Second Book of Paralipomenon 547
among the cities of the plains, and to the south
of Juda: and they took Bethsames, and Aialon,
and Gaderoth, and Socho, and Thamnan, and
Gamzo, with their villages, and they dwelt in
them.
19 For the Lord had humbled Juda because of
Achaz the king of Juda, for he had stripped it of
help, and had contemned the Lord.
20 And he brought against him Thelgathphal-
nasar king of the Assyrians, who also afflicted
him, and plundered him without any resistance.
21 And Achaz stripped the house of the Lord,
and the house of the kings, and of the princes,
and gave gifts to the king of the Assyrians, and
yet it availed him nothing.
22 Moreover also in the time of his distress
he increased contempt against the Lord: king
Achaz himself by himself,
23 Sacrificed victims to the gods of Damascus
that struck him, and he said: The gods of the
kings of Syria help them, and I will appease them
with victims, and they will help me; whereas on
the contrary they were the ruin of him, and of
all Israel.
24 Then Achaz having taken away all the ves-
sels of the house of God, and broken them, shut
up the doors of the temple of God, and made
himself altars in all the corners of Jerusalem.
25 And in all the cities of Juda he built altars
to burn frankincense, and he provoked the Lord
the God of his fathers to wrath.
26 But the rest of his acts, and all his works
first and last are written in the book of the kings
of Juda and Israel.
27 And Achaz slept with his fathers, and they
buried him in the city of Jerusalem: for they
received him not into the sepulchres of the kings
of Israel. And Ezechias his son reigned in his
stead.
Chapter 29
Now Ezechias began to reign, when he was five
and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and
twenty years in Jerusalem: the name of his
mother was Abia, the daughter of Zacharias.
2 And he did that which was pleasing in the
sight of the Lord, according to all that David his
father had done.
3 In the first year and month of his reign he
opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and
repaired them.
4 And he brought the priests and the Levites,
and assembled them in the east street.
5 And he said to them: Hear me, ye Levites,
and be sanctified, purify the house of the Lord
the God of your fathers, and take away all filth
out of the sanctuary.
6 Our fathers have sinned and done evil in the
sight of the Lord God, forsaking him: they have
turned away their faces from the tabernacle of
the Lord, and turned their backs.
7 They have shut up the doors that were in
the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not
burnt incense, nor offered holocausts in the sanc-
tuary of the God of Israel.
8 Therefore the wrath of the Lord hath been
stirred up against Juda and Jerusalem, and he
hath delivered them to trouble, and to destruc-
tion, and to be hissed at, as you see with your
eyes.
9 Behold, our fathers are fallen by the sword,
our sons, and our daughters, and wives are led
away captives for this wickedness.
10 Now therefore I have a mind that we make
a covenant with the Lord the God of Israel, and
he will turn away the wrath of his indignation
from us.
11 My sons, be not negligent: the Lord hath
chosen you to stand before him, and to minister