Uzziah King of Judah

26 All the people of Judah made Uzziah king. He was 16 years old. They made him king in place of his father Amaziah. ² Uzziah rebuilt Elath. He brought it under Judah’s control again. He did it after Amaziah joined the members of his family who had already died.

³ Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 52 years. His mother’s name was Jekoliah. She was from Jerusalem. ⁴ Uzziah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ He tried to obey God during the days of Zechariah. Zechariah taught him to have respect for God. As long as Uzziah obeyed the Lord, God gave him success.

⁶ Uzziah went to war against the Philistines. He broke down the walls of Gath, Jabneh and Ashdod. Then he rebuilt some towns that were near Ashdod. He also rebuilt some other towns where Philistines lived. ⁷ God helped him fight against the Philistines. He also helped him fight against the Meunites and against the Arabs who lived in Gur Baal. ⁸ The Ammonites brought to Uzziah the gifts he required of them. He became famous all the way to the border of Egypt. That’s because he had become very powerful.

⁹ Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem. They were at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate and the angle of the wall. He made the towers very strong. ¹⁰ He also built towers in the desert. He dug many wells, because he had a lot of livestock. The livestock were in the western hills and on the plains. Uzziah had people working in his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the rich lands. That’s because he loved the soil.

¹¹ Uzziah’s army was well trained. It was ready to march out by military groups according to their numbers. Jeiel and Maaseiah brought them together. Jeiel was the secretary. Maaseiah was the officer. They were under the direction of Hananiah. He was one of the royal officials. ¹² The total number of family leaders who were over the fighting men was 2,600. ¹³ An army of 307,500 men was under their command. The men were trained for war. They were a powerful force. They helped the king against his enemies. ¹⁴ Uzziah provided the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, coats of armor, bows, and stones for their slings. ¹⁵ In Jerusalem he invented machines to be used on the towers and on the corners of city walls. These machines were used by men who shot arrows from the walls. The machines were also used by men to throw large stones from the walls. Uzziah became famous everywhere. God greatly helped him until he became powerful.

¹⁶ But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride brought him down. He wasn’t faithful to the Lord his God. He entered the Lord’s temple to burn incense on the altar for burning incense. ¹⁷ Azariah the priest followed him in. So did 80 other brave priests of the Lord. ¹⁸ They stood up to Uzziah. They said, “Uzziah, it isn’t right for you to burn incense to the Lord. Only the priests are supposed to do that. They are members of the family line of Aaron. They have been set apart to burn incense. So get out of here. Leave the temple. You haven’t been faithful. The Lord God won’t honor you.”

¹⁹ Uzziah was holding a shallow cup. He was ready to burn incense in it. He became angry. He shouted at the priests in the Lord’s temple. He did it near the altar for burning incense. While he was shouting, a skin disease suddenly broke out on his forehead. ²⁰ Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him. They saw that Uzziah had a skin disease on his forehead. So they hurried him out of the temple. Actually, he himself really wanted to leave. He knew that the Lord was making him suffer.

²¹ King Uzziah had the skin disease until the day he died. He lived in a separate house because he had the disease. And he wasn’t allowed to enter the Lord’s temple. Uzziah’s son Jotham was in charge of the palace. Jotham ruled over the people of the land.

²² The other events of Uzziah’s rule from beginning to end were written down by Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah was the son of Amoz. ²³ Uzziah joined the members of his family who had already died. He was buried near them in a royal burial ground. People said, “He had a skin disease.” Uzziah’s son Jotham became the next king after him.

Jotham King of Judah

27 Jotham was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 16 years. His mother’s name was Jerusha. She was the daughter of Zadok. ² Jotham did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done. But Jotham didn’t enter the Lord’s temple as Uzziah had done. The people, however, continued to do very sinful things. ³ Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the Lord’s temple. He did a lot of work on the wall at the hill of Ophel. ⁴ He built towns in the hill country of Judah. He also built forts and towers in areas that had a lot of trees in them.

⁵ Jotham went to war against the king of Ammon. He won the battle over the Ammonites. That year they paid Jotham almost four tons of silver. They paid him 1,800 tons of wheat and 1,500 tons of barley. They also brought him the same amount in the second and third years.

⁶ Jotham became powerful. That’s because he had worshiped the Lord his God with all his heart.

⁷ The other events of Jotham’s rule are written down. That includes all his wars and the other things he did. All these things are written in the records of the kings of Israel and Judah. ⁸ Jotham was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 16 years. ⁹ Jotham joined the members of his family who had already died. He was buried in the City of David. Jotham’s son Ahaz became the next king after him.

Ahaz King of Judah

28 Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 16 years. He didn’t do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He didn’t do what King David had done. ² He followed the ways of the kings of Israel. He also made statues of gods that were named Baal. ³ He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. He sacrificed his children in the fire to other gods. He followed the practices of the nations. The Lord hates these practices. The Lord had driven out those nations to make room for the people of Israel. ⁴ Ahaz offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places. He also did it on the tops of hills and under every green tree.

⁵ So the Lord his God handed him over to the king of Aram. The men of Aram won the battle over him. They took many of his people as prisoners. They brought them to Damascus.

God also handed Ahaz over to Pekah. Pekah was king of Israel. His army wounded or killed many of the troops of Ahaz. ⁶ In one day Pekah, the son of Remaliah, killed 120,000 soldiers in Judah. That’s because Judah had deserted the Lord, the God of their people. ⁷ Zikri was a fighting man from Ephraim. He killed Maaseiah, Azrikam and Elkanah. Maaseiah was the king’s son. Azrikam was the officer who was in charge of the palace. And Elkanah was next in command after the king. ⁸ The men of Israel captured 200,000 wives, sons and daughters from their relatives in Judah. They also took a large amount of goods. They carried all of it back to Samaria.

⁹ But a prophet of the Lord was there. His name was Oded. When the army returned to Samaria, he went out to meet them. He said to them, “The Lord is the God of your people. He was very angry with Judah. So he handed them over to you. But you have killed them. Your anger reached all the way to heaven. ¹⁰ Now you are planning to make the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem your slaves. But aren’t you also guilty of sins against the Lord your God? ¹¹ Listen to me! You have taken your relatives from Judah as prisoners. The Lord is very angry with you. So send your relatives back.”

¹² Then some of the leaders in Ephraim stood up to those who were returning from the war. The leaders were Azariah, Berekiah, Jehizkiah and Amasa. Azariah was the son of Jehohanan. Berekiah was the son of Meshillemoth. Jehizkiah was the son of Shallum. And Amasa was the son of Hadlai. ¹³ “Don’t bring those prisoners here,” they said. “If you do, we’ll be guilty in the sight of the Lord. Do you really want to add to our sin and guilt? We’re already very guilty. The Lord is very angry with Israel.”

¹⁴ So the soldiers gave up the prisoners and the goods they had taken. They did it in front of the officials and the whole community. ¹⁵ Azariah, Berekiah, Jehizkiah and Amasa received the prisoners. From the goods that had been taken, they gave clothes to everyone who was naked. They gave them clothes, sandals, food, drink and healing lotion. They put all the weak people on donkeys. They took them back to their relatives at Jericho. Then they returned to Samaria. Jericho was also known as the City of Palm Trees.

¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz sent men to the king of Assyria to get help. ¹⁷ The men of Edom had come and attacked Judah again. They had carried away prisoners. ¹⁸ At the same time the Philistines had attacked towns in the western hills and in the Negev Desert of Judah. They had captured Beth Shemesh, Aijalon and Gederoth. They had also captured Soko, Timnah and Gimzo and the villages around them. They had settled down in all of them. ¹⁹ The Lord had made Judah less powerful because of Ahaz, their king. Ahaz had stirred up the people of Judah to do evil things. He hadn’t been faithful to the Lord at all. ²⁰ Tiglath-Pileser came to Ahaz. But he gave Ahaz trouble instead of help. Tiglath-Pileser was king of Assyria. ²¹ Ahaz took some things from the Lord’s temple. He also took some from the royal palace and from the officials. He gave all of them to the king of Assyria. But that didn’t help Ahaz.

²² When King Ahaz was in trouble, he became even more unfaithful to the Lord. ²³ Ahaz offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus. They had won the battle over him. Ahaz thought, “The gods of the kings of Aram have helped them. So I’ll sacrifice to those gods. Then they’ll help me.” But those gods only caused his ruin. In fact, those gods caused the ruin of the whole nation of Israel.

²⁴ Ahaz gathered together everything that belonged to God’s temple. He cut all of it in pieces. Ahaz shut the doors of the Lord’s temple. He set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. ²⁵ In every town in Judah he built high places. Sacrifices were burned there to other gods. That made the Lord, the God of his people, very angry.

²⁶ The other events of the rule of Ahaz and all his evil practices from beginning to end are written down. They are written in the records of the kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷ Ahaz joined the members of his family who had already died. He was buried in the city of Jerusalem. But he wasn’t placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became the next king after him.

Hezekiah Purifies the Temple

29 Hezekiah was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother’s name was Abijah. She was the daughter of Zechariah. ² Hezekiah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as King David had done.

³ In the first month of Hezekiah’s first year as king, he opened the doors of the Lord’s temple. He repaired them. ⁴ He brought the priests and Levites in. He gathered them together in the open area on the east side of the temple. ⁵ He said, “Levites, listen to me! Set yourselves apart to the Lord. Set apart the temple of the Lord. He’s the God of your people who lived long ago. Remove anything ‘unclean’ from the temple. ⁶ Our people weren’t faithful. They did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord our God. They deserted him. They turned their faces away from the place where he lives. They turned their backs on him. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the temple porch. They put the lamps out. They didn’t burn incense at the temple. They didn’t sacrifice burnt offerings there to the God of Israel. ⁸ So the Lord has become angry with Judah and Jerusalem. He has made them look so bad that everyone is shocked when they see them. They laugh at them. You can see it with your own eyes. ⁹ That’s why our fathers have been killed by swords. That’s why our sons and daughters and wives have become prisoners. ¹⁰ So I’m planning to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel. Then he’ll stop being angry with us. ¹¹ My sons, don’t fail to obey the Lord. He has chosen you to stand in front of him and work for him. He wants you to serve him and burn incense to him.”

¹² Here are the Levites who went to work.

¹⁵ All these Levites gathered the other Levites together. They set themselves apart to the Lord. Then they went in to purify the Lord’s temple. That’s what the king had ordered them to do. They did what the Lord told them to. ¹⁶ The priests went into the Lord’s temple to make it pure. They brought out to the temple courtyard everything that was “unclean.” They had found “unclean” things in the Lord’s temple. The Levites took them and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ On the first day of the first month they began to set everything in the temple apart to the Lord. By the eighth day of the month they reached the Lord’s porch. For eight more days they set the Lord’s temple itself apart to him. They finished on the 16th day of the first month.

¹⁸ Then they went to King Hezekiah. They reported, “We’ve purified the whole temple of the Lord. That includes the altar for burnt offerings and all its tools. It also includes the table for the holy bread and all its objects. ¹⁹ We’ve prepared all the things King Ahaz had removed. We’ve set them apart to the Lord. Ahaz had removed them while he was king. He wasn’t faithful to the Lord. Those things are now in front of the Lord’s altar.”

²⁰ Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered together the city officials. They all went up to the Lord’s temple. ²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven male lambs and seven male goats with them. They sacrificed the animals as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the temple and for Judah. The king commanded the priests to offer them on the Lord’s altar. The priests were from the family line of Aaron. ²² They killed the bulls. Then they splashed the blood against the altar. Next they killed the rams and splashed the blood against the altar. Then they killed the lambs and splashed the blood against the altar. ²³ The goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the whole community. They placed their hands on them. ²⁴ Then the priests killed the goats. They put the blood on the altar as a sin offering. It paid for the sin of the whole nation of Israel. The king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for the whole nation.

²⁵ Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the Lord’s temple. They had cymbals, harps and lyres. They did everything in the way King David, his prophet Gad, and Nathan the prophet had required. The Lord had given commands about all these things through his prophets. ²⁶ So the Levites stood ready with David’s musical instruments. And the priests had their trumpets ready.

²⁷ Hezekiah gave the order to sacrifice the burnt offering on the altar. The offering began. Singing to the Lord also began. The singing was accompanied by the trumpets and by the instruments of David. He had been king of Israel. ²⁸ The whole community bowed down. They worshiped the Lord. At the same time the musicians played their musical instruments. The priests blew their trumpets. All of that continued until the burnt offering had been sacrificed.

²⁹ So the offerings were finished. King Hezekiah got down on his knees. He worshiped the Lord. So did everyone who was with him. ³⁰ The king and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord. They used the words of David and Asaph the prophet. They sang praises with joy. They bowed down and worshiped the Lord.

³¹ Then Hezekiah said, “You have set yourselves apart to the Lord. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to his temple.” So the whole community brought sacrifices and thank offerings. Everyone who wanted to brought burnt offerings.

³² The whole community brought 70 bulls, 100 rams and 200 male lambs. They brought all of them as burnt offerings to the Lord. ³³ The total number of animals set apart as sacrifices to the Lord was 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep and goats. ³⁴ But there weren’t enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings. So their relatives, the Levites, helped them. They worked until the task was finished. By that time other priests had been set apart to the Lord. The Levites had been more careful than the priests when they set themselves apart. ³⁵ There were large numbers of burnt offerings, along with the drink offerings and the fat from the friendship offerings. They were offered along with the burnt offerings.

So the service of the Lord’s temple was started up again. ³⁶ Hezekiah and all the people were filled with joy. That’s because everything had been done so quickly. God had provided for his people in a wonderful way.