of the sanctuary.” ^30:20The LORD listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people. ^30:21The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness. The Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with loud instruments to the LORD. ^30:22Hezekiah spoke encouragingly to all the Levites who had good understanding in the service of the LORD. So they ate throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings and making confession to the LORD, the God of their fathers. ^30:23The whole assembly took counsel to keep another seven days, and they kept another seven days with gladness. ^30:24For Hezekiah king of Judah gave to the assembly for offerings one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests sanctified themselves. ^30:25All the assembly of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly who came out of Israel, and the foreigners who came out of the land of Israel and who lived in Judah, rejoiced. ^30:26So there was great joy in Jerusalem; for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was nothing like this in Jerusalem. ^30:27Then the Levitical priests arose and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.