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So Amaziah sent the Israelite army back home to Ephraim. These men were very angry with the king and the people of Judah. They went back home very angry.

The Lord was very angry with Amaziah, so he sent a prophet to him. The prophet said, "Amaziah, why have you worshiped the gods those people worship? Those gods could not even save their own people from you!"

So King Jehoash of Israel met King Amaziah of Judah face to face at the town of Beth Shemesh in Judah.

They told Uzziah he was wrong. They said to him, "Uzziah, it is not your job to burn incense to the Lord . It is not right. That is for the priests, Aaron's descendants, to do. They are the only ones who have been prepared for the holy work of burning incense. You have not been faithful, so you must go out of the Most Holy Place. The Lord God will not honor you for this."

So Uzziah the king was a leper. He could not enter the Lord 's Temple. His son Jotham controlled the king's palace and became governor for the people.

Jotham also fought against the king of the Ammonites and his army and defeated them. So each year for three years the Ammonites gave Jotham 3 3/4 tons of silver, 62,000 bushels of wheat, and 62,000 bushels of barley.

So the soldiers gave the prisoners and valuable things to the leaders and to the people.

At that same time the people from Edom came again and defeated the people of Judah. The Edomites captured people and took them away as prisoners. So King Ahaz asked the king of Assyria to help him.

He offered sacrifices to the gods the people of Damascus worshiped. The people of Damascus had defeated Ahaz. So he thought to himself, "The gods the people of Aram worship helped them. So if I offer sacrifices to them, maybe they will help me also." Ahaz worshiped these gods. In this way he sinned, and he made the people of Israel sin.

So the Lord became very angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem. He punished them so badly that it shocks and scares people to hear about it. But then they just laugh and shout their own insults against Judah. You know this is true. You have seen it happen.

So now I, Hezekiah, have decided to make an agreement with the Lord , the God of Israel. Then he will not be angry with us anymore.

So my sons, don't be lazy or waste any more time. The Lord chose you to serve him in the Temple and to burn incense."

So the priests killed the bulls and kept the blood. Then they sprinkled the bulls' blood on the altar. Then they killed the rams and sprinkled the rams' blood on the altar. Then they killed the lambs and sprinkled the lambs' blood on the altar.

Then the priests brought the male goats in front of the king, and the people gathered together. The goats were the sin offering. The priests put their hands on the goats and killed the goats. They made a sin offering with the goats' blood on the altar. They did this so that God would forgive the sins of the Israelites. The king said that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all the Israelites.

So the Levites stood ready with David's instruments of music, and the priests stood ready with their trumpets.

But there were not enough priests to skin and cut up all the animals for the burnt offerings. So their relatives, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished and until other priests could make themselves ready for holy service. The Levites had been more serious than the priests about making themselves ready to serve.

There were many burnt offerings, and the fat of fellowship offerings, and drink offerings. So the service in the Lord 's Temple began again.

Hezekiah and the people were very happy about the things God prepared for his people. And they were happy he did it so quickly!

King Hezekiah sent messages to all the people of Israel and Judah. He wrote letters to the people of Ephraim and Manasseh also. He invited all these people to come to the Lord 's Temple in Jerusalem so that they all could celebrate the Passover for the Lord , the God of Israel.

So they sent the announcement throughout Israel, from the town of Beersheba all the way to the town of Dan. They told the people to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover for the Lord , the God of Israel. Not many people had been celebrating it as it was described in the law.