Study Desk

The Spirit of God came on Zekharyah the son of Yehoiada the Kohen; and he stood above the people, and said to them, Thus says God, Why disobey you the mitzvot of the LORD, so that you can't prosper? because you have forsaken the LORD, he has also forsaken you.

For the army of the Aram came with a small company of men; and the LORD delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Yo'ash.

[other] ten thousand did the children of Yehudah carry away alive, and brought them to the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, so that they all were broken in pieces.

So Yo'ash king of Yisra'el went up; and he and Amatzyah king of Yehudah looked one another in the face at Beit-Shemesh, which belongs to Yehudah.

But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against the LORD his God; for he went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.

So `Uzziyah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Yotam his son reigned in his place.

He fought also with the king of the children of `Ammon, and prevailed against them. The children of `Ammon gave him the same year one hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of `Ammon render to him, in the second year also, and in the third.

So Yotam became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God.

So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly.

So they killed the bulls, and the Kohanim received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: and they killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood on the altar: they killed also the lambs, and sprinkled the blood on the altar.

But the Kohanim were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings: therefore their brothers the Levites helped them, until the work was ended, and until the Kohanim had sanctified themselves; for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the Kohanim.

Also 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 house of the LORD was set in order.

So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Yisra'el, from Be'er-Sheva even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Pesach to the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, at Yerushalayim: for they had not kept it in great numbers in such sort as it is written.

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.

Don't be you 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.

So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Efrayim and Menashsheh, even to Zevulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.

Hizkiyahu spoke comfortably 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.

So there was great joy in Yerushalayim; for since the time of Shlomo the son of David king of Yisra'el there was not the like in Yerushalayim.

So there was gathered much people together, and they stopped all the springs, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Ashshur come, and find much water?

He wrote also letters, to rail on the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, and to speak against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the God of Hizkiyahu not deliver his people out of my hand.