2 Chronicles 29:25

29:25 King Hezekiah ¹  stationed the Levites in the Lord’s temple with cymbals and stringed instruments, just as David, Gad the king’s prophet, ²  and Nathan the prophet had ordered. (The Lord had actually given these orders through his prophets.)

2 Chronicles 29:1

Hezekiah Consecrates the Temple

29:1 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. ³  His mother was Abijah, ⁴  the daughter of Zechariah.

2 Chronicles 6:31-32

6:31 Then they will honor ⁵  you by obeying you ⁶  throughout their lifetimes as ⁷  they live on the land you gave to our ancestors.

6:32 “Foreigners, who do not belong to your people Israel, will come from a distant land because of your great reputation ⁸  and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds; ⁹  they will come and direct their prayers toward this temple.

2 Chronicles 15:16

15:16 King Asa also removed Maacah his grandmother ¹⁰  from her position as queen mother ¹¹  because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and crushed and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

2 Chronicles 16:4-6

16:4 Ben Hadad accepted King Asa’s offer and ordered his army commanders to attack the cities of Israel. ¹²  They conquered ¹³  Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, ¹⁴  and all the storage cities of Naphtali. 16:5 When Baasha heard the news, he stopped fortifying ¹⁵  Ramah and abandoned the project. ¹⁶  16:6 King Asa ordered all the men of Judah to carry away the stones and wood that Baasha had used to build Ramah. ¹⁷  He used the materials to build up ¹⁸  Geba and Mizpah.

2 Chronicles 16:1

16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel attacked Judah, and he established Ramah as a military outpost to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the land of King Asa of Judah. ¹⁹ 

2 Chronicles 16:1

16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel attacked Judah, and he established Ramah as a military outpost to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the land of King Asa of Judah. ²⁰ 

2 Chronicles 25:1-7

Amaziah’s Reign

25:1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. ²¹  His mother was Jehoaddan, who was from Jerusalem. 25:2 He did what the Lord approved, ²²  but not with wholehearted devotion. ²³ 

25:3 When he had secured control of the kingdom, ²⁴  he executed the servants who had assassinated his father. ²⁵  25:4 However, he did not execute their sons. He obeyed the Lord’s commandment as recorded in the law scroll of Moses, ²⁶  “Fathers must not be executed for what their sons do, ²⁷  and sons must not be executed for what their fathers do. ²⁸  A man must be executed only for his own sin.” ²⁹ 

25:5 Amaziah assembled the people of Judah ³⁰  and assigned them by families to the commanders of units of a thousand and the commanders of units of a hundred for all Judah and Benjamin. He counted those twenty years old and up and discovered there were 300,000 young men of fighting age ³¹  equipped with spears and shields. ³²  25:6 He hired 100,000 Israelite warriors for a hundred talents ³³  of silver.

25:7 But a prophet ³⁴  visited him and said: “O king, the Israelite troops must not go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel or any of the Ephraimites. ³⁵ 

Psalms 87:7

87:7 As for the singers, as well as the pipers –

all of them sing within your walls. ³⁶ 

[29:25]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (King Hezekiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:25]  ² tn Or “seer.”

[29:1]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[29:1]  ⁴ tn The parallel passage in 2 Kgs 18:2 has “Abi.”

[6:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “fear.”

[6:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “by walking in your ways.”

[6:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “all the days [in] which.”

[6:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “your great name.” The word “name” sometimes refers to one’s reputation or honor (thus the translation here, “your great reputation”).

[6:32]  ⁹ tn Heb “and your strong hand and your outstretched arm.”

[15:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “mother,” but Hebrew often uses “father” and “mother” for grandparents and even more remote ancestors.

[15:16]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term גְּבִירָה (gÿvirah) can denote “queen” or “queen mother” depending on the context. Here the latter is indicated, since Maacah was the wife of Rehoboam and mother of Abijah.

[16:4]  ¹² tn Heb “and Ben Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of the armies which belonged to him against the cities of Israel.”

[16:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “They struck down.”

[16:4]  ¹⁴ sn In the parallel passage in 1 Kgs 15:20, this city’s name appears as Abel Beth Maacah. These appear to be variant names for the same place.

[16:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “building.”

[16:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he caused his work to cease.”

[16:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and King Asa took all Judah and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its wood which Baasha had built.”

[16:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he built with them.”

[16:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he built up Ramah so as to not permit going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.”

[16:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he built up Ramah so as to not permit going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.”

[25:1]  ²¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:2]  ²² tn Heb “he did what was proper in the eyes of the Lord.”

[25:2]  ²³ tn Heb “a complete heart.”

[25:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “when the kingdom was secure upon him.”

[25:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “he killed his servants, the ones who had struck down the king, his father.”

[25:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses which the Lord commanded, saying.”

[25:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “on account of sons.”

[25:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “on account of fathers.”

[25:4]  ²⁹ sn This law is recorded in Deut 24:16.

[25:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Judah.” The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy here for the people of Judah.

[25:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “young men going out to war.”

[25:5]  ³² tn Heb “holding a spear and a shield.”

[25:6]  ³³ tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the weight of the silver was 6,730 lbs. (3,060 kg).

[25:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “man of God.”

[25:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Israel, all the sons of Ephraim.”

[87:7]  ³⁶ tc Heb “and singers, like pipers, all my springs [are] in you.” The participial form חֹלְלִים (kholÿlim) appears to be from a denominative verb meaning “play the pipe,” though some derive the form from חוּל (khul, “dance”). In this case the duplicated lamed (ל) requires an emendation to מְחֹלְלִים (mÿkholÿlim, “a Polel form). The words are addressed to Zion. As it stands, the Hebrew text makes little, if any, sense. “Springs” are often taken here as a symbol of divine blessing and life”), but this reading does not relate to the preceding line in any apparent way. The present translation assumes an emendation of כָּל־מַעְיָנַי (kol-ma’yanay, “all my springs”) to כֻּלָּם עָנוּ (kullam ’anu, “all of them sing,” with the form עָנוּ being derived from עָנָה, ’anah, “sing”).