Study Desk

So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant that are escaped of you out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.

Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were; but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever, and serve the LORD your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.

For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that 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 ye return unto him.

that setteth his heart to seek God, the LORD, the God of his fathers, though [he be] not [cleansed] according to the purification of the sanctuary.

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

Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake in pieces the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, and brake down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.

And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, both the priests 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 sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD.

And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD, and his people Israel.

And Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, Since [the people] began to bring the oblations into the house of the LORD, we have eaten and had enough, and have left plenty: for the LORD hath blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.

And they brought in the oblations and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully: and over them Conaniah the Levite was ruler, and Shimei his brother was second.

And Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.

And thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah; and he wrought that which was good and right and faithful before the LORD his God.

And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city; and they helped him.

After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (now he was before Lachish, and all his power with him,) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah that were at Jerusalem, saying,

Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall worship before one altar, and upon it shall ye burn incense?

Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of mine hand?

Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither believe ye him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine hand?

And his servants spake yet more against the LORD God, and against his servant Hezekiah.