Their supervisor was Conaniah the Levite, and Shimei his brother was second in rank. 13Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah were commissioners under Conaniah and Shimei his brother by appointment of King Hezekiah; Azariah was supervisor of the House of God. 14Kore son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the East Gate, was in charge of the freewill offerings to God, of the allocation of gifts to the LORD, and the most sacred things. 15Under him were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in offices of trust in the priestly towns, making allocation to their brothers by divisions, to great and small alike; 16besides allocating their daily rations to those males registered by families from three years old and up, all who entered the House of the LORD according to their service and their shift by division; 17and in charge of the registry of priests by clans, and of the Levites, from twenty years old and up, by shifts, in their divisions; 18and the registry of the dependents of their whole company—wives, sons, and daughters— for, relying upon them, they sanctified themselves in holiness. 19And for the Aaronite priests, in each and every one of their towns with adjoining fields, the above-named men were to allocate portions to every male of the priests and to every registered Levite. 20Hezekiah did this throughout Judah. He acted in a way that was good, upright, and faithful before the LORD his God. 21Every work he undertook in the service of the House of God or in the Teaching and the Commandment, to worship his God, he did with all his heart; and he prospered.
32 aAfter these faithful deeds, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah and encamped against its fortified towns with the aim of taking them over. 2When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, intent on making war against Jerusalem, 3he consulted with his officers and warriors about stopping the flow of the springs outside the city, and they supported him. 4A large force was assembled to stop up all the springs and the wadi that flowed through the land, for otherwise, they thought, the king of Assyria would come and find water in abundance. 5He acted with vigor, rebuilding the whole breached wall, raising towers on it, and building another wall outside it. He fortified the Millo of the City of David, and made a great quantity of arms and shields. 6He appointed battle officers over the people; then, gathering them to him in the square of the city gate, he rallied them, saying, 7“Be strong and of good courage; do not be frightened or dismayed by the king of Assyria or by the horde that is with him, for we have more with us than he has with him. 8With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” The people were encouraged by the speech of King Hezekiah of Judah.
9Afterward, King Sennacherib of Assyria sent his officers to Jerusalem—he and all his staff being at Lachish—with this message to King Hezekiah of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem: 10“Thus said King Sennacherib of Assyria: On what do you trust to enable you to endure a siege in Jerusalem? 11Hezekiah is seducing you to a death of hunger and thirst, saying, ‘The LORD our God will save us from the king of Assyria.’ 12But is not Hezekiah the one who removed His shrines and His altars and commanded the people of Judah and Jerusalem saying, ‘Before this one altar you shall prostrate yourselves, and upon it make your burnt offerings’? 13Surely you know what I and my fathers have done to the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands able to save their lands from me? 14Which of all the gods of any of those nations whom my fathers destroyed was able to save his people from me, that your God should be able to save you from me? 15Now then, do not let Hezekiah delude you; do not let him seduce you in this way; do not believe him. For no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to save his people from me or from my fathers—much less your God, to save you from me!” 16His officers said still more things against the LORD God and against His servant Hezekiah. 17He also wrote letters reviling the LORD God of Israel, saying of Him, “Just as the gods of the other nations of the earth did not save their people from me, so the God of Hezekiah will not save his people from me.” 18They called loudly in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them into panic, so as to capture the city. 19They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as though He were like the gods of the other peoples of the earth, made by human hands. 20Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed about this, and cried out to heaven.
21The LORD sent an angel who annihilated every mighty warrior, commander, and officer in the army of the king of Assyria, and he returned in disgrace to his land. He entered the house of his god, and there some of his own offspring struck him down by the sword. 22Thus the LORD delivered Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from King Sennacherib of Assyria, and from everyone; He provided for them on all sides. 23Many brought tribute to the LORD to Jerusalem, and gifts to King Hezekiah of Judah; thereafter he was exalted in the eyes of all the nations.
24At that time, Hezekiah fell deathly sick. He prayed to the LORD, who responded to him and gave him a sign. 25Hezekiah made no return for what had been bestowed upon him, for he grew arrogant; so wrath was decreed for him and for Judah and Jerusalem. 26Then Hezekiah humbled himself where he had been arrogant, he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and no wrath of the LORD came on them during the reign of Hezekiah. 27Hezekiah enjoyed riches and glory in abundance; he filled treasuries with silver and gold, precious stones, spices, shields, and all lovely objects; 28and store-cities with the produce of grain, wine, and oil, and stalls for all kinds of beasts, and flocks for sheepfolds. 29And he acquired towns, and flocks of small and large cattle in great number, for God endowed him with very many possessions. 30It was Hezekiah who stopped up the spring of water of Upper Gihon, leading it downward west of the City of David; Hezekiah prospered in all that he did. 31So too in the matter of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who were sent to him to inquire about the sign that was in the land, when God forsook him in order to test him, to learn all that was in his mind.
32The other events of Hezekiah’s reign, and his faithful acts, are recorded in the visions of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 33Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and was buried on the upper part of the tombs of the sons of David. When he died, all the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem accorded him much honor. Manasseh, his son, succeeded him.
33 aManasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2He did what was displeasing to the LORD, following the abhorrent practices of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites. 3He rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had demolished; he erected altars for the Baals and made sacred posts. He bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshiped them, 4and he built altars [to them] in the House of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My name will be in Jerusalem forever.” 5He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the House of the LORD. 6He consigned his sons to the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and he practiced soothsaying, divination, and sorcery, and consulted ghosts and familiar spirits; he did much that was displeasing to the LORD in order to vex Him. 7He placed a sculptured image that he made in the House of God, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I chose out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My name forever. 8And I will never again remove the feet of Israel from the land that I assigned to their fathers, if only
