s
Hezekiah. He instituted great reforms and overthrew idol worship of
all kinds. He even destroyed the brazen serpent made by Moses, which
had become an object of worship. He was successful in his campaigns
against the Philistines. He fortified Jerusalem as it had been done
before. He was a lover of music and literature, and is said to have
written many hymns. The greatest event of his reign was the successful
defense of Jerusalem against the hordes of Sennacherib.)

Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old; and he
reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was
Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in
the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that David his father had done.
He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the
doors of the house of Jehovah, and repaired them.

And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them
together into the broad place on the east, and said unto them, "Hear
me, ye Levites; now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of
Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out
of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that
which was evil in the sight of Jehovah our God, and have forsaken him,
and have turned away their faces from {300} the habitation of Jehovah,
and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch,
and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt
offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the
wrath of Jehovah was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered
them to be tossed to and fro, to be an astonishment, and an hissing,
as ye see with your eyes. For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the
sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity
for this. Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the
God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons,
be not now negligent: for the Lord hath chosen you to stand before
him, to minister unto him, and that ye should be his ministers, and
burn incense."

Then the Levites arose, and they gathered their brethren, and
sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of
the king by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord.
And the priests went in unto the inner part of the house of the Lord,
to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in
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