Study Desk

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land of Israel and his own house, he sent for Shaphan the son of Azaliah and Maasiah the scribe of the city, and said to them, Go, repair the house of the LORD your God.

And she said to them. Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me,

And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, SO shall you say to him: Thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard:

And he caused all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers.

And Josiah took away all the abominations which the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel, and he made all the people who were found in Israel to serve the LORD their God. And they did not go astray from following the LORD God of their fathers.

And he said to the Levites who dwelt in all Israel. Sanctify yourselves to the LORD, and put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; for you have no longer to carry it upon your shoulders; serve now the LORD your God and his people Israel,

But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with you, O king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, O king of Judah; for indeed I have not come to fight against you. The LORD has told you to frighten me; cease from meddling with God, who is with me, that he may not destroy you.

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.

And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who prophesied from the mouth of the LORD.

And he also rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by the name of the LORD; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart and would not pray before the LORD God of Israel.

And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, giving useful advice in advance; because he had compassion on his people and on the flock that he had chosen;

Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth has the LORD God of heaven given me; and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people with whom the LORD his God is pleased? Let him go up, and let him come to me.

Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has commanded me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which city is in Judah.

Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house to the LORD the God of Israel, he is the God who is in Jerusalem.

And whosoever remains in any place where he sojourns, let the men of his place help him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts, together with the freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.

Then rose up the chiefs of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with every one whose spirit God had stirred, to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.

Then stood Joshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren the priests and Zerubbabel the son of Shelathiel and his brethren, and they built the altar to the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings upon it as it is written in the law of Moses the prophet of God.

NOW when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the captivity were building the temple to the LORD God of Israel,

Then they came to Zerubbabel and to the chiefs of the fathers and said to them, Let us also build with you; for we seek your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esarhaddom king of Assyria, who brought us up here.

But Zerubbabel and Joshua and the rest of the chiefs of the fathers of Israel said to them, You have nothing to do with us to build a house to our God; for we ourselves together will build a house to the LORD God of Israel, as Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.