Category: 2 Chronicles

Preparations for Passover

1-3 The people had not been able to celebrate the Passover Festival at the proper time in the first month, because not enough priests were ritually clean and not many people had assembled in Jerusalem. So King Hezekiah, his officials, and the people of Jerusalem agreed to celebrate it in the second month, and the king sent word to all the people of Israel and Judah. He took special care to send letters to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in honor of theLord, the God of Israel.

4 The king and the people were pleased with their plan,

5 so they invited all the Israelites, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, to come together in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover according to the Law, in larger numbers than ever before.

6 Messengers went out at the command of the king and his officials through all Judah and Israel with the following invitation:

“People of Israel, you have survived the Assyrian conquest of the land. Now return to theLord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he will return to you.

7 Do not be like your ancestors and your Israelite relatives who were unfaithful to theLordtheir God. As you can see, he punished them severely.

8 Do not be stubborn as they were, but obey theLord. Come to the Temple in Jerusalem, which theLordyour God has made holy forever, and worship him so that he will no longer be angry with you.

9 If you return to theLord, then those who have taken your relatives away as prisoners will take pity on them and let them come back home. TheLordyour God is kind and merciful, and if you return to him, he will accept you.”

10 The messengers went to every city in the territory of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far north as the tribe of Zebulun, but people laughed at them and made fun of them.

11 Still, there were some from the tribes of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun who were willing to come to Jerusalem.

12 God was also at work in Judah and united the people in their determination to obey his will by following the commands of the king and his officials.

Passover Is Celebrated

13 A great number of people gathered in Jerusalem in the second month to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

14 They took all the altars that had been used in Jerusalem for offering sacrifices and burning incense and threw them into Kidron Valley.

15 And on the fourteenth day of the month they killed the lambs for the Passover sacrifice. The priests and Levites who were not ritually clean became so ashamed that they dedicated themselves to theLord, and now they could sacrifice burnt offerings in the Temple.

16 They took their places in the Temple according to the instructions in the Law of Moses, the man of God. The Levites gave the blood of the sacrifices to the priests, who sprinkled it on the altar.

17 Because many of the people were not ritually clean, they could not kill the Passover lambs, so the Levites did it for them and dedicated the lambs to theLord.

18 In addition, many of those who had come from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not performed the ritual of purification, and so they were observing Passover improperly. King Hezekiah offered this prayer for them:

19 “OLord, the God of our ancestors, in your goodness forgive those who are worshiping you with all their heart, even though they are not ritually clean.”

20 TheLordanswered Hezekiah’s prayer; he forgave the people and did not harm them.

21 For seven days the people who had gathered in Jerusalem celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread with great joy, and day after day the Levites and the priests praised theLordwith all their strength.

22 Hezekiah praised the Levites for their skill in conducting the worship of theLord.

A Second Celebration

After the seven days during which they offered sacrifices in praise of theLord, the God of their ancestors,

23 they all decided to celebrate for another seven days. So they celebrated with joy.

24 King Hezekiah contributed 1,000 bulls and 7,000 sheep for the people to kill and eat, and the officials gave them another 1,000 bulls and 10,000 sheep. A large number of priests went through the ritual of purification.

25 So everyone was happy—the people of Judah, the priests, the Levites, the people who had come from the north, and the foreigners who had settled permanently in Israel and Judah.

26 The city of Jerusalem was filled with joy, because nothing like this had happened since the days of King Solomon, the son of David.

27 The priests and the Levites asked theLord’s blessing on the people. In his home in heaven God heard their prayers and accepted them.

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Hezekiah Reforms Religious Life

1 After the festival ended, all the people of Israel went to every city in Judah and broke the stone pillars, cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah, and destroyed the altars and the pagan places of worship. They did the same thing throughout the rest of Judah, and the territories of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh; then they all returned home.

2 King Hezekiah reestablished the organization of the priests and Levites, under which they each had specific duties. These included offering the burnt offerings and the fellowship offerings, taking part in the Temple worship, and giving praise and thanks in the various parts of the Temple.

3 From his own flocks and herds he provided animals for the burnt offerings each morning and evening, and for those offered on the Sabbath, at the New Moon Festival, and at the other festivals which are required by the Law of theLord.

4 In addition, the king told the people of Jerusalem to bring the offerings to which the priests and the Levites were entitled, so that they could give all their time to the requirements of the Law of theLord.

5 As soon as the order was given, the people of Israel brought gifts of their finest grain, wine, olive oil, honey, and other farm produce, and they also brought the tithesof everything they had.

6 All the people who lived in the cities of Judah brought tithes of their cattle and sheep, and they also brought large quantities of gifts which they dedicated to theLordtheir God.

7 The gifts started arriving in the third month and continued to pile up for the next four months.

8 When King Hezekiah and his officials saw how much had been given, they praised theLordand praised his people Israel.

9 The king spoke to the priests and the Levites about these gifts,

10 and Azariah the High Priest, a descendant of Zadok, said to him, “Since the people started bringing their gifts to the Temple, there has been enough to eat and a large surplus besides. We have all this because theLordhas blessed his people.”

11 On the king’s orders they prepared storerooms in the Temple area

12 and put all the gifts and tithes in them for safekeeping. They placed a Levite named Conaniah in charge and made his brother Shimei his assistant.

13 Ten Levites were assigned to work under them: Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah. All this was done under the authority of King Hezekiah and Azariah the High Priest.

14 Kore son of Imnah, a Levite who was chief guard at the East Gate of the Temple, was in charge of receiving the gifts offered to theLordand of distributing them.

15 In the other cities where priests lived, he was faithfully assisted in this by other Levites: Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah. They distributed the food equally to their fellow Levites according to what their duties were,

16 and not by clans. They gave a share to all males thirtyyears of age or older who had daily responsibilities in the Temple in accordance with their positions.

17 The priests were assigned their duties by clans, and the Levites twenty years of age or older were assigned theirs by work groups.

18 They were all registered together with their wives, children, and other dependents, because they were required to be ready to perform their sacred duties at any time.

19 Among the priests who lived in the cities assigned to Aaron’s descendants or in the pasture lands belonging to these cities, there were responsible men who distributed the food to all the males in the priestly families and to everyone who was on the rolls of the Levite clans.

20 Throughout all Judah, King Hezekiah did what was right and what was pleasing to theLordhis God.

21 He was successful, because everything he did for the Temple or in observance of the Law, he did in a spirit of complete loyalty and devotion to his God.

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The Assyrians Threaten Jerusalem

1 After these events, in which King Hezekiah served theLordfaithfully, Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, invaded Judah. He besieged the fortified cities and gave orders for his army to break their way through the walls.

2 When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib intended to attack Jerusalem also,

3-4 he and his officials decided to cut off the supply of water outside the city in order to keep the Assyrians from having any water when they got near Jerusalem. The officials led a large number of people out and stopped up all the springs, so that no more water flowed out of them.

5 The king strengthened the city’s defenses by repairing the wall, building towers on it,and building an outer wall. In addition, he repaired the defenses built on the land that was filled in on the east side of the old part of Jerusalem. He also had a large number of spears and shields made.

6 He placed all the men in the city under the command of army officers and had them assemble in the open square at the city gate. He said to them,

7 “Be determined and confident, and don’t be afraid of the Assyrian emperor or of the army he is leading. We have more power on our side than he has on his.

8 He has human power, but we have theLordour God to help us and to fight our battles.” The people were encouraged by these words of their king.

9 Some time later, while Sennacherib and his army were still at Lachish, he sent the following message to Hezekiah and the people of Judah who were with him in Jerusalem:

10 “I, Sennacherib, Emperor of Assyria, ask what gives you people the confidence to remain in Jerusalem under siege.

11 Hezekiah tells you that theLordyour God will save you from our power, but Hezekiah is deceiving you and will let you die of hunger and thirst.

12 He is the one who destroyed theLord’s shrines and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem to worship and burn incense at one altar only.

13 Don’t you know what my ancestors and I have done to the people of other nations? Did the gods of any other nation save their people from the emperor of Assyria?

14 When did any of the gods of all those countries ever save their country from us? Then what makes you think that your god can save you?

15 Now don’t let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like that. Don’t believe him! No god of any nation has ever been able to save his people from any Assyrian emperor. So certainly this god of yours can’t save you!”

16 The Assyrian officials said even worse things about theLordGod and Hezekiah, theLord’s servant.

17 The letter that the emperor wrote defied theLord, the God of Israel. It said, “The gods of the nations have not saved their people from my power, and neither will Hezekiah’s god save his people from me.”

18 The officials shouted this in Hebrew in order to frighten and discourage the people of Jerusalem who were on the city wall, so that it would be easier to capture the city.

19 They talked about the God of Jerusalem in the same way that they talked about the gods of the other peoples, idols made by human hands.

20 Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed to God and cried out to him for help.

21 TheLordsent an angel that killed the soldiers and officers of the Assyrian army. So the emperor went back to Assyria disgraced. One day when he was in the temple of his god, some of his sons killed him with their swords.

22 In this way theLordrescued King Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the power of Sennacherib, the emperor of Assyria, and also from their other enemies. He let the people live in peacewith all the neighboring countries.

23 Many people came to Jerusalem, bringing offerings to theLordand gifts to Hezekiah, so that from then on all the nations held Hezekiah in honor.

Hezekiah’s Illness and Pride

24 About this time King Hezekiah became sick and almost died. He prayed, and theLordgave him a sign that he would recover.

25 But Hezekiah was too proud to show gratitude for what theLordhad done for him, and Judah and Jerusalem suffered for it.

26 Finally, however, Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem humbled themselves, and so theLorddid not punish the people until after Hezekiah’s death.

Hezekiah’s Wealth and Splendor

27 King Hezekiah became very wealthy, and everyone held him in honor. He had storerooms built for his gold, silver, precious stones, spices, shields, and other valuable objects.

28 In addition, he had storehouses built for his grain, wine, and olive oil; barns for his cattle; and pens for his sheep.

29 Besides all this, God gave him sheep and cattle and so much other wealth that he built many cities.

30 It was King Hezekiah who blocked the outlet for Gihon Spring and channeled the water to flow through a tunnel to a point inside the walls of Jerusalem. Hezekiah succeeded in everything he did,

31 and even when the Babylonian ambassadors came to inquire about the unusual event that had happened in the land, God let Hezekiah go his own way only in order to test his character.

The End of Hezekiah’s Reign

32 Everything else that King Hezekiah did and his devotion to theLordare recorded inThe Vision of the Prophet Isaiah Son of Amozand inThe History of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

33 Hezekiah died and was buried in the upper section of the royal tombs. All the people of Judah and Jerusalem paid him great honor at his death. His son Manasseh succeeded him as king.

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King Manasseh of Judah

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for fifty-five years.

2 Following the disgusting practices of the nations whom theLordhad driven out of the land as his people advanced, Manasseh sinned against theLord.

3 He rebuilt the pagan places of worship that his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He built altars for the worship of Baal, made images of the goddess Asherah, and worshiped the stars.

4 He built pagan altars in the Temple, the place that theLordhad said was where he should be worshiped forever.

5 In the two courtyards of the Temple he built altars for the worship of the stars.

6 He sacrificed his sons in Hinnom Valley as burnt offerings. He practiced divination and magic and consulted fortunetellers and mediums. He sinned greatly against theLordand stirred up his anger.

7 He placed an image in the Temple, the place about which God had said to David and his son Solomon: “Here in Jerusalem, in this Temple, is the place that I have chosen out of all the territory of the twelve tribes of Israel as the place where I am to be worshiped.

8 And if the people of Israel will obey all my commands and keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them, then I will not allow them to be driven out of the land that I gave to their ancestors.”

9 Manasseh led the people of Judah to commit even greater sins than those committed by the nations whom theLordhad driven out of the land as his people advanced.

Manasseh Repents

10 Although theLordwarned Manasseh and his people, they refused to listen.

11 So theLordlet the commanders of the Assyrian army invade Judah. They captured Manasseh, stuck hooks in him, put him in chains, and took him to Babylon.

12 In his suffering he became humble, turned to theLordhis God, and begged him for help.

13 God accepted Manasseh’s prayer and answered it by letting him go back to Jerusalem and rule again. This convinced Manasseh that theLordwas God.

14 After this, Manasseh increased the height of the outer wall on the east side of David’s City, from a point in the valley near Gihon Spring north to the Fish Gate and the area of the city called Ophel. He also stationed an army officer in command of a unit of troops in each of the fortified cities of Judah.

15 He removed from the Temple the foreign gods and the image that he had placed there, and the pagan altars that were on the hill where the Temple stood and in other places in Jerusalem; he took all these things outside the city and threw them away.

16 He also repaired the altar where theLordwas worshiped, and he sacrificed fellowship offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it. He commanded all the people of Judah to worship theLord, the God of Israel.

17 Although the people continued to offer sacrifices at other places of worship, they offered them only to theLord.

The End of Manasseh’s Reign

18 Everything else that Manasseh did, the prayer he made to his God, and the messages of the prophets who spoke to him in the name of theLord, the God of Israel, are all recorded inThe History of the Kings of Israel.

19 The king’s prayer and God’s answer to it, and an account of the sins he committed before he repented—the evil he did, the pagan places of worship and the symbols of the goddess Asherah that he made and the idols that he worshiped—are all recorded inThe History of the Prophets.

20 Manasseh died and was buried at the palace, and his son Amon succeeded him as king.

King Amon of Judah

21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for two years.

22 Like his father Manasseh, he sinned against theLord, and he worshiped the idols that his father had worshiped.

23 But unlike his father, he did not become humble and turn to theLord; he was even more sinful than his father had been.

24 Amon’s officials plotted against him and assassinated him in the palace.

25 The people of Judah killed Amon’s assassins and made his son Josiah king.

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King Josiah of Judah

1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for thirty-one years.

2 He did what was pleasing to theLord; he followed the example of his ancestor King David, strictly obeying all the laws of God.

Josiah Attacks Pagan Worship

3 In the eighth year that Josiah was king, while he was still very young, he began to worship the God of his ancestor King David. Four years later he began to destroy the pagan places of worship, the symbols of the goddess Asherah, and all the other idols.

4 Under his direction the altars where Baal was worshiped were smashed, and the incense altars near them were torn down. They ground to dust the images of Asherah and all the other idols and then scattered the dust on the graves of the people who had sacrificed to them.

5 He burned the bones of the pagan priests on the altars where they had worshiped. By doing all this, he made Judah and Jerusalem ritually clean again.

6 He did the same thing in the cities and the devastated areas of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far north as Naphtali.

7 Throughout the territory of the Northern Kingdom he smashed the altars and the symbols of Asherah, ground the idols to dust, and broke into bits all the incense altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

The Book of the Law Is Discovered

8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purified the land and the Temple by ending pagan worship, King Josiah sent three men to repair the Temple of theLordGod: Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah, the governor of Jerusalem, and Joah son of Joahaz, a high official.

9 The money that the Levite guards had collected in the Temple was turned over to Hilkiah the High Priest. (It had been collected from the people of Ephraim and Manasseh and the rest of the Northern Kingdom, and from the people of Judah, Benjamin, and Jerusalem.)

10 This money was then handed over to the three men in charge of the Temple repairs, and they gave it to

11 the carpenters and the builders to buy the stones and the timber used to repair the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to decay.

12 The men who did the work were thoroughly honest. They were supervised by four Levites: Jahath and Obadiah of the clan of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam of the clan of Kohath. (The Levites were all skillful musicians.)

13 Other Levites were in charge of transporting materials and supervising the workers on various jobs, and others kept records or served as guards.

14 While the money was being taken out of the storeroom, Hilkiah found the book of the Law of theLord, the Law that God had given to Moses.

15 He said to Shaphan, “I have found the book of the Law here in the Temple.” He gave Shaphan the book,

16 and Shaphan took it to the king. He reported, “We have done everything that you commanded.

17 We have taken the money that was kept in the Temple and handed it over to the workers and their supervisors.”

18 Then he added, “I have here a book that Hilkiah gave me.” And he read it aloud to the king.

19 When the king heard the book being read, he tore his clothes in dismay

20 and gave the following order to Hilkiah, to Ahikam son of Shaphan, to Abdonson of Micaiah, to Shaphan, the court secretary, and to Asaiah, the king’s attendant:

21 “Go and consult theLordfor me and for the people who still remain in Israel and Judah. Find out about the teachings of this book. TheLordis angry with us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of theLordand have not done what this book says must be done.”

22 At the king’s command, Hilkiah and the others went to consult a woman named Huldah, a prophet who lived in the newer part of Jerusalem. (Her husband Shallum, the son of Tikvah and grandson of Harhas, was in charge of the Temple robes.) They described to her what had happened,

23 and she told them to go back to the king and give him

24 the following message from theLord: “I am going to punish Jerusalem and all its people with the curses written in the book that was read to the king.

25 They have rejected me and have offered sacrifices to other gods, and so have stirred up my anger by all they have done. My anger is aroused against Jerusalem, and it will not die down.

26 As for the king himself, this is what I, theLordGod of Israel, say: You listened to what is written in the book,

27 and you repented and humbled yourself before me, tearing your clothes and weeping, when you heard how I threatened to punish Jerusalem and its people. I have heard your prayer,

28 and the punishment which I am going to bring on Jerusalem will not come until after your death. I will let you die in peace.”

The men returned to King Josiah with this message.

Josiah Makes a Covenant to Obey the Lord

29 King Josiah summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem,

30 and together they went to the Temple, accompanied by the priests and the Levites and all the rest of the people, rich and poor alike. Before them all the king read aloud the whole book of the covenant, which had been found in the Temple.

31 He stood by the royal columnand made a covenant with theLordto obey him, to keep his laws and commands with all his heart and soul, and to put into practice the demands attached to the covenant, as written in the book.

32 He made the people of Benjamin and everyone else present in Jerusalem promise to keep the covenant. And so the people of Jerusalem obeyed the requirements of the covenant they had made with the God of their ancestors.

33 King Josiah destroyed all the disgusting idols that were in the territory belonging to the people of Israel, and as long as he lived, he required the people to serve theLord, the God of their ancestors.

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Josiah Celebrates the Passover

1 King Josiah celebrated the Passover at Jerusalem in honor of theLord; on the fourteenth day of the first month they killed the animals for the festival.

2 He assigned to the priests the duties they were to perform in the Temple and encouraged them to do them well.

3 He also gave these instructions to the Levites, the teachers of Israel, who were dedicated to theLord: “Put the sacred Covenant Box in the Temple that King Solomon, the son of David, built. You are no longer to carry it from place to place, but you are to serve theLordyour God and his people Israel.

4 Take your places in the Temple by clans, according to the responsibilities assigned to you by King David and his son King Solomon,

5 and arrange yourselves so that some of you will be available to help each family of the people of Israel.

6 You are to kill the Passover lambs and goats. Now make yourselves ritually clean and prepare the sacrifices in order that your fellow Israelites may follow the instructions which theLordgave through Moses.”

7 For the use of the people at the Passover, King Josiah contributed from his own herds and flocks 30,000 sheep, lambs, and young goats, and 3,000 bulls.

8 His officials also made contributions for the people, the priests, and the Levites to use. And the officials in charge of the Temple—Hilkiah, the High Priest, Zechariah, and Jehiel—gave the priests 2,600 lambs and young goats and 300 bulls for sacrifices during the festival.

9 The leaders of the Levites—Conaniah, Shemaiah and his brother Nethanel, Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad—contributed 5,000 lambs and young goats and 500 bulls for the Levites to offer as sacrifices.

10 When everything was arranged for the Passover, the priests and the Levites took their posts, as commanded by the king.

11 After the lambs and goats had been killed, the Levites skinned them, and the priests sprinkled the blood on the altar.

12 Then they divided among the people, by family groups, the animals for burnt offerings, so that they could offer them according to the instructions in the Law of Moses.

13 The Levites roasted the Passover sacrifices over the fire, according to the regulations, and boiled the sacred offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, and quickly distributed the meat to the people.

14 After this was done, the Levites provided meat for themselves and for the priests descended from Aaron, for the priests were kept busy until night, burning the animals that were burned whole and the fat of the sacrifices.

15 The following musicians of the Levite clan of Asaph were in the places assigned to them by King David’s instructions: Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, the king’s prophet. The guards at the Temple gates did not need to leave their posts, because the other Levites prepared the Passover for them.

16 So, as King Josiah had commanded, everything was done that day for the worship of theLord, the keeping of the Passover Festival, and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar.

17 For seven days all the people of Israel who were present celebrated the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

18 Since the days of the prophet Samuel, the Passover had never been celebrated like this. None of the former kings had ever celebrated a Passover like this one celebrated by King Josiah, the priests, the Levites, and the people of Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem

19 in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.

The End of Josiah’s Reign

20 After King Josiah had done all this for the Temple, King Neco of Egypt led an army to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates River. Josiah tried to stop him,

21 but Neco sent Josiah this message: “This war I am fighting does not concern you, King of Judah. I have not come to fight you, but to fight my enemies, and God has told me to hurry. God is on my side, so don’t oppose me, or he will destroy you.”

22 But Josiah was determined to fight. He refused to listen to what God was saying through King Neco, so he disguised himself and went into battle on the plain of Megiddo.

23 During the battle King Josiah was struck by Egyptian arrows. He ordered his servants, “Take me away; I’m badly hurt!”

24 They lifted him out of his chariot, placed him in a second chariot which he had there, and took him to Jerusalem. There he died and was buried in the royal tombs. All the people of Judah and Jerusalem mourned his death.

25 The prophet Jeremiah composed a lament for King Josiah. It has become a custom in Israel for the singers, both men and women, to use this song when they mourn for him. The song is found in the collection of laments.

26 Everything that Josiah did—his devotion to theLord, his obedience to the Law,

27 and his history from beginning to end—is all recorded inThe History of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

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King Joahaz of Judah

1 The people of Judah chose Josiah’s son Joahaz and anointed him king in Jerusalem.

2 Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months.

3 King Neco of Egypt took him prisoner and made Judah pay 7,500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold as tribute.

4 Neco made Joahaz’ brother Eliakim king of Judah and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Joahaz was taken to Egypt by Neco.

King Jehoiakim of Judah

5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. He sinned against theLordhis God.

6 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia invaded Judah, captured Jehoiakim, and took him to Babylonia in chains.

7 Nebuchadnezzar carried off some of the treasures of the Temple and put them in his palace in Babylon.

8 Everything that Jehoiakim did, including his disgusting practices and the evil he committed, is recorded inThe History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him as king.

King Jehoiachin of Judah

9 Jehoiachin was eighteenyears old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for three months and ten days. He too sinned against theLord.

10 When spring came, King Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin to Babylonia as a prisoner and carried off the treasures of the Temple. Then Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin’s uncleZedekiah king of Judah and Jerusalem.

King Zedekiah of Judah

11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years.

12 He sinned against theLordand did not listen humbly to the prophet Jeremiah, who spoke the word of theLord.

The Fall of Jerusalem

13 Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had forced him to swear in God’s name that he would be loyal. He stubbornly refused to repent and return to theLord, the God of Israel.

14 In addition, the leaders of Judah, the priests, and the people followed the sinful example of the nations around them in worshiping idols, and so they defiled the Temple, which theLordhimself had made holy.

15 TheLord, the God of their ancestors, had continued to send prophets to warn his people, because he wanted to spare them and the Temple.

16 But they made fun of God’s messengers, ignoring his words and laughing at his prophets, until at last theLord’s anger against his people was so great that there was no escape.

17 So theLordbrought the king of Babylonia to attack them. The king killed the young men of Judah even in the Temple. He had no mercy on anyone, young or old, man or woman, sick or healthy. God handed them all over to him.

18 The king of Babylonia looted the Temple, the Temple treasury, and the wealth of the king and his officials, and took everything back to Babylon.

19 He burned down the Temple and the city, with all its palaces and its wealth, and broke down the city wall.

20 He took all the survivors to Babylonia, where they served him and his descendants as slaves until the rise of the Persian Empire.

21 And so what theLordhad foretold through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “The land will lie desolate for seventy years, to make up for the Sabbath restthat has not been observed.”

Cyrus Commands the Jews to Return

22 In the first year that Cyrus of Persia was emperor,theLordmade what he had said through the prophet Jeremiah come true. He prompted Cyrus to issue the following command and send it out in writing to be read aloud everywhere in his empire:

23 “This is the command of Cyrus, Emperor of Persia. TheLord, the God of Heaven, has made me ruler over the whole world and has given me the responsibility of building a temple for him in Jerusalem in Judah. Now, all of you who are God’s people, go there, and may theLordyour God be with you.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/2CH/36-ee21d69f2eb1840000ea0638c4c53753.mp3?version_id=68—