1. HEZEKIAH BEGAN to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.
2. And he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father [forefather] had done.
3. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord [which his father had closed] and repaired them.
4. He brought together the priests and Levites in the square on the east
5. And said to them, Levites, hear me! Now sanctify (purify and make free from sin) yourselves and the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place.
6. For our fathers have trespassed and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God, and they have forsaken Him and have turned away their faces from the dwelling place of the Lord and have turned their backs.
7. Also they have closed the doors of the porch and put out the lamps, and they have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the place holy to the God of Israel. [II Kings 16:10-16.]
8. Therefore the wrath of the Lord was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has delivered them to be a terror and a cause of trembling, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you see with your own eyes.
9. For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity for this.
10. 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.