Study Desk

You say you defeated Edom, which is true; so you're excited and itching for more glory. But now, stay home! Why provoke calamity, to your own ruin, yours and Y'hudah's too?"

But Amatzyah wouldn't listen. And this was from God, so that he could hand them over [to their enemies], because they had sought the gods of Edom.

So Yo'ash king of Isra'el went up; and he and Amatzyah king of Y'hudah had it out face-to-face at Beit-Shemesh, which belongs to Y'hudah.

From the time that Amatzyahu turned away from following Adonai , they formed a conspiracy against him in Yerushalayim. So he fled to Lakhish; but they followed him to Lakhish and killed him there.

But when he was strong, he became arrogant, which caused him to become corrupt, so that he sinned against Adonai his God by going into the temple of Adonai to burn incense on the incense altar.

So ‘Uziyahu slept with his ancestors, and they buried him with his ancestors in the graveyard belonging to the kings, because they said, "He had tzara‘at." Then Yotam his son took his place as king.

So the armed soldiers left the captives and the spoil there with the leaders and the whole community;

by sacrificing to the gods of Dammesek, who had attacked him, reasoning, "The gods of the kings of Aram helped them, so I will sacrifice to them, and then they'll help me." But they became the ruin of him and of all Isra'el.

"Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Adonai the God of Isra'el, so that his furious anger will turn away from us.

They began consecrating on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they reached the vestibule of Adonai . Then they consecrated the house of Adonai in eight more days; so that on the sixteenth day of the first month, they had finished.

Hizkiyahu responded by saying, "Now that you have consecrated yourselves to Adonai , come close, and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of Adonai . So the community brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and as many as were willing volunteered burnt offerings.

Only there weren't enough cohanim to skin and butcher all the burnt offerings, so their colleagues the L'vi'im assisted them until the work was finished and the cohanim had consecrated themselves (for the L'vi'im had been more diligent to consecrate themselves than the cohanim).

Hizkiyahu and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, since it had all happened so suddenly.

so they issued a decree that it should be proclaimed throughout all Isra'el, from Be'er-Sheva to Dan, that they should come to keep the Pesach to Adonai the God of Isra'el at Yerushalayim; for only a few had been observing it as prescribed.

So runners went with the letters from the king and his officers throughout all Isra'el and Y'hudah. They conveyed the king's order: "People of Isra'el! Turn back to Adonai , the God of Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya‘akov! Then he will return to those of you who remain, who escaped capture by the kings of Ashur.

Don't be stiffnecked now, as your ancestors were. Instead, yield yourselves to Adonai ; enter his sanctuary, which he has made holy forever; and serve Adonai your God; so that his fierce anger will turn away from you.

So the runners passed from city to city through the territory of Efrayim and M'nasheh, as far as Z'vulun; but the people laughed at them and made fun of them.

So there was great joy in Yerushalayim; for since the time of Shlomo the son of David, king of Isra'el, there had been nothing like it in Yerushalayim.

He also ordered the people living in Yerushalayim to contribute the portion meant for the cohanim and L'vi'im, so that they would be submitting themselves to the Torah of Adonai .

Every project that he undertook in order to seek his God, whether in the service of the house of God or in connection with the Torah and the mitzvot, he did with all his heart; and so he succeeded.