Hezekiah and all the people were happy about what God had done ¹  for them, ²  for it had been done quickly. ³ 

“This is what King Sennacherib of Assyria says: ‘Why are you so confident that you remain in Jerusalem while it is under siege? ¹ 

He built altars in the Lord’s temple, about which the Lord had said, “Jerusalem will be my permanent home.” ¹ 

He appointed the priests to fulfill their duties and encouraged them to carry out their service in the Lord’s temple.

Nebuchadnezzar took some of the items in the Lord’s temple to Babylon and put them in his palace ¹  there. ² 

He told David, ¹  ‘Since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a temple in which to live. ²  Nor did I choose a man as leader of my people Israel.

As his father David had decreed, Solomon ¹  appointed the divisions of the priests to do their assigned tasks, the Levitical orders to lead worship and help the priests with their daily tasks, ²  and the divisions of the gatekeepers to serve at their assigned gates. ³  This was what David the man of God had ordered. ⁴ 

He was buried in the tomb he had carved out in the City of David. ¹  They laid him to rest on a bier covered with spices and assorted mixtures of ointments. They made a huge bonfire to honor him. ² 

Now the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were sitting on their respective thrones, dressed in their royal robes, at the threshing floor at ¹  the entrance of the gate of Samaria. All the prophets were prophesying before them.

Then she saw 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, “Treason! Treason!” ² 

Jehoiada then assigned the duties of the Lord’s temple to the priests, the Levites whom David had assigned to the Lord’s temple. They were responsible for offering burnt sacrifices to the Lord with joy and music, according to ¹  the law of Moses and the edict of David.

So when the envoys arrived from the Babylonian officials to visit him and inquire about the sign that occurred in the land, ¹  God left him alone to test him, in order to know his true motives. ² 

He ordered the altars of the Baals to be torn down, ¹  and broke the incense altars that were above them. He smashed the Asherah poles, idols and images, crushed them up and sprinkled the dust over the tombs of those who had sacrificed to them.

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

Solomon also made these items for God’s temple: the gold altar, the tables on which the Bread of the Presence ¹  was kept,

“God does not really live with humankind on the earth! ¹  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

When all your people Israel pray and ask for help, ¹  as they acknowledge their intense pain ²  and spread out their hands toward this temple,

There were twelve statues of lions on the six steps, one lion at each end of each step. There was nothing like it in any other kingdom. ¹ 

“Your father made us work too hard! ¹  Now if you lighten the demands he made and don’t make us work as hard, we will serve you.” ² 

The Levites even left their pasturelands and their property behind and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons prohibited them from serving as the Lord’s priests.