<p class="bodytext">Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem.<n id="1" /> His mother&#8217;s name was Jecholiah, who was from Jerusalem.

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

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" />

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 made all who were in Jerusalem and Benjamin agree to it.<n id="1" /> The residents of Jerusalem acted in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.

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.

<t /><p class="bodytext">When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites<n id="1" /> were living<n id="2" /> in their<n id="3" /> towns, the people assembled<n id="4" /> in<n id="5" /> Jerusalem.<n id="6" />

<p class="bodytext">Rehum the commander<n id="1" /> and Shimshai the scribe<n id="2" /> wrote a letter concerning<n id="3" /> Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

Powerful kings have been over Jerusalem who ruled throughout the entire Trans-Euphrates<n id="1" /> and who were the beneficiaries of<n id="2" /> tribute, custom, and toll.

In the seventh year of King Artaxerxes, Ezra brought<n id="1" /> up to Jerusalem<n id="2" /> some of the Israelites and some of the priests, the Levites, the attendants, the gatekeepers, and the temple servants.

On the first day of the first month he had determined to make<n id="1" /> the ascent from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month he arrived at Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> for the good hand of his God was on him.

Hanani, who was one of my relatives,<n id="1" /> along with some of the men from Judah, came to me,<n id="2" /> and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">They said to me, &#8220;The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable<n id="1" /> adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

At that time I instructed<n id="1" /> the people, &#8220;Let every man and his coworker spend the night in Jerusalem and let them be guards for us by night and workers by day.

I then put in charge over Jerusalem<n id="1" /> my brother Hanani and Hananiah<n id="2" /> the chief of the citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many do.

<t /><p class="bodytext">At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem,<n id="1" /> they sought out the Levites from all the places they lived<n id="2" /> to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication joyfully with songs of thanksgiving and songs accompanied by cymbals, harps, and lyres.

<t /><p class="psasuper">A psalm of Asaph.p> <p class="poetry">O God, foreigners<n id="2" /> have invaded your chosen land;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">they have polluted your holy templep> <p class="poetry">and turned Jerusalem<n id="4" /> into a heap of ruins.p>