<p class="bodytext">The Levites and all the men of Judah<n id="1" /> did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each of them took his men, those who were on duty during the Sabbath as well as those who were off duty on the Sabbath. Jehoiada the priest did not release his divisions from their duties.

Then she saw<n id="1" /> the king standing by his pillar at the entrance. The officers and trumpeters stood beside the king and all the people of the land were celebrating and blowing trumpets, and the musicians with various instruments were leading the celebration. Athaliah tore her clothes and yelled, &#8220;Treason! Treason!&#8221;<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">At the beginning<n id="1" /> of the year the Syrian army attacked<n id="2" /> Joash<n id="3" /> and invaded Judah and Jerusalem. They wiped out all the leaders of the people and sent all the plunder they gathered to the king of Damascus.

He took away all the gold and silver, all the items found in God&#8217;s temple that were in the care of Obed-Edom, the riches in the royal palace, and some hostages. Then he went back to Samaria.p>

When Azariah the high priest and the other priests looked at<n id="1" /> him, there was a skin disease on his forehead. They hurried him out of there; even the king<n id="2" /> himself wanted to leave quickly because the <sc>Lordsc> had afflicted him.

Men were assigned to take the prisoners and find clothes among the plunder for those who were naked.<n id="1" /> So they clothed them, supplied them with sandals, gave them food and drink, and provided them with oil to rub on their skin.<n id="2" /> They put the ones who couldn&#8217;t walk on donkeys.<n id="3" /> They brought them back to their brothers at Jericho,<n id="4" /> the city of the date palm trees, and then returned to Samaria.p>

Hezekiah said, &#8220;Now you have consecrated yourselves<n id="1" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>. Come and bring sacrifices and thank offerings<n id="2" /> to the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.&#8221; So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and whoever desired to do so<n id="3" /> brought burnt sacrifices.p>

<p class="bodytext">Afterward King Sennacherib of Assyria, while attacking Lachish with all his military might, sent his messengers<n id="1" /> to Jerusalem. The message was for King Hezekiah of Judah and all the people of<n id="2" /> Judah who were in Jerusalem. It read:

<p class="bodytext">He removed the foreign gods and images from the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple and all the altars he had built on the hill of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple and in Jerusalem; he threw them outside the city.

The Annals of the Prophets include his prayer, give an account of how the <sc>Lordsc> responded to it, record all his sins and unfaithful acts, and identify the sites where he built high places and erected Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself.<n id="1" />

So his servants took him out of the chariot, put him in another chariot that he owned, and brought him to Jerusalem,<n id="1" /> where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors;<n id="2" /> all the people of Judah and Jerusalem mourned Josiah.

Anyone who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner must be helped by his neighbors<n id="1" /> with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God which is in Jerusalem.&#8217;&#8221;p>

With antiphonal response they sang,<n id="1" /> praising and glorifying the <sc>Lordsc>:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;For he is good;p> <p class="poetry">his loyal love toward Israel is forever.&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">All the people gave a loud<n id="2" /> shout as they praised the <sc>Lordsc> when the temple of the <sc>Lordsc> was established.

Everyone who does not observe both the law of your God and the law of the king will be completely<n id="1" /> liable to the appropriate penalty, whether it is death or banishment or confiscation of property or detainment in prison.&#8221;p>

Let our leaders take steps<n id="1" /> on behalf of all the assembly. Let all those in our towns who have married foreign women come at an appointed time, and with them the elders of each town and its judges, until the hot anger of our God is turned away from us in this matter.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Now the rest of the people &#8211; the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple attendants, and all those who have separated themselves from the neighboring peoples<n id="1" /> because of the law of God, along with their wives, their sons, and their daughters, all of whom are able to understand &#8211;

We will not buy<n id="1" /> on the Sabbath or on a holy day from the neighboring peoples who bring their wares and all kinds of grain to sell on the Sabbath day. We will let the fields lie fallow every seventh year, and we will cancel every loan.<n id="2" />

for the loaves of presentation and for the regular grain offerings and regular burnt offerings, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the appointed meetings, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the temple of our God.p>

So in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah, all Israel was contributing the portions for the singers and gatekeepers, according to the daily need.<n id="1" /> They also set aside<n id="2" /> the portion for the Levites, and the Levites set aside the portion for the descendants of Aaron.p>

<p class="bodytext">In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them on the day that they sold these provisions.