Study Desk

Achaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Yerushalayim; for they didn't bring him into the tombs of the kings of Yisra'el: and Hizkiyahu his son reigned in his place.

Hizkiyahu began to reign when he was twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Yerushalayim: and his mother's name was Aviyah, the daughter of Zekharyah.

He did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done.

He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them.

Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.

My 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.

Moreover all the vessels, which king Achaz in his reign did cast away when he trespassed, have we prepared and sanctified; and, behold, they are before the altar of the LORD.

He set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the mitzvah of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Natan the prophet; for the mitzvah was of the LORD by his prophets.

For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the assembly in Yerushalayim, to keep the Pesach in the second month.

So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Yisra'el and Yehudah, and according to the mitzvah of the king, saying, You children of Yisra'el, turn again to the LORD, the God of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yisra'el, that he may return to the remnant that have escaped of you out of the hand of the kings of Ashshur.

Now don't you 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.

For if you turn again to the LORD, your brothers and your children shall find compassion before those who led them captive, and shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.

who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, though not [cleansed] according to the purification of the sanctuary.

Then the Kohanim the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.

Now when all this was finished, all Yisra'el who were present went out to the cities of Yehudah, and broke in pieces the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Yehudah and Binyamin, in Efrayim also and Menashsheh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Yisra'el returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.

Hizkiyahu appointed the courses of the Kohanim and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, both the Kohanim and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace-offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of the LORD.

[He appointed] also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt-offerings, [to wit], for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Shabbatot, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD.

When Hizkiyahu and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD, and his people Yisra'el.

`Azaryah the chief Kohen, of the house of Tzadok, answered him and said, Since [the people] began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have eaten and had enough, and have left plenty: for the LORD has blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.

They brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully: and over them Kananyahu the Levite was ruler, and Shim`i his brother was second.