2 Chronicles 32; 2 Chronicles 33; 2 Chronicles 34

2 Chronicles 32

1 After everything Hezekiah had done so faithfully, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to invade Judah. He set up camp [to attack] the fortified cities. He intended to conquer them himself.

2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come to wage war against Jerusalem,

3 he, his officers, and his military staff made plans to stop the water from flowing out of the springs outside the city. They helped him do it.

4 A large crowd gathered as they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the land. They said, "Why should the kings of Assyria find plenty of water?"

5 Hezekiah worked hard. He rebuilt all the broken sections of the wall, made the towers taller, built another wall outside [the city wall], strengthened the Millo in the City of David, and made plenty of weapons and shields.

6 He appointed military commanders over the troops and gathered the commanders in the square by the city gate. He spoke these words of encouragement:

7 "Be strong and courageous. Don't be frightened or terrified by the king of Assyria or the crowd with him. Someone greater is on our side.

8 The king of Assyria has human power on his side, but the LORD our God is on our side to help us and fight our battles." So the people were encouraged by what King Hezekiah of Judah said.

9 After this, while King Sennacherib of Assyria and all his royal forces were attacking Lachish, he sent his officers to King Hezekiah of Judah and to all of the people in Judah who were in Jerusalem to say:

10 "This is what King Sennacherib of Assyria says: Why are you so confident as you live in Jerusalem while it is blockaded?

11 Isn't Hezekiah misleading you and abandoning you to die from hunger and thirst when he says, 'The LORD our God will rescue us from the king of Assyria?'

12 Isn't this the same Hezekiah who got rid of the LORD's places of worship and altars and told Judah and Jerusalem, 'Worship and sacrifice at one altar?'

13 Don't you know what I and my predecessors have done to the people of all other countries? Were any of the gods of these other nations ever able to rescue their countries from me?

14 Were the gods of these nations able to rescue their people from my control? My predecessors claimed and destroyed those nations. Is your God able to rescue you from my control?

15 Don't let Hezekiah deceive you or persuade you like this. Don't believe him. No god of any nation or kingdom could save his people from me or my ancestors. Certainly, your God will not rescue you from me!"

16 Sennacherib's officers said more against the LORD God and his servant Hezekiah.

17 Sennacherib wrote letters cursing the LORD God of Israel. These letters said, "As the gods of the nations in other countries couldn't rescue their people from me, Hezekiah's God cannot rescue his people from me."

18 Sennacherib's officers shouted loudly in the Judean language to the troops who were on the wall of Jerusalem. They tried to frighten and terrify the troops so that they could capture the city.

19 They spoke about the God of Jerusalem as if he were one of the gods made by human hands and worshiped by the people in other countries.

20 Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, prayed about this and called to heaven.

21 The LORD sent an angel who exterminated all the soldiers, officials, and commanders in the Assyrian king's camp. Humiliated, Sennacherib returned to his own country. When he went into the temple of his god, some of his own sons killed him with a sword.

22 So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people living in Jerusalem from King Sennacherib of Assyria and from everyone else. The LORD gave them peace with all their neighbors.

23 Many people still went to Jerusalem to bring gifts to the LORD and expensive presents to King Hezekiah of Judah. From then on, he was considered important by all the nations.

24 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was about to die. He prayed to the LORD, who answered him and gave him a miraculous sign.

25 But Hezekiah was conceited, so he didn't repay the LORD for his kindness. The LORD became angry with him, with Judah, and with Jerusalem.

26 Hezekiah and the people living in Jerusalem humbled themselves when they realized they had become conceited. So the LORD didn't vent his anger on them during Hezekiah's time.

27 Hezekiah became richer and was highly honored. He prepared storerooms for himself to hold silver, gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and all kinds of valuables.

28 He made sheds to store his harvests of grain, new wine, and fresh olive oil, and he made barns for all his cattle and stalls for his flocks.

29 He made cities for himself because he had many sheep and cattle. God had given him a lot of property.

30 Hezekiah was the one who stopped the water from flowing from the upper outlet of Gihon. He channeled the water directly underground to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah succeeded in everything he did.

31 When the leaders of Babylon sent ambassadors to ask him about the miraculous sign that had happened in the land, God left him. God did this to test him, to find out everything that was in Hezekiah's heart.

32 Everything else about Hezekiah, including his devotion to God, is written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, and in the records of the kings of Judah and Israel.

33 Hezekiah lay down in death with his ancestors. He was buried in the upper tombs of David's descendants. When Hezekiah died, all of Judah and the people in Jerusalem honored him. His son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

2 Chronicles 33

1 Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 55 years in Jerusalem.

2 He did what the LORD considered evil by copying the disgusting things done by the nations that the LORD had forced out of the Israelites' way.

3 He rebuilt the illegal places of worship that his father Hezekiah had torn down. He set up altars dedicated to other gods--the Baals--and made a pole dedicated to the goddess Asherah as King Ahab of Israel had done. Manasseh, like Ahab, worshiped and served the entire army of heaven.

4 He built altars in the LORD's temple, where the LORD had said, "My name will be in Jerusalem forever."

5 In the two courtyards of the LORD's temple, he built altars for the entire army of heaven.

6 He burned his son as a sacrifice in the valley of Ben Hinnom, consulted fortunetellers, cast evil spells, practiced witchcraft, and appointed [royal] mediums and psychics. He did many things that made the LORD furious.

7 Manasseh had a carved idol made. Then he set it up in God's temple, where God had said to David and his son Solomon, "I have chosen this temple and Jerusalem from all the tribes of Israel. I will put my name here forever.

8 I will never again remove Israel from the land that I set aside for their ancestors if they will obey all the commands, all the teachings, the ordinances, and the regulations [I gave] through Moses."

9 Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that they did more evil things than the nations that the LORD had destroyed when the Israelites arrived in the land.

10 When the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, they wouldn't even pay attention.

11 So the LORD made the army commanders of the king of Assyria invade Judah. They took Manasseh captive, put a hook in his nose, put him in bronze shackles, and brought him to Babylon.

12 When he experienced this distress, he begged the LORD his God to be kind and humbled himself in front of the God of his ancestors.

13 He prayed to the LORD, and the LORD accepted his prayer and listened to his request. The LORD brought him back to his kingdom in Jerusalem. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.

14 After this, Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David from west of Gihon Spring in the valley to the entrance of Fish Gate. He made the wall go around the Ophel, and he built it very high. He put army commanders in every fortified city in Judah.

15 Manasseh got rid of the foreign gods and the idol in the LORD's temple. He got rid of the altars he had built in the temple on the LORD's mountain and in Jerusalem.

16 He built the LORD's altar and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it. And he told Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.

17 The people continued to sacrifice at the illegal places of worship, but they sacrificed only to the LORD their God.

18 Everything else about Manasseh--including his prayer to his God and the words that the seers spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel--are in the records of the kings of Israel.

19 His prayer and how God accepted it are written in the records of Hozai. The things he did before he humbled himself are also written there. This includes all his sins and unfaithfulness and the places where he built illegal worship sites and set up idols and poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah.

20 Manasseh lay down in death with his ancestors. They buried him in his own palace. His son Amon succeeded him as king.

21 Amon was 22 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 2 years in Jerusalem.

22 He did what the LORD considered evil, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to all the idols his father Manasseh had made, and he worshiped them.

23 He didn't humble himself in front of the LORD as his father Manasseh had humbled himself. Instead, Amon continued to sin.

24 His officials plotted against him and killed him in his palace.

25 Then the people of the land killed everyone who had plotted against King Amon. They made his son Josiah king in his place.

2 Chronicles 34

1 Josiah was 8 years old when he began to rule, and he was king for 31 years in Jerusalem.

2 He did what the LORD considered right. He lived in the ways of his ancestor David and never stopped living this way.

3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began to dedicate his life to serving the God of his ancestor David. In his twelfth year as king, he began to make Judah and Jerusalem clean by destroying the illegal places of worship, poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, carved idols, and metal idols.

4 He had the altars of the various Baal gods torn down. He cut down the incense altars that were above them. He destroyed the Asherah poles, carved idols, and metal idols. He ground them into powder and scattered the powder over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them.

5 He burned the bones of the priests on their altars. So he made Judah and Jerusalem clean.

6 In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, he removed all their temples,

7 tore down the altars, beat the Asherah poles and idols into powder, and cut down all the incense altars everywhere in Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

8 In the eighteenth year of his reign as he was making the land and the temple clean, Josiah sent Shaphan, son of Azaliah, Maaseiah, the mayor of the city, and Joah, the royal historian and son of Joahaz, to repair the temple of the LORD his God.

9 They came to the chief priest Hilkiah and gave him the money that had been brought to God's temple, the money that the Levite doorkeepers had collected from the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim, from all who were left in Israel, from everyone in the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

10 They gave the money to the foremen who were in charge of the LORD's temple. These foremen gave it to the workmen who were restoring and repairing the temple.

11 (These workers included carpenters and builders.) They were to buy quarried stones and wood for the fittings and beams of the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to become run-down.

12 The men did their work faithfully under the supervision of Jahath and Obadiah (Levites descended from Merari), and Zechariah and Meshullam (descendants of Kohath). The Levites, who were skilled musicians,

13 also supervised the workers and directed all the workmen on the various jobs. Some of the Levites served as scribes, officials, or gatekeepers.

14 When they brought out the money that had been deposited in the LORD's temple, the priest Hilkiah found the book of the LORD's Teachings written by Moses.

15 Hilkiah told the scribe Shaphan, "I have found the book of the Teachings in the LORD's temple." Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.

16 Shaphan took the book to the king and reported, "We are doing everything you told us to do.

17 We took the money that was donated in the LORD's temple and gave it to the supervisors and the workmen."

18 Then the scribe Shaphan told the king, "The priest Hilkiah has given me a book." And Shaphan read it to the king.

19 When the king heard what the Teachings said, he tore his clothes [in distress].

20 Then the king gave an order to Hilkiah, Ahikam (son of Shaphan), Abdon (son of Micah), the scribe Shaphan, and the royal official Asaiah. He said,

21 "On behalf of those who are left in Israel and Judah and me, ask the LORD about the words in this book that was found. The LORD's fierce anger has been poured on us because our ancestors did not obey the word of the LORD by doing everything written in this book."

22 So Hilkiah and the king's officials went to talk to the prophet Huldah about this matter. She was the wife of Shallum, son of Tokhath and grandson of Hasrah. Shallum was in charge of the [royal] wardrobe. Huldah was living in the Second Part of Jerusalem.

23 She told them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: Tell the man who sent you to me,

24 'This is what the LORD says: I'm going to bring disaster on this place and on the people living here according to the curses written in the book that was read to the king of Judah.

25 I will do this because they have abandoned me and sacrificed to other gods in order to make me furious. Therefore, my anger will be poured on this place and will never come to an end.'"

26 [Huldah added,] "Tell Judah's king who sent you to me to ask the LORD a question, 'This is what the LORD God of Israel says about the words you heard:

27 You had a change of heart and humbled yourself in front of God when you heard my words against this place and those who live here. You humbled yourself, tore your clothes [in distress], and cried in front of me. So I will listen [to you], declares the LORD.

28 That is why I'm going to bring you to your ancestors. I'm going to bring you to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see any of the disaster I'm going to bring on this place and those who live here.'" So they reported this to the king.

29 Then the king sent for all the respected leaders of Judah and Jerusalem to join him.

30 The king, everyone in Judah, everyone living in Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people (young and old) went up to the LORD's temple. He read everything written in the Book of the Promise found in the LORD's temple so that they could hear it.

31 The king stood in his place and made a promise to the LORD that he would follow the LORD and obey his commands, instructions, and laws with all his heart and soul. He said he would live by the terms of the promise written in this book.

32 He also made all those found in Jerusalem and Benjamin join with him [in the promise]. Then the people of Jerusalem lived according to the promise of God, the God of their ancestors.

33 Josiah got rid of all the disgusting idols throughout Israelite territory. He made all people found in Israel serve the LORD their God. As long as he lived, they didn't stop following the LORD God of their ancestors.