2 Chronicles 32

¹³In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁴So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

¹¹The king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

¹³One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the Lord as their leader.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

¹⁷The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since the day Ephraim separated from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.”

¹⁸On that day the Lord will whistle to the flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to the bees in the land of Assyria.

⁵Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath.

⁶I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

⁵³But the people there refused to welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem.

⁵¹As the day of His ascension approached, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

¹⁷At that time Hazael king of Aram marched up and fought against Gath and captured it. Then he decided to attack Jerusalem.

¹⁸Set plans by consultation, and wage war under sound guidance.

²²Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

⁶Only with sound guidance should you wage war, and victory lies in a multitude of counselors.

⁸He has uncovered the defenses of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest.

⁹You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool.

³⁴“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”

²⁰As for the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, along with all his might and how he constructed the pool and the tunnel to bring water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

³⁰It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Spring of Gihon and channeled it down to the west side of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did.

¹⁴They proceeded to remove the altars in Jerusalem and to take away the incense altars and throw them into the Kidron Valley.

¹After all these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, intending to conquer them for himself.

⁸“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says.

¹⁶At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

¹⁷One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.

²¹So Elisha turned back from him, took his pair of oxen, and slaughtered them. Using the oxen’s equipment for fuel, he cooked the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow and serve Elijah.

²³There at Beth-shemesh, Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz. Then Jehoash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate—a section of four hundred cubits.

²⁴As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.

⁴Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,

⁹So David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built it up all the way around, from the supporting terraces inward.

⁹You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool.

¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall.

¹⁴Uzziah supplied the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and slingstones.

¹⁵And in Jerusalem he made skillfully designed devices to shoot arrows and catapult large stones from the towers and corners. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was helped tremendously until he became powerful.

²²And Hezekiah encouraged all the Levites who performed skillfully before the Lord. For seven days they ate their assigned portion, sacrificing peace offerings and giving thanks to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

²“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.”

⁹So within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem, and on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people sat in the square at the house of God, trembling regarding this matter and because of the heavy rain.

¹⁶And the people went out, brought back branches, and made booths on their own rooftops, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God, and in the squares by the Water Gate and by the Gate of Ephraim.

¹⁴These are their numbers according to the houses of their fathers: From Judah, the commanders of thousands: Adnah the commander, and with him 300,000 mighty men of valor;

¹⁵next to him, Jehohanan the commander, and with him 280,000;

³And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke to her tenderly.

¹⁶“Do not be afraid,” Elisha answered, “for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

³¹What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

⁴You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

¹⁵And he said, “Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehoshaphat! This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army, for the battle does not belong to you, but to God.

³⁰Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

⁵This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes mere flesh his strength and turns his heart from the Lord.

¹⁷You need not fight this battle. Take up your positions, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out and face them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you.’”

¹⁰For I am with you and no one will lay a hand on you, because I have many people in this city.”

¹⁷But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

¹⁵And he said, “Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehoshaphat! This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army, for the battle does not belong to you, but to God.

³¹And Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libnah to Lachish. They laid siege to it and fought against it.

¹⁷Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.

⁸When the Rabshakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah.

¹¹the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;

¹³Harness your chariot horses, O dweller of Lachish. You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

²And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stopped by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.

¹⁹The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours?

⁴The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours?

²Many say of me, “God will not deliver him.” Selah

¹⁰“Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹⁰Like the crushing of my bones, my enemies taunt me, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

⁴³He trusts in God. Let God deliver Him now if He wants Him. For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

¹⁸Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹²But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

¹When all this had ended, the Israelites in attendance went out to the cities of Judah and broke up the sacred pillars, chopped down the Asherah poles, and tore down the high places and altars throughout Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the Israelites returned to their cities, each to his own property.

⁴He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it.

¹“You are also to make an altar of acacia wood for the burning of incense.

²It is to be square, a cubit long, a cubit wide, and two cubits high. Its horns must be of one piece.

⁷But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar’?

²⁶But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the Lord will choose.

²⁷Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat.

⁴⁸Solomon also made all the furnishings for the house of the Lord: the golden altar; the golden table on which was placed the Bread of the Presence;

³³Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

¹⁷Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste these nations and their lands.

¹⁸They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.

³⁰the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”

⁵Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

¹⁹They spoke against the God of Jerusalem as they had spoken against the gods of the peoples of the earth—the work of human hands.

²⁹In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people as captives to Assyria.

³For Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, ‘They are wandering the land in confusion; the wilderness has boxed them in.’

¹¹and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?”

¹²So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes.

⁹The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

¹⁰But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

⁸I am the Lord; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols.

¹⁵Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”

²But Pharaoh replied, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

¹⁸Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁰Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

²⁹This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you; he cannot deliver you from my hand.

¹⁰“Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.

²¹But they will treat you like this because of My name, since they do not know the One who sent Me.

⁹They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strut across the earth.

²⁵For he has stretched out his hand against God and has vaunted himself against the Almighty,

²⁶rushing headlong at Him with a thick, studded shield.

¹²Did the gods of the nations destroyed by my fathers rescue those nations—the gods of Gozan, Haran, and Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar?

¹⁴So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

²⁸But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.

²⁹Because your rage and arrogance against Me have reached My ears, I will put My hook in your nose and My bit in your mouth; I will send you back the way you came.’

²²Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!

¹⁵Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood!

⁹Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

²⁶Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, along with Shebnah and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak with us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.”

²⁷But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

¹⁰Then the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day! Give me a man to fight!”

⁹For they were all trying to frighten us, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will never be finished.” But now, my God, strengthen my hands.

²⁶David asked the men who were standing with him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

¹⁸They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.

⁸Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

⁶But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

⁹Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz—the work of a craftsman from the hands of a goldsmith. Their clothes are blue and purple, all fashioned by skilled workers.

¹³For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His home:

¹⁴“This is My resting place forever and ever; here I will dwell, for I have desired this home.

²⁵For he has stretched out his hand against God and has vaunted himself against the Almighty,

²⁶rushing headlong at Him with a thick, studded shield.

¹⁴“Because he loves Me, I will deliver him; because he knows My name, I will protect him.

¹⁵When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.

¹¹Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God: “O Lord, there is no one besides You to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God. Do not let a mere mortal prevail against You.”

²And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz

³to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them.

¹⁴So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:

⁶and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are You not the God who is in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can stand against You.

⁷Our God, did You not drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham Your friend?

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

³⁶Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

⁵The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.

⁸I am the Lord; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols.

³⁵And that very night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

³⁶So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

¹⁶And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

⁴For this is what the Lord has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor—so the Lord of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.

⁵Like birds hovering overhead, so the Lord of Hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will shield it and deliver it; He will pass over it and preserve it.”

³⁹The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their stronghold in time of trouble.

⁴⁰The Lord helps and delivers them; He rescues and saves them from the wicked, because they take refuge in Him.

¹³However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.

⁴⁸who delivers me from my enemies. You exalt me above my foes; You rescue me from violent men.

⁴⁹Therefore I will praise You, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing praises to Your name.

⁵May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

⁷Yet I will have compassion on the house of Judah, and I will save them—not by bow or sword or war, not by horses and cavalry, but by the Lord their God.”

⁵So the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought him tribute, so that he had an abundance of riches and honor.

¹Now Solomon son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and highly exalted him.

²⁴Year after year, each visitor would bring his tribute: articles of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

¹¹On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

²¹And Solomon reigned over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These kingdoms offered tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

⁷All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth will serve you and go up on My altar with acceptance; I will adorn My glorious house.

⁸Who are these who fly like clouds, like doves to their shelters?

¹In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying,

¹In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’”

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,

²¹Now Isaiah had said, “Prepare a lump of pressed figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.”

²²And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord?”

¹⁸They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and idols. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs.

¹⁶But when Uzziah became powerful, his arrogance led to his own destruction. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, for he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

³¹And so when ambassadors of the rulers of Babylon were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone to test him, that He might know all that was in Hezekiah’s heart.

¹Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He stirred up David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

¹²between three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies and overtaken by their swords, or three days of the sword of the Lord—days of plague upon the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should reply to Him who sent me.”

¹³David answered Gad, “I am deeply distressed. Please, let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”

¹⁷You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.”

¹⁸“Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and told all the people of Judah that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.’

¹⁹Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone else in Judah put him to death? Did Hezekiah not fear the Lord and seek His favor, and did not the Lord relent of the disaster He had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great harm on ourselves!”

²⁷because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its people, and because you have humbled yourself before Me and have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the Lord.

²⁸‘Now I will indeed gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place and on its people.’” So they brought her answer back to the king.

¹²And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

²³but he did not humble himself before the Lord as his father Manasseh had done; instead, Amon increased his guilt.

¹⁶Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord:

¹⁷The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord.

²⁵Azmaveth son of Adiel was in charge of the royal storehouses. Jonathan son of Uzziah was in charge of the storehouses in the country, in the cities, in the villages, and in the fortresses.

²⁶Ezri son of Chelub was in charge of the workers in the fields who tilled the soil.

²⁷The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as abundant as sycamore in the foothills.

¹²therefore wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will also give you riches and wealth and honor unlike anything given to the kings before you or after you.”

⁵So the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought him tribute, so that he had an abundance of riches and honor.

²²The blessing of the Lord enriches, and He adds no sorrow to it.

²⁶Solomon had 4,000 stalls for his chariot horses and 12,000 horses.

⁸Now then, you are to tell My servant David that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: I took you from the pasture, from following the flock, to be the ruler over My people Israel.

¹⁰Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields.

¹²Both riches and honor come from You, and You are the ruler over all. In Your hands are power and might to exalt and give strength to all.

⁹Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?

¹²So the Lord blessed Job’s latter days more than his first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

¹⁰Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields.

⁷The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

³and he owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man of all the people of the East.

³³“Take my servants with you,” said the king. “Set my son Solomon on my own mule and take him down to Gihon.

⁹You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool.

¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall.

²⁰As for the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, along with all his might and how he constructed the pool and the tunnel to bring water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

⁴⁵Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon, and they have gone up from there with rejoicing that rings out in the city. That is the noise you hear.

³⁸Then Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, along with the Cherethites and Pelethites, went down and set Solomon on King David’s mule, and they escorted him to Gihon.

⁷Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.

⁸This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

²Remember that these forty years the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.

³A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the Lord is the tester of hearts.

⁵I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

²⁴In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. So he prayed to the Lord, who spoke to him and gave him a sign.

¹Some time later God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered.

⁹This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

¹In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah.

²He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah.

¹In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah.

²And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stopped by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.

²⁰So this is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and upright and true before the Lord his God.

²¹He acted with all his heart in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and the commandments, in order to seek his God. And so he prospered.

⁷The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.

³⁰Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the Lord declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.

¹Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.

²And he did evil in the sight of the Lord by following the abominations of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

¹⁰When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.

¹¹When the Canaanites of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn ceremony of mourning by the Egyptians.” Thus the place across the Jordan is called Abel-mizraim.

¹⁰Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.