Early the next morning King Hezekiah assembled the city officials and went up to the Lord’s temple.

Then the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the city official and Joash the king’s son.

He appointed military officers over the army ¹  and assembled them in the square at the city gate. He encouraged them, ²  saying,

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.

“When you direct your people to march out and fight their enemies, ¹  and they direct their prayers to you toward this chosen city and this temple I built for your honor, ² 

In the eighteenth year of his reign, he continued his policy of purifying the land and the temple. ¹  He sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the city official, and Joah son of Joahaz the secretary to repair the temple of the Lord his God.

In the first year of the reign of ¹  King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfillment of the promise he delivered through Jeremiah, ²  the Lord moved ³  King Cyrus of Persia to issue a written decree throughout his kingdom.

King Rehoboam solidified his rule in Jerusalem; ¹  he ²  was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home. ³  Rehoboam’s ⁴  mother was an Ammonite named Naamah.