The king ¹  heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia was marching out to fight him. ²  He again sent messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them:

In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, the king sent the scribe Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the Lord’s temple with these orders: ¹ 

From Issachar there were 200 leaders and all their relatives at their command – they understood the times and knew what Israel should do. ¹ 

Then David said, “Only the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord and to serve before him perpetually.

David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint some of their relatives as musicians; they were to play various instruments, including stringed instruments and cymbals, and to sing loudly and joyfully. ¹ 

So the Lord’s messenger told Gad to instruct David to go up and build ¹  an altar for the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

This was the order in which they carried out their assigned responsibilities when they entered the Lord’s temple, according to the regulations given them by their ancestor ¹  Aaron, just as the Lord God of Israel had instructed him. ² 

Make my son Solomon willing to obey your commands, rules, and regulations, and to complete building the palace for which I have made preparations.” ¹ 

You must serve me as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. ¹ 

“But if you people ¹  ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, ²  and decide to serve and worship other gods, ³ 

King Asa ordered all the men of Judah to carry away the stones and wood that Baasha had used to build Ramah. ¹  He used the materials to build up ²  Geba and Mizpah.

Say, ‘This is what the king says: “Put this man in prison. Give him only a little bread and water ¹  until I return safely.”’”

No one must enter the Lord’s temple except the priests and Levites who are on duty. They may enter because they are ceremonially pure. All the others should carry out their assigned service to the Lord.

Then the priests slaughtered them. They offered their blood as a sin offering on the altar to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had decreed ¹  that the burnt sacrifice and sin offering were for all Israel.

King Hezekiah and the officials told the Levites to praise the Lord, using the psalms ¹  of David and Asaph the prophet. ²  So they joyfully offered praise and bowed down and worshiped.

He ordered ¹  the people living in Jerusalem ²  to contribute the portion prescribed for the priests and Levites so they might be obedient ³  to the law of the Lord.

When the edict was issued, ¹  the Israelites freely contributed ²  the initial portion of their grain, wine, olive oil, honey, and all the produce of their fields. They brought a tenth of everything, which added up to a huge amount.

He wholeheartedly and successfully reinstituted service in God’s temple and obedience to the law, in order to follow his God. ¹ 

After these faithful deeds were accomplished, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah. He besieged the fortified cities, intending to seize them. ¹ 

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky ¹  and worshiped ²  them.