And now you are planning<n id="1" /> to enslave<n id="2" /> the people<n id="3" /> of Judah and Jerusalem. Yet are you not also guilty before the <sc>Lordsc> your God?

Ahaz passed away<n id="1" /> and was buried in the City of David;<n id="2" /> they did not bring him to the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah replaced him as king.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.<n id="1" /> His mother was Abijah,<n id="2" /> the daughter of Zechariah.

The <sc>Lordsc> was angry at Judah and Jerusalem and made them an appalling object of horror at which people hiss out their scorn,<n id="1" /> as you can see with your own eyes.

They were unable to observe it at the regular<n id="1" /> time because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem.

A huge crowd assembled in Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month.<n id="1" />

They removed the altars in Jerusalem; they also removed all the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.<n id="1" />p>

Hezekiah is the one who eliminated<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s<n id="2" /> high places and altars and then told Judah and Jerusalem, &#8220;At one altar you must worship and offer sacrifices.&#8221;

They called out loudly in the Judahite dialect to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, trying to scare and terrify them so they could seize the city.

The <sc>Lordsc> delivered Hezekiah and the residents of Jerusalem from the power of King Sennacherib of Assyria and from all the other nations.<n id="1" /> He made them secure on every side.<n id="2" />

Many were bringing presents<n id="1" /> to the <sc>Lordsc> in Jerusalem and precious gifts to King Hezekiah of Judah. From that time on he was respected by<n id="2" /> all the nations.p>

But Hezekiah was ungrateful; he had a proud attitude, provoking God to be angry at him, as well as Judah and Jerusalem.<n id="1" />

But then Hezekiah and the residents of Jerusalem humbled themselves and abandoned their pride, and the <sc>Lordsc> was not angry with them for the rest of Hezekiah&#8217;s reign.<n id="1" />p>

But Manasseh misled the people of<n id="1" /> Judah and the residents of Jerusalem so that they sinned more than the nations whom the <sc>Lordsc> had destroyed ahead of the Israelites.p>

When he prayed to the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc><n id="2" /> responded to him<n id="3" /> and answered favorably<n id="4" /> his cry for mercy. The <sc>Lordsc><n id="5" /> brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh realized that the <sc>Lordsc> is the true God.p>

he tore down the altars and Asherah poles, demolished the idols, and smashed all the incense altars throughout the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem.<n id="1" /> He did evil in the sight of<n id="2" /> the <sc>Lordsc> his God.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Jehoiachin was eighteen<n id="1" /> years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem.<n id="2" /> He did evil in the sight of<n id="3" /> the <sc>Lordsc>.

All the leaders of the priests and people became more unfaithful and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations.<n id="1" /> They defiled the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.p>

They burned down the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple and tore down the wall of Jerusalem.<n id="1" /> They burned all its fortified buildings and destroyed all its valuable items.