Through the Bible – Day 160

₁Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for sixteen years. Jerushah his mother was the daughter of Zadok.

₂Jotham obeyed the LORD and did right. He followed the example of his father Uzziah, except he never burnt incense in the temple as his father had done. But the people of Judah kept sinning against the LORD.

₃Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple and did a lot of work to repair the wall near Mount Ophel. ₄He built towns in the mountains of Judah and built fortresses and defence towers in the forests.

₅During his rule he attacked and defeated the Ammonites. Then every year for the next three years, he forced them to pay three thousand four hundred kilogrammes of silver, one thousand tonnes of wheat, and one thousand tonnes of barley.

₆Jotham remained faithful to the LORD his God and became a very powerful king.

₇Everything else Jotham did while he was king, including the wars he fought, is written in The History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. ₈After he had ruled Judah sixteen years, he died at the age of forty-one. ₉He was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Ahaz became king.

₁Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem for sixteen years.

Ahaz was nothing like his ancestor David. Ahaz disobeyed the LORD ₂and was as sinful as the kings of Israel. He made idols of the god Baal, ₃and he offered sacrifices in Hinnom Valley. Worst of all, Ahaz sacrificed his own sons, which was a disgusting custom of the nations that the LORD had forced out of Israel. ₄Ahaz offered sacrifices at the local shrines, as well as on every hill and in the shade of large trees.

_5-6Ahaz and the people of Judah sinned and turned away from the LORD, the God their ancestors had worshipped. So the LORD punished them by letting their enemies defeat them.

The king of Syria attacked Judah and took many of its people to Damascus as prisoners. King Pekah of Israel later defeated Judah and killed one hundred and twenty thousand of its bravest soldiers in one day. ₇During that battle, an Israelite soldier named Zichri killed three men from Judah: Maaseiah the king's son; Azrikam, the official in charge of the palace; and Elkanah, the king's second in command. ₈The Israelite troops captured two hundred thousand women and children and took them back to their capital city of Samaria, along with a large amount of their possessions. They did these things even though the people of Judah were their own relatives.

₉Oded lived in Samaria and was one of the LORD's prophets. He met Israel's army on their way back from Judah and said to them:

₁₂About the same time, four of Israel's leaders arrived. They were Azariah son of Johanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai. They agreed with Oded that the Israelite troops were wrong, ₁₃and they said:

₁₄So in front of the leaders and the crowd, the troops handed over their prisoners and the property they had taken from Judah. ₁₅The four leaders took some of the stolen clothes and gave them to the prisoners who needed something to wear. They later gave them all a new change of clothes and shoes, then provided something for them to eat and drink, and cleaned their wounds with olive oil. They gave donkeys to those who were too weak to walk, and led all of them back to Jericho, the city known for its palm trees. The leaders then returned to Samaria.

_16-18Some time later, the Edomites attacked the eastern part of Judah again and carried away prisoners. And at the same time, the Philistines raided towns in the western foothills and in the Southern Desert. They conquered the towns of Beth-Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo, including the villages around them. Then some of the Philistines went to live in these places.

Ahaz sent a message to King Tiglath Pileser of Assyria and begged for help. ₁₉But God was punishing Judah with these disasters, because Ahaz had disobeyed him and refused to stop Judah from sinning. ₂₀So Tiglath Pileser came to Judah, but instead of helping, he made things worse. ₂₁Ahaz gave him gifts from the LORD's temple and the king's palace, as well as from the homes of Israel's other leaders. The Assyrian king still refused to help Ahaz.

₂₂Even after all these terrible things happened to Ahaz, he sinned against the LORD even worse than before. ₂₃He said to himself, “The Syrian gods must have helped their kings defeat me. Perhaps if I offer sacrifices to those gods, they will help me.” That was the sin that finally led to the downfall of Ahaz, as well as to the destruction of Judah.

₂₄Ahaz collected all the furnishings of the temple and smashed them to pieces. Then he locked the doors to the temple and set up altars to foreign gods on every street corner in Jerusalem. ₂₅In every city and town in Judah he built local shrines to worship foreign gods. All this made the LORD God of his ancestors very angry.

₂₆Everything else Ahaz did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ₂₇Ahaz died and was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the royal tombs. His son Hezekiah then became king.

₁Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled twenty-nine years from Jerusalem. His mother was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. ₂Hezekiah obeyed the LORD by doing right, just as his ancestor David had done.

₃In the first month of the first year of Hezekiah's rule, he unlocked the doors to the LORD's temple and had them repaired. ₄Then he called the priests and Levites to the east courtyard of the temple ₅and said:

_12-14When Hezekiah finished talking, the following Levite leaders went to work:

Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah from the Kohath clan; Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel from the Merari clan; Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah from the Gershon clan; Shimri and Jeuel from the Elizaphan clan; Zechariah and Mattaniah from the Asaph clan; Jehuel and Shimei from the Heman clan; Shemaiah and Uzziel from the Jeduthun clan.

₁₅These leaders gathered together the rest of the Levites, and they all went through the ceremony to make themselves clean. Then they began to purify the temple according to the Law of the LORD, just as Hezekiah had commanded.

₁₆The priests went into the temple and carried out everything that was unclean. They put these things in the courtyard, and from there, the Levites carried them outside the city to Kidron Valley.

₁₇The priests and Levites began their work on the first day of the first month. It took them one week to purify the courtyards of the temple and another week to purify the temple. So on the sixteenth day of that same month ₁₈they went back to Hezekiah and said:

₂₀Straight away, Hezekiah called together the officials of Jerusalem, and they went to the temple. ₂₁They brought with them seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven goats as sacrifices to take away the sins of Hezekiah's family and of the people of Judah, as well as to purify the temple. Hezekiah told the priests, who were descendants of Aaron, to sacrifice these animals on the altar.

₂₂The priests killed the bulls, the rams, and the lambs, then splattered the blood on the altar. ₂₃They took the goats to Hezekiah and the worshippers, and they laid their hands on the animals. ₂₄The priests then killed the goats and splattered the blood on the altar as a sacrifice to take away the sins of everyone in Israel, because Hezekiah had commanded that these sacrifices be made for all the people of Israel.

₂₅Next, Hezekiah assigned the Levites to their places in the temple. He gave them cymbals, harps, and other stringed instruments, according to the instructions that the LORD had given King David and the two prophets, Gad and Nathan. ₂₆The Levites were ready to play the instruments that had belonged to David; the priests were ready to blow the trumpets.

₂₇As soon as Hezekiah gave the signal for the sacrifices to be burnt on the altar, the musicians began singing praises to the LORD and playing their instruments, ₂₈and everyone worshipped the LORD. This continued until the last animal was sacrificed.

₂₉After that, Hezekiah and the crowd of worshippers knelt down and worshipped the LORD. ₃₀Then Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to sing the songs of praise that David and Asaph the prophet had written. And so they bowed down and joyfully sang praises to the LORD.

₃₁Hezekiah said to the crowd, “Now that you are once again acceptable to the LORD, bring sacrifices and offerings to give him thanks.”

The people did this, and some of them voluntarily brought animals to be offered as sacrifices. ₃₂Seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs were brought as sacrifices to please the LORD; ₃₃six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep were brought as sacrifices to ask the LORD's blessing. ₃₄There were not enough priests to skin all these animals, because many of the priests had not taken the time to go through the ceremony to make themselves clean. However, since all the Levites had made themselves clean, they helped the priests until the last animal was skinned. ₃₅Besides all the sacrifices that were burnt on the altar, the fat from the other animal sacrifices was burnt, and the offerings of wine were poured over the altar.

So the temple was once again used for worshipping the LORD. ₃₆Hezekiah and the people of Judah celebrated, because God had helped them make this happen so quickly.

₃₉And since I usually set a prisoner free for you at Passover, would you like me to set free the king of the Jews?”

₄₀They shouted, “No, not him! We want Barabbas.” Now Barabbas was a terrorist.

₁Pilate gave orders for Jesus to be beaten with a whip. ₂The soldiers made a crown out of thorn branches and put it on Jesus. Then they put a purple robe on him. ₃They came up to him and said, “Hey, you king of the Jews!” They also hit him with their fists.

₄Once again Pilate went out. This time he said, “I will have Jesus brought out to you again. Then you can see for yourselves that I have not found him guilty.”

₅Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, “Here is the man!”

₆When the chief priests and the temple police saw him, they yelled, “Nail him to a cross! Nail him to a cross!”

Pilate told them, “You take him and nail him to a cross! I don't find him guilty of anything.”

₇The crowd replied, “He claimed to be the Son of God! Our Jewish Law says that he must be put to death.”

₈When Pilate heard this, he was terrified. ₉He went back inside and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus did not answer.

₁₀“Why won't you answer my question?” Pilate asked. “Don't you know that I have the power to let you go free or to nail you to a cross?”

₁₁Jesus replied, “If God had not given you the power, you couldn't do anything at all to me. But the one who handed me over to you did something even worse.”

₁₂Then Pilate wanted to set Jesus free. But the crowd again yelled, “If you set this man free, you are no friend of the Emperor! Anyone who claims to be a king is an enemy of the Emperor.”

₁₃When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out. Then he sat down on the judge's bench at the place known as “The Stone Pavement”. In Aramaic this pavement is called “Gabbatha”. ₁₄It was about midday on the day before Passover, and Pilate said to the crowd, “Look at your king!”

₁₅“Kill him! Kill him!” they yelled. “Nail him to a cross!”

“So you want me to nail your king to a cross?” Pilate asked.

The chief priests replied, “The Emperor is our king!” ₁₆Then Pilate handed Jesus over to be nailed to a cross.

Jesus was taken away,