Day 219 of 365

¹Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he did not do that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father;

²but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for the Baals.

³Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.

⁴He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵Therefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they struck him, and carried away of his a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter.

⁶For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah one hundred twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men; because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers.

⁷Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah who was next to the king.

⁸The children of Israel carried away captive of their brothers two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.

⁹But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria, and said to them, "Behold, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven.

¹⁰Now you purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondservants and bondmaids for yourselves. Aren't there even with you trespasses of your own against the Lord your God?

¹¹Now hear me therefore, and send back the captives, that you have taken captive from your brothers; for the fierce wrath of the Lord is on you."

¹²Then some of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who came from the war,

¹³and said to them, "You shall not bring in the captives here: for you purpose that which will bring on us a trespass against the Lord, to add to our sins and to our trespass; for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel."

¹⁴So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly.

¹⁵The men who have been mentioned by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all who were naked among them, dressed them, gave them sandals, and gave them something to eat and to drink, anointed them, carried all the feeble of them on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria.

¹⁶At that time king Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him.

¹⁷For again the Edomites had come and struck Judah, and carried away captives.

¹⁸The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the Negev of Judah, and had taken Beth Shemesh, and Aijalon, and Gederoth, and Soco with its towns, and Timnah with its towns, Gimzo also and its towns: and they lived there.

¹⁹For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he had dealt wantonly in Judah, and trespassed severely against the Lord.

²⁰Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and distressed him, but did not strengthen him.

²¹For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the Lord, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria: but it did not help him.

²²In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against the Lord, this same king Ahaz.

²³For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which struck him; and he said, "Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, so I will sacrifice to them, that they may help me." But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.

²⁴Ahaz gathered together the vessels of God's house, and cut in pieces the vessels of God's house, and shut up the doors of the house of the Lord; and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.

²⁵In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger the Lord, the God of his fathers.

²⁶Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem; for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

¹Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

²He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.

³He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and repaired them.

⁴He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the broad place on the east,

⁵and said to them, "Listen to me, you Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filthiness out of the holy place.

⁶For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the sight of the Lord our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord, and turned their backs.

⁷Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.

⁸Therefore the wrath of the Lord was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you see with your eyes.

⁹For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.

¹⁰Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.

¹¹My sons, do not be negligent now; for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers, and burn incense."

¹²Then the Levites arose, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah;

¹³and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;

¹⁴and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.

¹⁵They gathered their brothers, and sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.

¹⁶The priests went in to the inner part of the house of the Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the Lord's temple into the court of the house of the Lord. The Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to the brook Kidron.

¹⁷Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the Lord; and they sanctified the house of the Lord in eight days: and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

¹⁸Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said, "We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, and the altar of burnt offering, with all its vessels, and the table of show bread, with all its vessels.

¹⁹Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign threw away when he trespassed, have we prepared and sanctified; and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord."

²⁰Then Hezekiah the king arose early, and gathered the princes of the city, and went up to the house of the Lord.

²¹They brought seven bulls, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven male goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. He commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the Lord.

²²So they killed the bulls, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: and they killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood on the altar: they killed also the lambs, and sprinkled the blood on the altar.

²³They brought near the male goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly; and they laid their hands on them:

²⁴and the priests killed them, and they made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.

²⁵He set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was of the Lord by his prophets.

²⁶The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.

²⁷Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also, and the trumpets, together with the instruments of David king of Israel.

²⁸All the assembly worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished.

²⁹When they had made an end of offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped.

³⁰Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshiped.

³¹Then Hezekiah answered, "Now you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord; come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the Lord." The assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings; and as many as were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings.

³²The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord.

³³The consecrated things were six hundred head of cattle and three thousand sheep.

³⁴But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings: therefore their brothers the Levites helped them, until the work was ended, and until the priests had sanctified themselves; for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.

³⁵Also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace offerings, and with the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order.

³⁶Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, because of that which God had prepared for the people: for the thing was done suddenly.

¹Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel.

²For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the assembly in Jerusalem, to keep the Passover in the second month.

³For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.

⁴The thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly.

⁵So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: for they had not kept it in great numbers in such sort as it is written.

⁶So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, "You children of Israel, turn again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant that have escaped of you out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.

⁷Do not be like your fathers, and like your brothers, who trespassed against the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see.

⁸Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; but yield yourselves to the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.

⁹For if you turn again to the Lord, your brothers and your children shall find compassion before those who led them captive, and shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him."

¹⁰So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun: but they ridiculed them, and mocked them.

¹¹Nevertheless certain men of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.

¹²Also on Judah came the hand of God to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of the Lord.

¹³Many people assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.

¹⁴They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, and cast them into the brook Kidron.

¹⁵Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into the house of the Lord.

¹⁶They stood in their place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled the blood which they received of the hand of the Levites.

¹⁷For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites were in charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to the Lord.

¹⁸For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, "May the good Lord pardon everyone

¹⁹who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even if they aren't clean according to the purification of the sanctuary."

²⁰The Lord listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.

²¹The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with loud instruments to the Lord.

²²Hezekiah spoke comfortably to all the Levites who had good understanding in the service of the Lord. So they ate throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace offerings, and making confession to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

²³The whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days; and they kept another seven days with gladness.

²⁴For Hezekiah king of Judah gave to the assembly for offerings one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep: and a great number of priests sanctified themselves.

²⁵All the assembly of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly who came out of Israel, and the foreigners who came out of the land of Israel, and who lived in Judah, rejoiced.

²⁶So there was great joy in Jerusalem; for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem.

²⁷Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.

¹Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!

²I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

³I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

⁴Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I did not take away.

⁵God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren't hidden from you.

⁶Do not let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord God of Hosts. Do not let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.

⁷Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.

⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers, a foreigner to my mother's children.

⁹For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

¹⁰When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.

¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

¹²Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is to you, Lord, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.

¹⁴Deliver me out of the mire, and do not let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.

¹⁵Do not let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Do not let the pit shut its mouth on me.

¹⁶Answer me, Lord, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.

¹⁷Do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!

¹⁸Draw near to my soul, and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.

¹⁹You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.

²⁰Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.

²¹They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

²²Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.

²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can't see. Let their backs be continually bent.

²⁴Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.

²⁵Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.

²⁶For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.

²⁷Charge them with crime upon crime. Do not let them come into your righteousness.

²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.

²⁹But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.

³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹It will please the Lord better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs.

³²The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live.

³³For the Lord hears the needy, and doesn't despise his captive people.

³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein!

³⁵For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it.

³⁶The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.

¹My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;

²So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

³Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

⁴If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:

⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

⁷He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;

⁸that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his holy ones.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

¹²to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things;

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil;

¹⁵who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths:

¹⁶To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;

¹⁷who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God:

¹⁸for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:

²⁰that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

²²But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.