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2 Kings 18 1-2 Kings 18 20
Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king.He was twenty five years old when he became king, and he reigned for twenty nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that his father David had done.He removed the high places and smashed the memorial stones to pieces, and cut down the Asherah. He also crushed to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; and after him there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who came before him.For he clung to the Lord; he did not desist from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.And the Lord was with him; wherever he went he was successful. And he revolted against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it.And at the end of three years they captured it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was captured.Then the king of Assyria led Israel into exile to Assyria, and put them in Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.This happened because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but violated His covenant, all that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded; they would neither listen nor do it.Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent messengers to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying,“ I have done wrong. Withdraw from me; whatever you impose on me I will endure.” So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah the payment of three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.Hezekiah then gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king’s house.At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the doorposts, which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.Then the king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rab saris, and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a large army to Jerusalem. So they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the road of the fuller’s field.Then they called to the king, and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the secretary, went out to them.And Rabshakeh said to them,“ Say now to Hezekiah,‘ This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says:“ What is this confidence that you have?You say— but they are only empty words—‘ I have a plan and strength for the war.’ Now on whom have you relied, that you have revolted against me?
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Isaiah 36:1-22
Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria marched against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the road to the fuller’s field.Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to him.And Rabshakeh said to them,“ Say now to Hezekiah,‘ This is what the great king, the king of Assyria says:“ What is this confidence that you have?I say,‘ Your plan and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now on whom have you relied, that you have revolted against me?Behold, you have relied on the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.But if you say to me,‘ We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem,‘ You shall worship before this altar’?Now then, come make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them!How then can you drive back even one official of the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?And have I now come up without the Lord’s approval against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me,‘ Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh,“ Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Judean so that the people who are on the wall hear you.”But Rabshakeh said,“ Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”Then Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Judean and said,“ Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!This is what the king says:‘ Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to save you;and do not let Hezekiah lead you to rely on the Lord, saying,“ The Lord will certainly save us. This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria!”Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for this is what the king of Assyria says:‘ Surrender to me and come out to me, and eat, each one, of his vine and each of his fig tree, and each drink of the waters of his own cistern,until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying,“ The Lord will save us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they saved Samaria from my hand?Who among all the gods of these lands have saved their land from my hand, that the Lord would save Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”But they were silent and did not answer him so much as a word; for the king’s command was,“ Do not answer him.”Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the secretary, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.
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Isaiah 7:1-13
Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it.When it was reported to the house of David, saying,“ The Arameans have taken a stand by Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake from the wind.Then the Lord said to Isaiah,“ Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the fuller’s field,and say to him,‘ Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stumps of smoldering logs, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying,“ Let’s go up against Judah and terrorize it, and take it for ourselves by assault and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”this is what the Lord God says:“ It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass.For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin( now within another sixty five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces, so that it is no longer a people),and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you certainly shall not last.” ’ ”Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying,“ Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”But Ahaz said,“ I will not ask, nor will I put the Lord to the test!”Then he said,“ Listen now, house of David! Is it too trivial a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?
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2 Kings 15 7
And Azariah lay down with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and his son Jotham became king in his place.
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2 Chronicles 26 21
King Uzziah had leprosy to the day of his death; and he lived in a separate house, afflicted as he was with leprosy, for he was cut off from the house of the Lord. And his son Jotham was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.
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2 Kings 15 32-2 Kings 16 20
In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah became king.He was twenty five years old when he became king, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok.He did what was right in the sight of the Lord; he acted in accordance with everything that his father Uzziah had done.Only the high places were not eliminated; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord.Now as for the rest of the acts of Jotham which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?In those days the Lord began to send Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah.And Jotham lay down with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David; and his son Ahaz became king in his place.In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king.Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done.But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and he even made his son pass through the fire, in accordance with the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel.And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.Then Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem for war; and they besieged Ahaz, but were not capable of fighting him.At that time Rezin king of Aram restored Elath to Aram, and drove the Judeans away from Elath; and the Arameans came to Elath and have lived there to this day.So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath pileser king of Assyria, saying,“ I am your servant and your son; come up and save me from the hand of the king of Aram, and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.”And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and sent a gift to the king of Assyria.So the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and captured it, and led the people of it into exile to Kir, and put Rezin to death.Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath pileser king of Assyria, and he saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the pattern of the altar and its model, according to all its workmanship.So Urijah the priest built an altar; according to everything that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, in that way Urijah the priest made it, before the coming of King Ahaz from Damascus.And when the king came from Damascus, the king saw the altar; then the king approached the altar and went up to it,and burned his burnt offering and his meal offering, and poured out his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.And the bronze altar, which was before the Lord, he brought from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of the Lord, and he put it on the north side of his altar.Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying,“ Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening meal offering, the king’s burnt offering and his meal offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their meal offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. But the bronze altar shall be for me, for making inquiries.”So Urijah the priest acted in accordance with everything that King Ahaz commanded.Then King Ahaz cut off the borders of the stands, and removed the wash basin from them; he also took down the Sea from the bronze oxen which were under it and put it on a pavement of stone.And the covered way for the Sabbath which they had built in the house, and the outer entry of the king, he removed from the house of the Lord because of the king of Assyria.Now as for the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?So Ahaz lay down with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.
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2 Chronicles 27 1-2 Chronicles 29 32
Jotham was twenty five years old when he became king, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok.He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah had done; however he did not enter the temple of the Lord. But the people continued acting corruptly.He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord, and he built the wall of Ophel extensively.Moreover, he built cities in the hill country of Judah, and he built fortresses and towers on the wooded hills.He fought with the king of the Ammonites and prevailed over them so that during that year the Ammonites gave him a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand kors of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. The Ammonites also paid him this amount in the second year and in the third.So Jotham became powerful because he directed his ways before the Lord his God.Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, all his wars and his ways, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.He was twenty five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for sixteen years.And Jotham lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and his son Ahaz became king in his place.Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for sixteen years. He did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord as his father David had done.But he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel; he also made cast metal images for the Baals.Furthermore, he burned incense in the Valley of Ben hinnom, and burned his sons in fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from the sons of Israel.He sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.Therefore the Lord his God handed him over to the king of Aram; and they defeated him and carried from him a great number of captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also handed over to the king of Israel, who struck him with heavy casualties.For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed 120,000 in Judah in one day, all valiant men, because they had abandoned the Lord God of their fathers.And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king’s son, Azrikam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah the second to the king.The sons of Israel led away captive two hundred thousand of their relatives, women, sons, and daughters; and they also took a great deal of spoils from them, and brought the spoils to Samaria.But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded; and he went out to meet the army which came to Samaria and said to them,“ Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, He has handed them over to you, and you have killed them in a rage which has even reached heaven.Now you are proposing to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem as male and female slaves for yourselves. Are you not, however guilty yourselves of offenses against the Lord your God?Now then, listen to me and return the captives whom you captured from your brothers, for the burning anger of the Lord is against you.”Then some of the leading men of the sons of Ephraim— Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai— rose up against those who were coming from the battle,and said to them,“ You must not bring the captives in here, for you are proposing to bring guilt upon us before the Lord, adding to our sins and our guilt; for our guilt is great, and His burning anger is against Israel.”So the armed men left the captives and the spoils before the officers and all the assembly.Then the men who were designated by name got up, took the captives, and they clothed all their naked people from the spoils; they gave them clothes and sandals, fed them and gave them drink, anointed them with oil, led all their feeble ones on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers; then they returned to Samaria.At that time King Ahaz sent word to the kings of Assyria for help.For the Edomites had come again and attacked Judah, and led away captives.The Philistines had also invaded the cities of the lowland and of the Negev of Judah, and had taken Beth shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, and Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages; and they had settled there.For the Lord had humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had brought about a lack of restraint in Judah and was very unfaithful to the Lord.So Tilgath pilneser king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him.Although Ahaz took a portion out of the house of the Lord and out of the palace of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria, it did not help him.Now during the time of his distress, this same King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord.For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him, and said,“ Because the gods of the kings of Aram helped them, I will sacrifice to them so that they may help me.” But they became the downfall of him and all Israel.Moreover, when Ahaz gathered together the utensils of the house of God, he cut the utensils of the house of God in pieces; and he closed the doors of the house of the Lord, and made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem.In 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.Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, from the first to the last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.So Ahaz lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel; and his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.Hezekiah became king when he was twenty five years old; and he reigned for twenty nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with everything that his father David had done.In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.He brought in the priests and the Levites and gathered them into the public square on the east.Then he said to them,“ Listen to me, you Levites. Consecrate yourselves now, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry the uncleanness out of the holy place.For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done evil in the sight of the Lord our God, and they have abandoned Him and turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and have turned their backs.They have also shut the doors of the porch and extinguished the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.Therefore the wrath of the Lord was against Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, of horror, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes.For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity because of this.Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, so that His burning anger may turn away from us.My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and to be His ministers and burn incense.”Then the Levites arose: Mahath the son of Amasai and Joel the son of Azariah, from the sons of the Kohathites; and from the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and from the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah and Eden the son of Joah;and from the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; and from the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;and from the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and from the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.They assembled their brothers, consecrated themselves, and went in to cleanse the house of the Lord, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the Lord.So the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord out to the courtyard of the house of the Lord. Then the Levites received it to carry out to the Kidron Valley.Now they began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they entered the porch of the Lord. Then they consecrated the house of the Lord in eight days, and finished on the sixteenth day of the first month.Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said,“ We have cleansed the whole house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the showbread with all of its utensils.Moreover, all the utensils which King Ahaz had discarded during his reign in his unfaithfulness, we have prepared and consecrated; and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.”Then King Hezekiah got up early and assembled the princes of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord.They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, the sanctuary, and Judah. And he ordered the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord.So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. They also slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar; they slaughtered the lambs as well, and sprinkled the blood on the altar.Then they brought the male goats of the sin offering before the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them.The priests slaughtered them and purified the altar with their blood to atone for all Israel, because the king ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel.He then stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the command of David and of Gad, the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for the command was from the Lord through His prophets.The Levites stood with the musical instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.Then Hezekiah gave the order to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord also began with the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David, king of Israel.While the whole assembly worshiped, the singers also sang and the trumpets sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.Now at the completion of the burnt offerings, the king and all who were present with him bowed down and worshiped.Moreover, King Hezekiah and the officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with joy, and bowed down and worshiped.Then Hezekiah said,“ Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, come forward and bring sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings to the house of the Lord.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings, and everyone who was willing brought burnt offerings.The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all of these were for a burnt offering to the Lord.
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1 Chronicles 3 11-1 Chronicles 3 13
Joram, his son, Ahaziah, his son, Joash, his son,Amaziah, his son, Azariah, his son, Jotham, his son,Ahaz, his son, Hezekiah, his son, Manasseh, his son,
