He wrote letters mocking the Lord God of Israel and insulting him with these words: ¹  “The gods of the surrounding nations could not rescue their people from my power. Neither can Hezekiah’s god rescue his people from my power.” ² 

The Lord sent a messenger ¹  and he wiped out all the soldiers, princes, and officers in the army of the king of Assyria. So Sennacherib ²  returned home humiliated. ³  When he entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons ⁴  struck him down with the sword.

Yet they will become his subjects, so they can experience how serving me differs from serving the surrounding nations.” ¹ 

Others will then answer, ¹  ‘Because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors, ²  who led them out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served. ³  That is why he brought all this disaster down on them.’”

He built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns, for he owned many herds in the lowlands ¹  and on the plain. He had workers in the fields and vineyards in the hills and in Carmel, ²  for he loved agriculture. ³ 

As for the descendants of Aaron, the priests who lived in the outskirts of all their cities, ¹  men were assigned ²  to disburse portions to every male among the priests and to every Levite listed in the genealogical records.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations ²  whom the Lord drove out ahead of the Israelites.

Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the areas belonging to the Israelites and encouraged ¹  all who were in Israel to worship the Lord their God. Throughout the rest of his reign ²  they did not turn aside from following the Lord God of their ancestors.

He wisely placed some of his many sons throughout the regions of Judah and Benjamin in the various fortified cities. ¹  He supplied them with abundant provisions and acquired many wives for them. ² 

He offered sacrifices in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and passed his sons through the fire, ¹  a horrible sin practiced by the nations ²  whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.

He decorated the temple with precious stones; the gold he used came from Parvaim. ¹ 

He built up Tadmor in the wilderness and all the storage cities he had built in Hamath.

So when Rehoboam ¹  humbled himself, the Lord relented from his anger and did not annihilate him; ²  Judah experienced some good things. ³ 

When the men of Judah ¹  arrived at the observation post overlooking the desert and looked at ²  the huge army, they saw dead bodies on the ground; there were no survivors!

In Judah God moved the people to unite and carry out the edict the king and the officers had issued at the Lord’s command. ¹ 

But Manasseh misled the people of ¹  Judah and the residents of Jerusalem so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed ahead of the Israelites.

Solomon and the entire assembly went to the worship center ¹  in Gibeon, for the tent where they met God ²  was located there, which Moses the Lord’s servant had made in the wilderness.

Huram sent him ships and some of his sailors, men who were well acquainted with the sea. They sailed with Solomon’s men to Ophir, ¹  and took from there 450 talents ²  of gold, which they brought back to King Solomon.

Tomorrow march down against them as ¹  they come up the Ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the ravine in front of the Desert of Jeruel.

Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi.